BNA - Guild News

Dec. 6, 2000

The Guild: Protecting Your Voice At Work

Guild Wins Unfair Labor Practice Charge!

Labor Board Finds BNA E-Mail Policy Overly Broad, Violates Labor Act
Board Settlement Requires BNA to Rescind Policy

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has determined that BNA violated Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act when it prohibited the Guild from sending bargaining bulletins via the BNA e-mail system.

Acting in response to a March 1, 2000 Unfair Labor Practice charge filed by the Guild, the NLRB and BNA have entered into a written settlement agreement which requires BNA to rescind its current e-mail policy and prohibits BNA from enforcing any e-mail or other policy "that prohibits all non-business use of the e-mail system at all times."

The NLRB is the federal agency charged with enforcing the federal National Labor Relations Act, which governs labor relations in the private sector.

In the midst of Guild-BNA contract negotiations, BNA labor relations manager Matthew Carmona directed Unit Chair Reza Namdar to stop using the e-mail system to send bargaining bulletins (a grievance was also filed, but BNA didn't bother to respond). The Guild, with company knowledge, has informed employees by e-mail of the status of bargaining during negotiations since the advent of e-mail at BNA.

BNA's e-mail policy prohibited the use of company e-mail for non-business purposes. While BNA stripped the Guild of the ability to communicate promptly with unit members, BNA itself continued to issue frequent and lengthy e-mail bargaining spin-bulletins to all employees, often just minutes after the close of bargaining sessions.

BNA also allowed extensive use of its e-mail system for advertisements for health club memberships, cell phone marketing, and basketball pool betting -- cracking down only on the Guild for communicating on wages, hours, and working conditions.

Once again, BNA was shamelessly limiting union rights; to what end? To intimidate union leadership? To weaken and undermine the Guild in the eyes of the employees? To tip the balance during bargaining? Who can get inside the mind of corporate BNA?!

Any way you read it, BNA's actions are discriminatory against the Guild, the employees' chosen voice at work.

The Guild clearly demonstrated to the NLRB that BNA was once again discriminating against the union in selectively enforcing company policies. Further, e-mail communication between and among workers, argued the Guild, is akin to picking up the phone or a hallway conversation. The company cannot restrict and restrain communication.

Though the NLRB did not issue a written decision, it exercised its power to direct a settlement between the NLRB and BNA to provide full remedy for the violations of the Act.

The settlement requires that:

1. BNA will not maintain or enforce an "Electronic Communications Policy" or any other policy that prohibits all non-business use of BNA e-mail at all times.
   
2. BNA will rescind the "Electronic Communications Policy" currently maintained that prohibits all non-business related use of the company's e-mail system at all times.
   
3. BNA agrees it will not "in any like or related manner, interfere with, restrain, or coerce our employees in the exercise of their rights as guaranteed in Section 7 of the NLRA". Section 7 provides employees with the right to:
• Organize.
  
• Form, join, or assist any union.
  
• Bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing.
  
• Act together for mutual aid or protection.
  
• Choose not to engage in any of these protected concerted activities.
  

Under the terms of the settlement, BNA is required to post the NLRB notice to all employees in conspicuous places in the company, including on the BNA website, accessible to the employees in the same location the Electronic Communications Policy was formerly posted. Paper and website notices must be posted for 60 days.

What's Next?

BNA has every right to develop and enforce company policy, and we have no doubt it will develop a new e-mail policy.

However, the NLRB has made it clear that such policy cannot ban the Union from use of the e-mail system, and, by insisting that the posted settlement include the language of Section 7 of the Act, the NLRB has reminded BNA of the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively, and engage in other protected concerted action.

And, more broadly, though BNA has the right to develop policy, it cannot implement any policy on wages, hours, and working conditions (including e-mail) without notice and negotiation with the Guild, the voice at work for 900 BNA employees.

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