From Trader Joe's United: Captive audience meetings are a way that corporations like Trader Joe's force workers to sit through anti-union propaganda. The NLRB just banned them.
By BERRY CRAIG
AFT Local 1360
"The NLRB just announced an incredible pro-worker policy: Banning ‘captive audience meetings," said the first line of an email from the Trader Joe's United union.
I immediately thought of Kentucky State AFL-CIO President-emeritus Bill Londrigan's warning whenever it was time to vote: "Elections have consequences."
The email explained that "Captive audience meetings are a way that corporations like Trader Joe's force workers to sit through anti-union propaganda."
But here's where Bill's warning really hit home: "The pro-worker NLRB hangs in the balance, as Chairman Lauren McFerran’s term expires on December 16th. She has been re-nominated, but the Senate has not acted to confirm her.
The clock really is ticking. Come January, a 53-47 Republican-majority Senate will be sworn in. The GOP will control the House and the White House, a trifecta for Donald Trump and his party.
Trump, one of the most anti-union presidents in history, appointed an anti-union majority to the NLRB the first time was in office. If you think he won't this time, see me about some prime oceanfront property here in western Kentucky.
No sooner will Trump's revenge tour begin on Jan. 20, than he will start wiping out every advantage unions made under Joe Biden, the most pro-union president since FDR.
"Workers’ rights as we’ve known them for nearly 100 years are under attack," the email says. "Corporations including Amazon, SpaceX, and Trader Joe’s are challenging the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Act itself in court. Project 2025 contains a detailed plan to undermine worker protections. Even OSHA’s proposed heat standard, which would provide rest and water to workers in extreme heat conditions, is under threat.
"The bottom line: the Biden administration needs to do everything it can, now, to protect worker rights before Trump takes office.
The Board has five members, each of whom serves a five-year term. "Right now, Chair Lauren McFerran’s term expires on December 16, 2024 and in order for her to keep her seat, the Senate must confirm her in its final session of 2024," the email says.
The email explains why it is vital to organized labor to that McFerran gets to keep her seat:
"If Lauren McFerran is confirmed now, the Board can hold a pro-worker majority until 2026. If she is not confirmed, Trump will get to fill not one but two Board seats, essentially guaranteeing the Board will shift to a conservative majority after Trump takes office.
"Of course, we can’t predict the future. Trump could wildly break precedent by firing the entire Board and replacing them with his own appointees, or find a way to keep the Board from functioning at all. We do know this: workers will continue to organize one way or another, no matter what happens in the next four years.
"The NLRB’s mission is to protect our rights as workers to organize, form unions, and bargain collectively. At a time when workers’ rights are already under threat, we need to do everything we can to safeguard these functions–and that includes not surrendering control of the Board to the same ideologies that are attacking its right to exist.
"The Board has long played a crucial role in protecting workers’ rights and helping us hold our employers accountable. We need to do everything we can, right now, to preserve that.
In solidarity,
Trader Joe's United
PS -- I just sent letters to McConnell and Paul and chipped in $10.