Workers Protesting Racism are Protected, Labor Board Lawyers Say

Lawyers with the National Labor Relations Board had urged agency officials to argue that workers protesting civil rights issues in the workplace are engaged in “inherently concerted” activity under federal labor law.

In an advice memo made public Friday, the NLRB general counsel’s office told a regional office in Minneapolis to pursue charges against Home Depot Inc. for enforcing a policy that forbade workers from displaying Black Lives Matter slogans on work aprons.

Conversations about systemic injustice should be deemed inherently concerted because civil rights issues, including systemic racism, can dictate workers’ terms of employment, according to the memo. The ...