Jan 17, 2008 11:37 AM
In a Grinch-like move, the Bush administration’s NLRB majority ruled 3-to-2 in late December that employers can bar workers from sending union-related e-mails at work. AFL-CIO General Counsel Jon Hiatt said the move “struck at the heart of what the nation’s labor laws were intended to protect — the right of employees to discuss working conditions and other matters of mutual concern.”
The board ruled that “an employer has a ‘basic property right’ to regulate and restrict employee use of company property.” The new ruling allows employers to bar union-related e-mail if they also bar e-mail for “non-job-related solicitations” for outside organizations, though e-mails about organizational activities related to charities are permitted.
The board’s minority said the majority’s decision “would allow employees to solicit on behalf of virtually anything except a union.”
AFL-CIO Now, Dec. 23,
New York Times, Dec. 23