Keywords
captive audience meeting; mandatory meeting; first amendment; free speech; labor law; unions; organizing; employment; employer; employee; employer speech; captive audience doctrine; National Labor Relations Board; NLRB; National Labor Relations Act; NLRA; Amazon.com Services LLC
Abstract
On November 14, 2024, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) overturned seventy-six years of labor law precedent by banning captive audience meetings in Amazon.com Services LLC. Captive audience meetings, mandatory meetings where employers discuss unionization with their employees, were a powerful anti-union tool used by employers to coerce their employees into rejecting unionization. The NLRB argues that captive audience meetings are inconsistent with § 7 and § 8 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Employers reject the NLRB’s assertion and contend that banning captive audience meetings infringes on their First Amendment right to communicate their views on unionization.
This Note argues that the NLRB’s position is correct and that banning captive audience meetings is consistent with the First Amendment and language of the NLRA. In particular, this Note maintains that the ban articulated by the NLRB in Amazon.com Services LLC only regulates employer conduct, not employer speech, because it does not discriminate based on pro- or anti-union viewpoints and allows employers to continue to express their position on unionization through voluntary meetings. Additionally, this Note asserts that the NLRB’s decision is consistent with the “right to refrain” in § 7 of the NLRA. This Note further contends that if a court does subject the NLRB’s decision to heightened scrutiny under the First Amendment, the provision survives because it furthers the government’s interest in protecting employees’ rights under the NLRA and leaves employers fully able to express their views in a nonmandatory setting. This Note concludes by arguing that the NLRB’s decision to ban captive audience meetings is consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s “captive audience doctrine” that protects against compelled listening.
Recommended Citation
Nathan Kakalec,
“Shipping” Away the Captive Audience Meeting,
93 Fordham L. Rev. 2305
(2025).
Available at: https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol93/iss6/10
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