NLRB General Counsel Elaborates On Her Rationale For Imposing De-Facto Card Check

Secret-ballot elections will be effectively eliminated, under the NLRB's Joy Silk Doctrine

Earlier this week, the National Labor Relations Board’s General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo filed a brief urging the full NLRB to, among other things, ban employers’ ability to hold mandatory meetings with employees to discuss unionization, as well as to effectively eliminate secret-ballot elections and impose de-facto card-check through a 1949 doctrine called the Joy Silk doctrine.

As Fast Company noted earlier this year, the Joy Silk doctrine “would make it more common for workers to form a union without an election—making voluntary recognition essentially the default, unless the employer has good reason to believe a majority of its do not workers want a union.”

On Wednesday, GC Abruzzo took to Twitter to further explain her rationale for urging the NLRB to adopt the Joy Silk doctrine—also known as “back-door card check.”

NLRB General Counsel @NLRBGC

🧵In 1949, in a case called Joy Silk Mills, the NLRB announced it would order an employer to recognize and bargain with a union, where the union presented evidence of majority support and the employer refused recognition without a good faith doubt as to the union’s majority.

NLRB General Counsel @NLRBGC

The NLRB continued to follow the Joy Silk doctrine until the 1970s, when the Board abandoned it. GC Abruzzo has previously said that she would consider asking the Board to reinstate it. On Monday, she did so in a brief to the Board in a case called Cemex.

NLRB General Counsel @NLRBGC

In the brief, the General Counsel explains that after the NLRB abandoned Joy Silk, the law has failed to deter employers from interfering with the Board’s election process.

NLRB General Counsel @NLRBGC

The General Counsel further explains that Joy Silk is far superior to current Board law’s ability to deter election interference.

NLRB General Counsel @NLRBGC

Joy Silk is also more consistent with the purpose of the National Labor Relations Act, as stated in Section 1.

NLRB General Counsel @NLRBGC

As the General Counsel’s brief makes clear, it is within the Board’s authority to reinstate Joy Silk and consistent with Supreme Court case law to do so:

NLRB General Counsel @NLRBGC

Tomorrow, we’ll break down what the General Counsel’s brief in Cemex said about captive-audience meetings.

To read about the NLRB General Counsel’s Cemex brief, go here or download the entire 93-page brief here.

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