If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, what I am about to tell you should not come as a shock—I’m not a huge fan of the current iteration of the NLRB.
Yes, labor unions have a right to exist, and, yes, employees have the right to join them, and, yes, unions have the right to collectively bargain for wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. When the NLRB operates correctly, it balances the rights of employers, unions, and employees to maintain industrial peace. Currently, the NLRB is not operating correctly.
My main critique of the NLRB is not with its handling of the 7% of the American workforce that is collectively bargained (although that has issues too), but instead with its handling of the other 93%. The NLRB has waged a war over the past five years on the issue of protected concerted activity, and nowhere do the NLRB’s opinion and my opinion differ more than over the issue of employee handbooks and workplace policies.