Post by David Dayen / Redsky

David Dayen • Feed

Rhode Island passed a law banning mandatory anti-union employee meetings. Union-busting law firm Littler Mendelson held a webinar for employers about the law. And they essentially told employers... to break the law! We got the transcript and the PowerPoint: prospect.org/justice/2025...

sep 1, 2025, 1:24 pm • 210 88

Replies

Well that's a lawsuit that the state has against that law firm

sep 1, 2025, 6:32 pm • 0 0 • view

Lawyers, yeah the House and Senate are full of them. That's why nothing good ever gets done. They are too busy lining their own pockets.

sep 1, 2025, 1:58 pm • 1 0 • view

“We are not in the habit of advising you lightly that you should challenge laws,” one lawyer said on the webinar. But “if you are a bit more risk tolerant, and you want to continue” holding anti-union meetings, “that is a choice that you can make.” prospect.org/justice/2025...

But Tumolo jumped in at the end with one more slide, advising employers to think about holding mandatory meetings anyway. “Note that mandatory meetings have tremendous value,” Tumolo said on the webinar. “Historically these meetings have been found to be lawful… we’ve talked about the serious constitutional problems that these laws have.” The PowerPoint goes further, asserting that the Rhode Island law is “facially unconstitutional” and “likely preempted by federal law.” Both Tumolo and Folger-Hartwell acknowledged that it would be time-consuming and expensive to challenge the law, especially with the current uncertain situation at the NLRB. But Crowley believes that getting companies interested in violating the law was the point. “They’re trying to find a client to make a case at the Supreme Court,” he said.

sep 1, 2025, 1:29 pm • 43 8 • view

Stay to the end when these union-busting lawyers try to play it cool fielding questions from the union members who stormed the call. prospect.org/justice/2025...