NLRB Refuses To Yield On Anti-Arbitration Ruling Despite Near-Unanimous Rejection By Courts

Today is Halloween, an occasion when our thoughts turn to jack o'lanterns, ghosts, and zombies. We are particularly fascinated by zombies—the dead returned to life. But we're not the only ones. In a decision earlier this week, a majority of the National Labor Relations Board voted to reanimate the dead.

The Board's zombie of choice?  Its decision nearly three years ago in D.R. Horton (pdf), in which the Board sought to push back on arbitration agreements that require individual arbitration rather than class or collective actions.  As our readers know by now, most courts have accepted the Supreme Court's clear and emphatic message that the Federal Arbitration Act protects the right of contracting parties to agree to resolve any disputes through arbitration on an individual basis.  But the NLRB, which hears complaints alleging unfair labor practices, came to a different conclusion in D.R. Horton, concluding that individual arbitration interferes with the right of