Employer Gets Careless Promoting a “Direct Relationship” in Union Campaign

Abstract

One of management's most persuasive arguments in a union campaign is to emphasize how the direct relationship between employees and the company will change if a union is voted in. In a recent case, Hendrickson USA, 366 NLRB No. 7 (2018), the National Labor Relations Board General Counsel argued that in its efforts to campaign on the theme of preserving the direct relationship between the company and employees, the employer misrepresented employees' statutory rights and threatened more difficult or onerous work conditions.