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Anti-union laws would be, but firing everyone isn't tantamount to that. Future applicants still have the ability to organize.


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Just a note: it's illegal to fire someone for trying to organize a union. Not that it doesn't happen, but you often hear about how those people get their jobs reinstated, etc.

It's still illegal to fire them for unionizing

Collective bargaining agreements aren't contacts. You can still fire everyone.

Firing someone because they were involved in union activity is extremely illegal. It happens only when companies are confident there won't be consequences.

Yeah, it’s not like non-unionized enterprises make it easy to fire workers. There’s evidence collection, meetings with HR, PIPs even when it’s at will.

Organizing is protected by law. Firing for organizing is intimidation.

Employers can't fire people for being in unions. That's illegal.

Either everyone should be protected, ie you can neither be fired for being in a union or for NOT being in a union, or nobody should be able to be fired for these things.


Anti-union tactics aren't illegal so long as the company that employs them isn't completely ruined as a result of the punishment they get.

Correct, firing someone for trying to unionize is illegal. It is illegal to retaliate against workers for trying to unionize. It's not prohibited, to the best of my knowledge, to receive a contract from a union and say, "these term's aren't competitive, we'll find other workers". Otherwise that would effectively give unions unlimited power over companies.

If I'm not mistaken, it's always the second option – it's illegal to fire someone for unionizing in most places

But only the union ones can't be fired.

If you have a pseudo-not law enshrined union and you try to go on strike it is legal for your employer to fire you.

That said, this is what unions originally started out as and they were still successful. If anything, the post-legal enshrinement of unions has coincided with their weakening.

I am curious if this period of tight labor markets will bring a new chapter in union history.


You can’t fire people for organizing their workplaces. This has been established law for 80 years.

Thats not exactly true - you can be fired and laid off in a union, I've been both of those things while union.

You can’t be fired for attempting to unionize even with at will employment. You can get fired for any reason as long as it’s not an illegal reason (like discrimination). Attempting to unionize or lobbying to improve worker conditions are generally protected. Of course the company is trying to get around this by claiming that they were terminated for other unrelated reasons (layoffs).

Isn't it illegal in a lot of places to fire someone for calling for labor organization?

Well when a union is busted usually all of the union members are let go

This needs some clarification.

Firing people for merely belonging to a union is illegal, and ought to remain so.

However, firing people for refusing to work (ie, striking) is not illegal.


Yes, but there are still prohibited reasons for firing. Which labor organizing is one of; Damore charged that he was fired for organizing, the NLRB found that Google fired him for actions that fall outside of protected labor organizing.

So how did the bad employees get hired at your workplace and stay there before it unionized? Did the company hire 100% good apples before unionization and then suddenly change its mind and start hiring bad ones? Are you really going to assert that firing people is impossible in a union workplace? We both know that's not true.
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