The NLRB, in an unanimous ruling in RHCG Safety Corp. and Construction & General Building Laborers, Local 79, said that a senior manager violated federal labor laws targeting a worker with aggressive texts. “U working for Redhook or u working for the union?” the manager wrote in his text to the worker.
The worker, not an open union backer, was prohibited from working on company grounds after he did not respond back to the text. "By juxtaposing working for Redhook with working in the Union, [the manager's] text strongly suggested that the two were incompatible," the NLRB opinion notes. "The Respondent offers no reasons why the Board should provide a safe harbor for coercive employer interrogations via text messages."