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(The Center Square) Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan, a statewide trade association, is suing the National Labor Relations Board general counsel over allegedly threatening to violate employer free-speech rights.

The lawsuit says that Jennifer Abruzzo, NLRB general counsel and prosecutor, would abrogate employer First Amendment rights by using her authority to change longstanding precedent to favor unions.

The Chicago-based nonprofit Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan on March 16, 2023, on behalf of ABC.

After Abruzzo was appointed by President Biden on July 21, 2021, she issued a public memorandum announcing that she would urge the Board to correct its longstanding precedent that allowed business owners to speak to their employees about unionization.

The lawsuit says Abruzzo has embarked on a personal campaign to transform federal labor law under the National Labor Relations Act to favor unions, and to disfavor employers.

A Bloomberg article says Abruzzo targeted 53 issues for changes in precedent in a memorandum after winning Senate confirmation.

The lawsuit says Abruzzos public threat of prosecution violates the First Amendment Free Speech Clause, which prohibits government officials from making threats intended as a censorship scheme to quell speech.

As general counsel, Abruzzo is authorized to impartially investigate and prosecute once a charge is filed. Shes not authorized to file a charge alleging an unfair labor practice against an employer or a union.

The lawsuit claims that Abruzzos memo is an attempt to coerce employers into avoiding conversations on union representation with their employees by threatening legal action if these discussions take place during mandatory meetings. So now employers must refrain from discussing their opinions on unions with their own employees in these settings if they wish to avoid legal consequences.

Every single day 88% of Michigans builders and contractors go to work employing over 75,000 skilled trades workers and their families, CEO and President of ABC Michigan Jimmy Greene said in a statement. Working in a competitive environment means that we depend on a fair and non-biased National Labor Relations Board. To date, ABC Michigan sees little to nothing that would give our members confidence in that expectation.

The First Amendment protects the right of unions, workers, and business owners to discuss the pros and cons of unionizing workers at a business. A union has a right to argue its case for unionizing to a businesses employees, employees have the right to discuss it among themselves, and their employer has the right to tell employees why a union might not be beneficial.

Courts have made it clear that when a government officials speech is not an attempt to convince but an attempt to coerce, then that official has crossed the line into threatening behavior, LJC senior attorney Buck Dougherty said in a statement. And the Supreme Court held many years ago in its Bantam Books decision that a threat of prosecution designed as a censorship scheme violates the First Amendment.

The NLRB declined to comment.

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Trade association sues labor board prosecutor over alleged First Amendment violations - The Center Square