Walmart broke labor laws by intimidating and retaliating against worker activists at two California stores, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled this week:
In a decision made public on Wednesday, Geoffrey Carter, an N.L.R.B. administrative law judge, also found that a Walmart manager had illegally intimidated workers by saying, “If it were up to me, I’d shoot the union.” In addition, the judge said it was unlawful for Walmart managers to tell employees that co-workers returning from a one-day strike would be looking for a new job. [...]
Judge Carter ruled that one Walmart manager had engaged in unlawful intimidation when he told an Our Walmart supporter who had a rope tied around his waist, to pull a heavy load, “If it was up to me, I would put that rope around your neck.”
The National Labor Relations Act says you can't do that, as the NLRB
explains:
The law we enforce gives employees the right to act together to try to improve their pay and working conditions or fix job-related problems, even if they aren't in a union. [...]
The law forbids employers from interfering with employees in the exercise of rights to form, join or assist a labor organization for collective bargaining, or from working together to improve terms and conditions of employment, or refraining from any such activity.
Telling people they'll lose their jobs if they strike, or that you want to put a rope around their neck, falls pretty squarely in the category of "interfering with employees in the exercise of rights," you know? It's a law. Which this judge confirms Walmart broke, and which workers report Walmart frequently breaks. Because why wouldn't it, when it's such a good way to scare workers away from organizing and the punishment is, in this case, to stop breaking the law and clear the workers' disciplinary records of write-ups they got for striking. Big deterrent there!
Walmart is appealing the decision.