Pro union, anti-union, or asshat wants to be a journalist?

Most DUers know I don't often use colorful language. I thought I'd do it for this post.

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http://www.abqjournal.com/568415/biz/nlrb-roots-through-social-media-policies.html

By Marshall Martin / For the Journal
PUBLISHED: Monday, April 13, 2015 at 12:02 am



Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act seeks to protect employee rights “for the purpose of collective bizO-Marshall_Martin_BizObargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” In an era when union membership is declining nationwide, the National Labor Relations Board seems to be hunting for work. Since 2008, the board has aggressively attacked nonunion employers for the employers’ restrictions on their employees’ use of social media.

According to an ERC Social Media in the Workplace Survey in November 2012, more than 47 percent of U.S. organizations have social media policies and 32 percent of those organizations extend the policies to employees’ personal social media use. Whether your company has a separate policy, includes it in an employment manual or just enforces an unwritten policy, you should be aware of the NLRB’s views. The board has shown no restraint in enforcing its views on social media policies against businesses of all sizes.

The board’s activity is based on an employer’s social media policies interfering with an employee’s Section 7 rights. Your business does not have to be a union organizational target or a unionized business. Any policy that the NLRB views as impeding employee discussion about the workplace is suspect. On occasion, the board’s views seem extreme.

The board has not attacked employers’ social media policies that restrict an employee’s use of company-owned computers. Consequently, for the most part, the following examples of the NLRB’s view of social media policies are limited to the employee’s own computer or electronic devices. Despite that limitation, the board and its general counsel have attacked company social media policies for personal computers that appear to be nothing more than good business and good manners.

FULL of himself opinion at link.