NLRB Top Lawyer Pushes for Scrutiny of Undercover Union ‘Salts’

July 24, 2025, 8:40 PM UTC

The National Labor Relations Board’s acting general counsel is urging regional staff to consider whether a job applicant was acting as a disruptive undercover union organizer when investigating claims of alleged hiring discrimination.

Investigators should “deeply probe” witnesses to determine if they had a “genuine interest” in working for an employer when evaluating whether that company unlawfully denied them a job, William Cowen wrote in a memo Thursday.

The missive is aimed at a practice known as salting, where unions send undercover activists to apply for jobs at non-unionized companies in order to organize them. Salting has had a resurgence ...

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