ALBANY, N.Y.—New York State may soon become the latest, and largest, state to ban bosses from disciplining workers who skip anti-union “captive audience” meetings.
The bill, which easily cleared both houses of the legislature, is headed for the desk of Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), who has been friendly to workers and unions—much more so than the corporate Democrat she succeeded, Andrew Cuomo. Aides say she’s “studying it carefully.”
The measure, S4982 by State Senate Labor Committee Chair Jessica Ramos, D-Queens, and A6604 by State Rep. Karines Reyes, D-Bronx, would give a kick in the head to a common anti-worker tactic during organizing drives: Call meetings, force workers to attend, mandate they listen to anti-union harangues and discipline workers—up to and including firing–who don’t show up.
The New York bill, like similar laws in Connecticut, Oregon, Maine and Minnesota, bans the discipline, thus freeing workers to skip the meetings, which often feature union-busters, too.
Passage of the law in New York is important because the Empire State is annually first or second in the U.S. in union density, with New York City leading the way. That statewide attitude can make union organizing more palatable to non-union workers. Captive audience meetings counter it.
The state AFL-CIO listed the measure as a notable legislative win in the 2022-2023 session.
The anti-captive audience law is also a top cause of Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union—especially after workers at the REI store in Manhattan campaigning to unionize with RWDSU were subjected to an anti-union “captive audience” harangue. They voted union, anyway.
“Employers have become much more aggressive in using captive audience meetings to force workers into hearing the employer’s one-sided propaganda on unionization and other issues,” Appelbaum said in a statement after the legislation passed.
“These meetings often leave workers feeling pressured and intimidated. It is time the law catches up to the reality of the moment by allowing workers to refuse to attend these meetings without fear of retaliation.”
“You don’t check your First Amendment rights and freedom of conscience at the door when you clock in at work,” Ramos said after the measure passed there.
Anti-union harangues aren’t the only captive audience meetings the measure bans. It also bans disciplining workers who skip meetings where the employer orates on religious or political matters. “Political matters” include unions and unionization, say both the Assembly’s bill summary and a similar fact sheet from a management-side law firm.
Meetings bosses force workers to attend
But political matters also include meetings where the boss forces the workers to come and listen to a political candidate of the boss’s choice, or else, the bill summary says. It’s silent, though, on what the penalty would be for a boss who disciplined workers for skipping a captive audience meeting. And the summary is silent on the penalty if only the boss’s union-buster speaks.
“Over the past 40 years, as union membership declined and worker protections have been stripped, employers have been emboldened to share their political and personal beliefs with employees,” the Assembly’s summary says.
“Research shows employers nationwide increased partisan messaging to employees and that employees may feel pressured into following employers’ political positions,” including “feeling fear of political coercion or political retaliation from their bosses” for not attending.
That includes “mandatory political rallies for a partisan candidate” as well as the anti-union harangues of captive audience meetings, the summary adds.
“Employer-sponsored communication has taken the form of mandatory political rallies for a partisan candidate and meetings regarding an employer’s opinion on specific legislation. Not only are employers fabricating support for partisan politicians of their liking, they are also pushing their opinions on legislative issues, unionism, and religious topics on their workers.”
In one infamous case in 2019, a Shell subcontractor told building trades unionists to attend “and show decorum” at a Donald Trump rally, or lose a day’s pay.
National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, a former Communications Workers attorney, is moving towards a similar NLRB position against coercion to captive audience meetings. That will mark yet another shift from past years.
Former Oval Office occupant Trump’s NLRB challenged the Oregon law banning discipline for skipping captive audience meetings. But before federal court judges could hear the case, the Biden administration took over, and Abruzzo dropped the challenge. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is challenging Connecticut’s law. That case has yet to come to trial.
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