Service Employees International Union, Local 525 v. National Labor Relations Board

**Union Loses Case Over Protest Tactics Against Building Owners** This case involved a dispute over where and how the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 525 could conduct protests. The union was in a labor dispute with certain employers, but instead of targeting those employers directly, they directed their pressure tactics against landlords and tenants of buildings where those employers operated. The union argued this was legal because these building owners and tenants had become "allies" of their actual employers. The court sided against the union. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the National Labor Relations Board's decision that SEIU violated federal labor law by targeting these secondary parties (the landlords and tenants) rather than focusing on their primary dispute with the actual employers. The court rejected the union's arguments that the building owners had become allies or that special exceptions applied to the usual rules about where unions can protest. **What this means for workers:** This ruling reinforces that unions must be strategic about their protest tactics and generally cannot pressure third parties who aren't directly involved in the labor dispute. Workers and unions need to focus their organizing and protest activities on the actual employers they have disputes with, rather than targeting landlords or other businesses that may simply share space with those employers.