A coalition of business organizations has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Hartford challenging the constitutionality of Connecticut law related to “captive audience” meetings.
Captive audience meetings are used by employers to discourage workforce unionizing. Attendance in these meetings is usually compulsory and are held during working hours.
Connecticut was the third state to ban captive audience meetings, but it is the only state to still have this law on the books. The lawsuit was brought in a coalition led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and joined by other groups including the Connecticut Business and Industry Association and Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), who argued that provisions recently added to Connecticut general statutes Section 31-51q regarding captive audience meetings were preempted under the National Labor Relations Act and violate First Amendment protections for employer speech.
“ABC calls on the court to end the state of Connecticut”™s intrusion into an area preempted and exclusively regulated by the NLRA and to allow its member employers to engage in protected speech,” said Ben Brubeck, ABC vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs. “In America, employees and businesses benefit from the freedom to exchange information and ideas related to politics, policies and regulations ”“ including the pros and cons of unionization ”“ so they can make informed choices about issues that matter most in the workplace.”
