On July 21 the Trump-appointed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) eliminated the special legal protections enjoyed by union grievance handlers for the past 70 years. In the interest of promoting workplace “civility,” the Board announced that employers will no longer be restrained from disciplining or discharging stewards or officers who use profanity or engage in other “abusive” actions in violation of an employer’s enforced code of conduct, even when these actions happen in the course of heated meetings with management.
Cutting through the noise, the Board is really telling stewards to show respect no matter what a manager says or does. This is the same mandate mandated by the British Master-Servant Acts of the 18th and 19th centuries—with firings replacing imprisonment.