In a victory for employers, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled in Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, a Div. Of Lockheed Martin Corporation, that the employer did not commit an unfair labor practice by allowing decertification supporters to use company e-mail to express their anti-union position prior to the decertification election.

During the decertification election campaign, various company employees sent out several mass e-mails to over 1,000 workers expressing support for union decertification.

The Union claims that Lockheed illegally assisted the decertification campaign by allowing anti-union employees to use company e-mail to broadcast six publications and to conduct a salary survey prior to the election.

In a 2-1 decision the NLRB disagreed. Lockheed had a general practice of allowing its employees wide latitude in using its e-mail for “non-business” purposes.

Finding that Lockheed did not interfere with the Union’s own campaign efforts to avoid decertification, the Board held that “there is no reason to believe that employees reasonably perceived, from the Employer’s handling of the Petitioner’s use of the e-mail system, that the Employer discriminated against the Union, much less that employees were coerced thereby in their choice regarding their bargaining representative.”.