NLRB’s GM Ruling Gives Employers More Slack to Punish Speech (1)

Ruling in a case involving General Motors LLC, the National Labor Relations Board has given private-sector employers more leeway to dole out discipline or fire workers for racist, sexist, and other profane speech or conduct in the context of workplace activism and union-related activity.

The Tuesday decision reinstates a 40-year-old test that had been supplanted by a series of setting-specific rulings that previously had applied to conduct or speech during encounters with management, on picket lines, and on social media.

The test, known as the Wright Line standard, requires proof that the worker’s protected union activity was a motivating ...