Union employees have Weingarten rights which allow them to have a union representative accompany them to meetings with management that could result in discipline. An employee’s Weingarten rights, however, do have limits. A recent case involved the time-critical element of drug and alcohol testing. In Fred Meyer Stores, Inc., a cashier was suspected of drinking alcohol on the job…

Many employers (and this management-side labor lawyer in particular) were surprised by the Obama Board’s inability to overturn IBM Corp., 341 NLRB 1288 (2004), and extend Weingarten rights to non-union employees. The Obama Board, nevertheless, expanded the scope of Weingarten rights in a few areas. Manhattan Beer: The Obama Board ruled that a beer distributor…

Employees testified that immediately after the UE local filed an election petition with the NLRB supervisors at MTIL, Inc., the Company made comments to employees that the employer, which sanitizes plastic packing crates for another company, might close or relocate its plant if the union was elected. The NLRB also received testimony that supervisors told…

A manager noticed that a delivery driver “reeked of the smell of marijuana.” The manager informed the employee that he would assign him a route for that day only if he agreed to take a drug test. The employee called the union shop steward, but it was the steward’s day off, so he could not…