Jack Toner Quoted on SHRM.org

The article "NLRB Reduces Protections for Provocative ‘Salts’ " posted on October 19, 2007 on SHRM.org [Society for Human Resource Management] notes: "Union organizers known as “salts” have less incentive in the wake of a landmark National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling to act outrageously when they apply to work for nonunion employers.  The decision (Toering Electric (351 NLRB No. 18 (Sept. 29, 2007)) and other lead cases this year (*) “appear to be a strategic response by the board to deal with corporate campaigns,” said Jack Toner, an attorney with Seyfarth Shaw LLP in Washington, D.C., in an Oct. 19 interview. In corporate campaigns, union organizers often try to “go around the NLRB” through card checks, he noted.  Toner predicted that Toering Electric would reduce salting campaigns.  In salting campaigns, trade unions send members, known as salts, to apply for jobs at nonunion employers.  If hired, the salts organize the worksites. If not hired, the unions typically sue the employers for unfair labor practices, disrupting the nonunion employer, which incurs costly legal expenses in its defense."
 
* Other lead cases designated by the NLRB:
Dana Corp. (351 NLRB No. 28 (Sept. 29, 2007)), which permitted employee decertification petitions after an employer has recognized a union through the card-check process.

Jones Plastic (351 NLRB No. 11 (Sept. 27, 2007)), where the NLRB decided that an at-will employee may be a “permanent replacement worker” during an economic strike.

BE &K Construction Co. (351 NLRB No. 29 (Sept. 29, 2007)), which clarified that an employer’s failed lawsuit against unions was not an unfair labor practice.