This debate has been going on for a while.  The NLRB wants to create yet another poster your employees probably will never read for you to hang up in the break room.  Employers groups are up in arms and the US Chamber of Commerce has filed a lawsuit over the poster.  So much haranguing has been going on that the NLRB pulled back the deadline from November 14 for posters to be placed and established a new deadline of January 31, 2012.

So why is everyone up in arms over the new poster?  I simply don’t know.  I am not really for or against unions.  They have a place.  When business power becomes too great and employees are treated poorly, the employees should be allowed to band together without being threatened with their lives in an attempt to change those conditions.  When unions become too powerful, businesses should have power to strike back.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is designed to help make sure that union employees and people thinking of forming a union have their right to do so protected.  Unfortunately, the NLRB does not really do much to tamp down unions that go to far, but lets stay out of the politics.

The poster the NLRB wants employers to put up will put employees on notice of laws that have been in place for their protection for a long time.  It is information they could easily and are much more likely to find on the internet than in an employer’s break room.  So, put it up now or wait until the time comes and don’t worry about it again.  All the brew-ha-ha on the internet has done more to make your employees aware of it than what will happen when you post it.