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Comment by freediverx | Hacker News Reader

Does the NLRB have any teeth? Can they impose fines? I’ve yet to see any of these rulings result in any meaningful changes.

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No. Companies just have to re-hire fired employees and pay lost wages and benefits. IMO Starbucks should pay a large punitive fine that gets split between the fired workers and the NLRB.

Their orders have the same force as a court order, so there are penalties if you actively ignore an order. However the board is very limited in what they can order.

Remember that fines for breaking the law are just factored into the cost of doing business.

The NLRB takes much more action against unions than for them.

Why would politicians bite the hand that feeds them?

It still happens if there's enough political capital at play. Florida just punished one of their state's biggest tax benefactors over a social policy.

Whether the union question drives enough voters to care or a politician willing to stand up for the issue will be the central question.

Allowing the help to negotiate their compensation is punishment enough

No it's not.

The person you replied to used the phrase 'the help' rather than staff or workers. I take it to indicate sarcasm.

Years ago, one of our VPs, an old colleague, used the phrase "fraternizing with the help" to signal leadership's motives for an unusual and specific reorg.

Someone was concerned that management was being too influenced by the suggestions of labor, and that's just not how chain of command works.

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