Coalition Files Letter Seeking Inclusion of Amicus Curae Briefs

WASHINGTON, D.C. // OCTOBER 9, 2014 // Today, the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace filed a letter with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) requesting that the agency seek friend-of-the-court briefs on 10 key decisions that changed labor law and were decided by appointees found by the Supreme Court to be unlawful.

The letter highlights the cases and states:

Each of the foregoing decisions was issued by a Board that included one or more invalidly appointed “recess” members, in violation of the Supreme Court’s holding in Noel Canning (hereafter the “recess” Board). The “recess” Board’s initial decisions in each of these cases significantly modified, expanded upon or overruled past precedent, establishing new principles of labor law. The decisions impacted critical workplace issues affecting millions of employers and employees across many different industries. The issues raised by the decisions, as specified in greater detail below, include the application of Section 7 to social media, confidentiality of workplace investigations and witness statements, the need to harmonize Board rulings with other state and federal laws governing the workplace, employee and union access to employers’ premises, the enforceability of arbitration requirements encouraged by the Federal Arbitration Act, and employer responses to union information requests.

CDW chairman Geoffrey Burr said, “It is appropriate for the NLRB to hear additional voices in cases that change law affecting millions of American workplaces. Failing to do so may slow the Board’s apparent one-sided agenda, but it is the least an ostensibly fair agency could do.”

Click here for CDW NLRB Amicus Motion