Worker Policy Watch
Your source for accurate and reliable information on how federal policies are shaping workers’ rights—and what’s at stake for working people nationwide under the Trump administration.
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Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance on Employer Use of Bossware Systems
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. This rescinded memo (GC 23-02) sought to address the use of intrusive workplace surveillance and algorithmic management systems to disrupt workers right to organize.
Impact:
General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. With the rescission of this memo, workers will be more vulnerable to union-busting efforts aided by sophisticated surveillance systems - just one of numerous harms that electronic surveillance and algorithmic management cause to workers .
Trump Administration Signals Weakening of Accountability at the NLRB for Employers Accused of Unfair Labor Practices
Trump appointed Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), William Cowen, is signaling a shift away from aggressively holding employers accountable for unfair labor practices at the National Labor Relations Board in a new memoranda.
Impact:
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent federal agency that protects the right of workers to collectively bargain and form a union. Acting General Counsel Cowen is signaling in a new memoranda that the NLRB will not be as aggressively seeking to hold bad employers accountable and instead is shifting priorities so that employers may be able to settle labor disputes in ways that are less favorable to workers. After Trump’s likely illegal firing of NLRB members Gwynne Wilcox, Jennifer Abruzzo, and Jessica Rutter, the NLRB currently has only two members and therefore cannot issue any decisions over unfair labor practices at this time.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance On When Employers Are Required To Bargain With Unions
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. This rescinded memo (GC 24-01) established a new framework for determining when an employer would be required to bargain with unions, including requiring employers that commit unfair labor violations to recognize and bargain with the union.
Impact: General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. With the rescission of this memo by Acting General Counsel William Cowen, the NLRB is abandoning the union election framework where a majority of employees in a bargaining unit have designated the union as their representative, an employer must either recognize and bargain with the union or promptly file an RM petition seeking an election. The recission also means that if an employer commits unfair labor practices during the election process they are no longer then required to recognize the Union under the NLRB as the previous policy memo had required. This recission represents a huge reversal of what was seen as a major win for workers under the NLRB for union election fairness and collective bargaining rights.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance on Student Worker Rights
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. This rescinded memo (GC 24-06) implemented NLRB case law finding that student workers are covered by the National Labor Relations Act, and how those rights related to other key federal laws.
Impact:
General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. The rescission of this memo by Acting General Counsel William Cowen is a signal that a Trump-appointed majority on the Board will likely reverse course and cease to protect student workers. Trump accelerated the path to achieving a majority on the Board through the unprecedented firing of Board Member Gwynne Wilcox, which is being challenged in court.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance on Protected Organizing Activities
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. This rescinded memo (GC 21-03) provided clarity for workers and employers with a strong definition of activities that are automatically protected by law, even at the early stages of the organizing process.
Impact:
General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. This memo provided workers with greater understanding of activities they could engage in that would always be protected by the National Labor Relations Act, creating space for workers to organize and build power together. With the rescission of this memo by Acting General Counsel William Cowen, unscrupulous employers may take bolder action to unfairly and illegally retaliate against worker organizing, especially in its early stages.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance on Unlawful Severance Agreements
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. This rescinded memo (GC 23-05) provided guidance to employers on implementing the Board’s February 2023 McLaren Macomb decision. In that case, the NLRB ruled that employers cannot force their employees to waive their rights under the NLRA as a condition of a severance agreement.
Impact:
General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. The rescission of this memo by Acting General Counsel William Cowen is a signal that a Trump-appointed majority on the Board will likely reverse course and cease to protect workers from being forced to choose between their legal rights and receiving a workplace benefit. Trump accelerated the path to achieving a majority on the Board through the unprecedented firing of Board Member Gwynne Wilcox, which is being challenged in court.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance Making Board Operations More Effective
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. These rescinded memos included directives that dealt with improving transparency and efficiency (GC 25-03), tracking employer compliance with Board orders (GC 23-07), fast-tracking important or complex cases to the full Board for resolution (GC 21-04, GC 23-04), administering mail ballots for union elections (GC 21-01), and setting appropriate timelines for resolving cases (GC 22-05). Acting General Counsel William Cowen also rescinded memos related to cooperation with other workplace agencies (GC 22-03) and the handling of requests for case data from other agencies (GC 23-03).
Impact:
General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. These rescinded memos included common sense reforms, like removing arbitrary deadlines and instead setting timelines for case resolution based on the case’s complexity, allowing for higher quality work. The policies dealing with interagency cooperation were also critical to supporting the NLRB’s collaboration with federal agencies to protect undocumented workers who faced unfair labor practices from immigration enforcement, so that workers could come forward and enforce their rights without fear of deportation.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance on Union-Busting Captive Audience Meetings
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. This rescinded memo (GC 22-04) urged the Board to codify the right of employees to abstain from captive audience meetings, a coercive anti-union tactic where employers convene mandatory meetings to push anti-union messages. The Board ultimately did find these meetings to be unlawful under the National Labor Relations Act in November 2024.
Impact:
General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. The rescission of this memo by Acting General Counsel William Cowen is a signal that a Trump-appointed majority on the Board will likely reverse course and cease to protect workers from captive audience meetings. Trump accelerated the path to achieving a majority on the Board through the unprecedented firing of Board Member Gwynne Wilcox, which is being challenged in court.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance on Key Labor Enforcement Mechanisms
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. This includes several memos focused on how the Board can use creative remedies to compensate workers harmed by illegal employer practices (GC 21-06, GC 21-07, GC 22-06, GC 24-04), memos focused on the ability of the Board to order employers to halt ongoing illegal practices and allow organizing activity to continue (GC 21-05, GC 22-02, GC 23-01, GC 24-05), and ensure that any settlement between workers and employers is fair to the workers and the public (GC 25-02).
Impact:
General Counsel memos provide policy guidance to NLRB field staff, workers, and employers that indicates how the general counsel understands the law and plans to apply it. With the rescission of these memos by Acting General Counsel William Cowen, workers will face an environment where it is even harder for them to enforce their right to organize. NLRB field offices may use fewer creative remedies to compensate workers, making it less costly for employers to engage in illegal retaliation. The Board may no longer use injunctions to halt and prevent illegal union-busting in progress. And the agency will likely no longer stand in the way when employers force workers to accept unfair settlement agreements.
Under Trump, National Labor Relations Board Rescinds Policy Guidance on Exploitative “Non-Compete” and “Stay-or-Pay” Agreements Between Employees and Employers
Trump-appointed leadership at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rescinded many of the policy memos issued by former NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo. These rescinded memos sought to address unlawful and overbroad “non-compete” and “stay-or-pay” agreements between employers and employees where workers are either restricted in which jobs they can take or forced to pay their employer a monetary fee or payment in the event that they leave their job.
Impact:
Imposing so-called “non-compete” and “stay-or-pay” agreements on workers interferes with an employee’s right to take collective action to improve their working conditions because such agreements are coercive and can have a chilling effect on worker organizing and worker job mobility. Employers now have more ability to impose these exploitative restrictions and payment schemes on their workers.