EMPLOYER INTERFERENCE, RESTRAINT, COERCION, EMPLOYER CONDUCT AFFECTING ORGANIZING, UNION ACCESS; SOLICITATION, AND OTHER UNION RIGHTS – Access - Union Right

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* * * OVERRULED IN PART by Napa Valley Community College District (2018) PERB Decision No. 2563, where the Board held that employees who have access to an employer’s e-mail system as part of their job duties have a right to use that system to engage in EERA-protected communications on nonwork time. * * *

An employer’s use of a particular internal means of communication to state its position on labor relations issues does not entitle a union to use that same means, unless the union can show it has no effective alternate means of communicating its position to employees. Employer’s use of broadcast e-mail messages to update employees about ongoing collective bargaining did not require the employer to grant the union an exemption from its policy prohibiting broadcast e-mails so the union could state its views on labor relations issues via broadcast e-mail, especially when the record clearly showed that the union had ample alternate means of communicating with employees regarding collective bargaining.