A recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rejected a company's union decertification petition because of coercive and threatening words spoken by a manger prior to the vote.
Both the vote and the speech occurred at a manufacturing plant in Alabama, where employees had voted a year earlier for collective bargaining representation, but in the ensuing year neither company nor employee representatives could agree on a contract.
Frustrated, a manager let fly. First, he threatened two employees who had been filing unfair labor charges with the NLRB to either quit doing so or seek employment elsewhere. Then he blurted out that the company had spent $200,000 defending itself against the union and said bonuses could've been higher had the union been more cooperative.
Shortly after this speech, a majority of employees signed a petition for decertification, but the NLRB rejected the petition. The board said it was refusing the petition because the manager's implied threat to fire two workers and his statement that bonuses were scaled back due to the union's actions violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), and thus the vote was deemed to have been coerced.
Employers, with an increasingly activist NLRB, protect yourselves. Procure a copy of Personnel Concepts' All-On-One NLRA Compliance Poster and display it prominently.