A captive audience meeting is a mandatory meeting where workers are interrogated and subjected to threats, lies, and anti-union propaganda. According to one study, the chance of employees winning a union drops by half when employers conduct captive audience meetings.
Section 8 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) strictly prohibits employers from interfering with the formation of a union. Violations of the NLRA are known as Unfair Labor Practices. Captive audience meetings have been called a “license to coerce” and “an anomaly in labor law, inconsistent with the [National Labor Relations] Act’s protection of employees’ free choice,” by National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo.
Despite being an obvious violation of worker rights, captive audience meetings are commonplace.
