NLRB General Counsel announces progressive agenda

Newly confirmed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel (GC) Jennifer Abruzzo outlined an activist and progressive agenda for her office and the soon-to-be Democratic-dominated NLRB.

In Memo GC 21-04, issued August 12, 2021 (https://bit.ly/3ybePnF), the new GC made clear she would devote her efforts to overturning many of the probusiness rulings made by the prior administration's Board. With this agenda, Abruzzo continues the tradition of reducing the NLRB's judicial role to that of a political rubber stamp for the policies of the party in control.

Memo identifies goals

Among the GC's most significant powers is deciding which cases will be pursued and decided—and thus precedents are established—by the NLRB. In her memo, Abruzzo instructed the regional attorneys to litigate cases that would provide opportunities to return the state of labor law to January 2017.

Among the 40 rulings Abruzzo seeks to reexamine or reverse include those lowering the legal threshold for employers to classify workers as independent contractors, prohibiting workers from using company e-mail for organizing or other union purposes, limiting access to employer premises for organizing purposes, ceding Board jurisdiction over religious institutions, and reformulating employers' rights in overseeing employee conduct in the workplace via handbooks. That last ruling (Boeing) has been the basis for a series of NLRB decisions that expanded employers' rights regarding the use of social media, cell phones, and even mandatory arbitration.