Welcome to The Labor Leader – a weekly recap of the most valuable content on labor relations from an employer’s perspective. The National Labor Relations Act covers both union and non-union private-sector employers. This newsletter is a digest of my views on labor laws, the National Labor Relations Board, and unions. ______________________________ The Way Unions…

Small businesses with young workforces are the most susceptible to union organizing activity. Workers are joining unions at small businesses much quicker than at large ones. But the large ones get all the media’s attention. Every day we hear about unions at Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, Microsoft, Trader Joe’s. Apparently, no one wants to hear about unions…

The law requires companies to open their financial records to the union representing their employees when the company says it cannot afford something during contract negotiations. This is called “pleading poverty.” The NLRB General Counsel wants companies to turn over to unions their general financial information even if the company never puts its ability to…

I have written before about how unions are successfully organizing electric vehicle battery manufacturers. And how they plan to organize workers at battery factories across the south very soon. Part of the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” (IRA) did away with the “cap” on the number of electric vehicles that qualified for the full $7,500…

Did you know that prisoners who work while behind bars are organizing into unions and plan to strike? I didn’t know this until last week. The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) announced plans to organize demonstrations inside every prison, jail, and ICE detention facility in North America. IWOC is part of the Industrial Workers of…

There are 3 types of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics – Mark Twain Gallup recently published its annual labor union approval report. 71% of Americans approve of labor unions. This is the poll’s highest ever approval rating (poll started in 1965). Approval has only once dipped below 50% (2009). I see pro-union pundits equate…