NLRB Strikes Down Restrictive Employer Email Policy

Now before you get too excited that the NLRB has recognized the use of employer email as protected Section 7 activity under the NLRA, that is not what the Board found in finding for the union.  Employment Law360 instead points out that:

A labor union of newspaper workers has succeeded in striking down a MediaNews Group Inc. policy forbidding employees from using their company e-mail accounts to send messages about union affairs.

The National Labor Relations Board ruled on Sept. 10 that MediaNews and its subsidiary, ANG Newspapers, were wrong to issue a policy that restricted its employees' e-mail use without first negotiating the change with the Northern California Media Workers...

In other words, folks, this is not a Section 8(a)(1) interference with Section 7 rights case, but a Section 8(a)(5) failure to bargain in good faith case.  That means that once the company now goes back and bargains with the union over the change to the email policy to impasse, the company will then be free to unilaterally implement its last best offer.  Unless the union is willing to strike or use other economic weapons, the email policy might end up being kept in place after all. 

And this all happened with the three most labor-friendly Board Members  (Walsh, Liebman, and Kirsanow) on the panel!

The case is California Newspaper Partnerships, 350 NLRB No. 89 (September 10, 2007).

PS