Over the past few years, the National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB) has taken issue with employers that discipline employees
over Facebook and other social media postings. The NLRB allows
employees to discuss wages and other terms and conditions of
employment through social media regardless of the public nature of
the posting. In fact, the NLRB has allowed significant criticism of
employers by employees regardless of the business impact of the
comments. The NLRB's aggressive enforcement in this area has
been encouraged and supported by organized labor. However, one
local union may be rethinking that support.
In late 2015, Local 91 member Frank Mantell was removed from
Local 91's out-of-work list (the list from which employer's
hire Local 91's members) after Mantell posted comments on
Facebook which were critical of Local 91's leadership. Local 91
contended that the Facebook comments harmed the ability of Local
91's business agent to run the local. Local 91 tried
