Vacation Thread: Probably best not to threaten to fire employees who support unionization

(Not pictured: Eric Meyer; probably off grabbing a Dole Whip (adult version) and a turkey leg).

Folks, the blog posts may not be as fast and furious (i.e., daily) as usual this week. That’s because, yes, I am vacationing with the family in Disney World.

If any burglar is reading this, well, “NERD!”

But, I’ll try to pump out a few posts between Space Mountain and the Country Bear Jamboree.

For example, last week, many of you — especially you Twitter geeks — probably read about how Dave Portnoy, the president (excuse me, “El Presidente“) of Barstool Sports threatened employees who wanted to unionize Barstool with about as much subtlety as using a sledgehammer to swat a fly. And again.

Now, there are multiple reports, like this one from The Washington Post, that the National Labor Relations Board is investigating these charges against Barstool Sports and its affiliate. The Holywood Reporter (here) notes that Barstool will have to answer these charges.

Checking Twitter, I see that ‘El Presidente’ has already responded (NSFW). Although, I’m pretty sure that the NLRB will want a more formal filing in addition. Barstool is also selling merch and has a video explaining unions (NSFW).

We’ll see how all of this turns out for Barstool.

As for the rest of you, here is an NLRB list of employer “no-no’s” when engaging with employees about organized labor/unions. Literally, the first bullet points is that is unlawful to “[t]hreaten employees with adverse consequences, such as closing the workplace, loss of benefits, or more onerous working conditions, if they support a union, engage in union activity, or select a union to represent them.”

So, consider another approach.