Recent rulings from the National Labor Relations Board illustrate the current Board’s pro-union bent.
In Cognizant Technology Solutions US Corp., the Board found that Google is a joint employer with one of its contractors and therefore must bargain with the contractor’s workers if they choose to be represented by a union.
In Miller Plastic Products, the Board revived a legal standard that makes it easier to find that an individual employee’s action is concerted activity protected from employer discipline by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
Cemex Construction Materials Pacific laid out a new union-friendly framework for when an employer must bargain with a union in the absence of a representation election.
In American Federation for Children, the Board returned to the doctrine that the NLRA protects concerted advocacy by statutory employees on behalf of non-employees when it can benefit the statutory employees. The Board also reaffirmed its precedent that job applicants are employees under the NLRA and that workers’ immigration status is immaterial to their employee status.