The NAM and 194 other national, state and local business organizations filed a brief at the NLRB as part of the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace in a case involving access by nonemployee union members to private property for purposes of handbilling. The case arose when union agents engaged in handbilling in front of 26 of the company's stores. The NLRB allowed the picketing where the company did not have a sufficient property interest, but asked for input from the public about 2 other stores where Roundy's property rights were arguably stronger.
The NAM/industry amicus brief argues that the company may allow some handbillers, such as charitable solicitors, but may exclude others from its property. The company should have the right to exclude individuals whose handbilling advocates a boycott or otherwise is detrimental to the company. A company must have some degree of control over the messages it conveys to its customers on its private property, and the courts have upheld this principle. Our brief urged the Board to stop requiring employers to allow nonemployee union agents to trespass on private property for the purpose of harming the employer's business under any circumstances. If any limitation on a company's right to exclude handbillers is allowed, it should recognize the difference between handbillers that are engaged in beneficent activities and those that are engaged in harmful activities.