Response to union request for a joint JPL/Union Town Hall
JPL received a request from several pro-union employees for the Director to hold a joint JPL-Union Town Hall. JPL leadership does not believe the proposed Town Hall would further our objective to provide JPLers with factual information to develop an informed position about this important topic. We declined the request for several reasons:
The proposed Town Hall presumes there are only two stakeholders: management and pro-union employees. All JPLers are stakeholders, whether they support the union, are neutral, or do not support the union.
Federal labor law includes significant restrictions on employer speech; there is no similar restriction on union or employee speech (whether for or against union representation or neutral).
JPL leadership does not believe that a small number of employees can fairly represent the interests and questions of several thousand.
The question of unionization at JPL is complex. Our goal is to provide factual information on this website in a manner that allows individuals to learn, research and make their own decisions. A Town Hall format is not the best way to achieve this objective.
We believe that JPL employees want objective information about possible unionization at JPL. That is why we have invited JPL employees to submit their questions directly to leadership via www.jplbeinformed.com and have posted the answers for all to see, and respect the union’s right to use its resources to do the same. This format not only enables each side to respond accordingly on their respective websites, but also allows every JPL employee to have access to the same information, as opposed to a one-time Town Hall, and digest the information in a manner that works best for them. Finally, this format permits every JPL employee the opportunity to ask questions, and both sides can respond fully without time constraints and support their respective positions with factual evidence and documentation.
We remain committed to providing JPL employees with comprehensive and accurate facts so that they can make an informed decision about whether UAW representation at JPL is right for them. We are confident that, with full and accurate information, a majority of JPL employees will conclude that UAW union representation at JPL is not in their, or the Lab’s, best interest. We don’t want a potentially adversarial Town Hall discussion between JPL leaders and union supporters to impede the provision and free exchange of objective information. In fact, that’s one of our concerns about unionization: It may create an adversarial relationship among JPLers.
