WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 24, 2025) – NFIB joined an amicus brief in the case Brown-Forman Corporation v. National Labor Relations Board at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The case concerns the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) standard for ordering an employer to bargain with a union, regardless of the workplace’s representation status. NFIB joined a number of business groups in filing the brief, which argues that the NLRB’s new standard violates the one established by the U.S. Supreme Court in NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co.

“Allowing the NLRB to arbitrarily order bargaining agreements gives the agency an unprecedented license to disrupt small businesses across the country, regardless of their employees’ preferences or the severity of their alleged labor violations,” said Beth Milito, Vice President and Executive Director of NFIB’s Small Business Legal Center. “This overreaching abuse of agency authority will have a severe impact on small businesses, as well as further agitate the already precarious relationship between unions and employers.”

NFIB’s brief argues two main points: 1) The new standard violates the U.S Supreme Court’s decision in Gissel by dismissing the possibility of a rerun election, in blatant contradiction to the precedent which established that bargaining orders should be used only in exceptional cases; and 2) The Board decision in this case must be reversed because it rests entirely on the flawed and invalid Cemex standard, which cannot supersede Supreme Court precedent, nor be adopted as an agency standard without first undergoing the administrative rulemaking process.

NFIB joined Associated Builders and Contractors, Associated General Contractors of America, the Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, Council on Labor Law Equality, Independent Electrical Contractors, International Foodservice Distributors Association, National Association of Manufacturers, National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, and the National Retail Federation in filing the brief.

The NFIB Small Business Legal Center protects the rights of small business owners in the nation’s courts. NFIB is currently active in more than 40 cases in federal and state courts across the country and in the U.S. Supreme Court.