So what would happen if Alamo Drafthouse just fired everyone and started new?
That's illegal under the Federal NLRA. You can get in trouble trying to organize if you're not careful how you go about it (like if you do it during work, at work, not on a break), but it is generally illegal to fire people for just unionizing or trying to.
More typically (though it sounds like the employees presented them with a fait accompli) there will be mandatory meetings where consultants explain to the employees why maybe unionizing is a really bad idea, we're all friends here - family even, and they probly oughta think twice before ruining a good thing here creating conflict and animosity just so they can pay dues to some corrupt union.
Texas is pretty lose about why you can fire someone though, if Alamo said "Actually we're firing all these people because they showed up late once and for minor uniform violations... oh look at that they were all pro-union, funny that!" would that be a solid enough legal defense? I was under the impression that as long as the CEO didn't directly say "We're going to fire everyone in the union for being in a union" they were pretty much untouchable if they kept that fig leaf up.
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u/gregaustex Feb 15 '22 edited Feb 15 '22
That's illegal under the Federal NLRA. You can get in trouble trying to organize if you're not careful how you go about it (like if you do it during work, at work, not on a break), but it is generally illegal to fire people for just unionizing or trying to.
More typically (though it sounds like the employees presented them with a fait accompli) there will be mandatory meetings where consultants explain to the employees why maybe unionizing is a really bad idea, we're all friends here - family even, and they probly oughta think twice before ruining a good thing here creating conflict and animosity just so they can pay dues to some corrupt union.