Seyfarth Synopsis: NLRB affirms ALJ’s ruling finding that a union member’s criticisms on Facebook of the union that represented him were protected by the NLRA.

On February 7, 2017, in Laborers’ International Union of North America, Local Union No. 91, 365 NLRB No. 28, the National Labor Relations Board affirmed an NLRB administrative law judge’s ruling that found that the Laborer’s International Union of North America Local 91 violated the National Labor Relations Act by punishing one of its members for criticizing the union’s business manager on Facebook. We had previously blogged about the ALJ’s earlier decision.

The member’s Facebook posts criticized the union’s business manager for allowing a local politician to become a journeyman without first going through the union’s five year apprenticeship program, and the union punished the member by fining him $5,000, suspending his union membership for two years, and taking him off of its out-of-work referral list.

In finding that the union’s actions were unlawful, the Board observed that it is “elementary” that an employee’s right to engage in intraunion activities opposing the current leadership of his union is concerted activity protected by Section 7 of the NLRA, and therefore found that the member had engaged in protected concerted activity by posting his criticisms of the union’s business manager on Facebook.

The Board then examined whether the union’s interests outweighed the member’s Section 7 rights, and found that they did not. The Board reasoned that the member’s Section 7 right to press the union to change its policies outweighed the union’s vague claim that its reputation was damaged. The Board ordered the union to make the member whole for any loss of earnings he suffered as a result of the unlawful action taken against him, including backpay with interest compounded daily and his search-for-work expenses.

The decision highlights that not only are employee criticisms of their employers potentially protected by Section 7, employee criticisms of the labor unions that represent them may also be protected by Section 7.