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Wave Goodbye: The Department of Labor Rescinds Persuader Rule


Let us file this one under the "unsurprising" category.  Yesterday, the Department of Labor formally rescinded the 'Persuader Rule', marking yet another blow over the past few weeks for labor unions.  The Persuader Rule, introduced in 2016 during President Barack Obama's administration, would have required employers or consultants to disclose any money paid for legal services when those services included "indirect persuasion" activities, including advice on what is to be said to employees in connection with a union organization campaign, as well as communications about the status of collective bargaining and contract proposals with rank and file employees.

Supporters of the Rule argued that its implementation was necessary in order to make union organization and elections more transparent.  (Of course, supporters of this Rule operated under the assumption that employers were engaging in underhanded and somewhat nefarious tactics to counter the growth of unions in the workplace.  As a result, they viewed this Rule as vital to the continued success of unions being able to continue conducting "fair" elections in the workplace and being able to represent their members effectively by requiring employers or consultants to reveal where/how they were spending money to combat union organization).

It did not take long for lawsuits to be filed over the Persuader Rule and before the Rule even went into effect a federal judge in Texas ended up issuing a nationwide injunction to block implementation of the Rule.  To the surprise of very few, the Department of Labor subsequently appealed that injunction.  (Bear in mind, that was the "Obama" Department of Labor that appealed the injunction...so the Department of Labor followed the lead of the President, at that time.  With President Donald Trump becoming President in recent years, he made the rescission of the Persuader Rule a priority and subsequently charged 'his' Department of Labor with following through.)  

As a result, yesterday, the Department of Labor issued a final rule to formally rescind the "Persuader Rule" and bring the matter to a close.  As noted, above, this was not much of a surprise, but is further bad news for labor unions and their supporters.  Their one hope, in regard to the Persuader Rule?  If a Democrat is elected President in 2020, perhaps that version of the Department of Labor will again try to implement a version of the Rule proposed by President Obama's Department of Labor.



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