MRC Free Speech America update summary: On May 22, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily upheld the Trump administration's decision to remove members of the National Labor Relations Board responsible for censorship by granting the president's application for stay.
The following article is a supplement to the MRC Report: The Biden Administration Waged War on Free Speech with 57 Censorship Initiatives.
Initiative #47
The Censorship for Big Labor
Type of Censorship: Policy or rulemaking
Agencies Involved:
- National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
Summary:
President Joe Biden’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) changed longstanding rules to censor private speech critical of Big Labor.
- The Unfair Labor Practice Expansion
Since the Reagan administration, the NLRB has held that it was not an unfair labor practice for a business owner or manager to tell employees of the potential harms of unionizations — such as that “unionization would eliminate employees’ ability to address workplace issues individually with management.”
Under Biden, though, the NLRB — at the direction of Biden’s NLRB general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo — overturned this rule and instead created a subjective, nebulous standard for what constituted an “unfair labor practice.” This meant that even off-site speech could result in fines or other penalties, regardless of if the manager made a truthful statement about the real-world consequences of joining Big Labor.
2. The Captive Audience
In 1948, the NLRB held that business owners and managers have a First Amendment right to criticize unions while at work, so long as they did not try to intimidate or coerce employees into leaving or joining a union. This ruling was preserved by the NLRB of every president from Harry Truman to Donald Trump. Under Biden, though, the NLRB — again, at the direction of Abruzzo — overturned this rule and attempted to ban so-called “captive-audience meetings.” This meant that a business owner or manager could be fined if he or she criticizes unionization, even in the abstract.
Key Individuals:
- Jennifer Abruzzo, NLRB General Counsel
- Lauren McFerran, NLRB Chair
- David Prouty, NLRB Member
Gwynne Wilcox, NLRB Chair
