A captive audience meeting is a mandatory meeting where workers are interrogated and subjected to threats, lies, and anti-union propaganda. According to one study, the chance of employees winning a union drops a whopping 36% when employers conduct captive audience meetings.
Section 8 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) strictly prohibits employers from interfering with the formation of a union. Violations of the NLRA are known as Unfair Labor Practices. Captive audience meetings have been called a “license to coerce” and “an anomaly in labor law, inconsistent with the [National Labor Relations] Act’s protection of employees’ free choice,” by National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo.
Despite being an obvious violation of worker rights, captive audience meetings are commonplace. In fact, in just the last two years, LaborLab has collected over 1,500 records relating to employers hiring “persuaders” (i.e. union-busting consultants) to conduct captive audience meetings.
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