## Facts

- Magnavox Company of Tennessee enforced a rule barring employees from distributing literature on any company property at any time.
- After the union became the exclusive bargaining representative, successive collective bargaining agreements:
  - Allowed the employer to issue “fair and nondiscriminatory” rules to maintain orderly conditions on plant property, and
  - Provided union bulletin boards for notices, subject to the employer’s right to reject “controversial” notices.
- Magnavox continued to prohibit employee distribution of literature even in nonwork areas during nonwork time.
- The union later requested a change to permit such distribution; Magnavox refused, and unfair labor practice charges were filed.
- The NLRB found the blanket ban unlawful under the NLRA, but the Sixth Circuit denied enforcement on the ground that the union had waived objection through the collective bargaining agreement.

## Issues

1. Whether a union, through collective bargaining, may waive employees’ NLRA § 7 rights to distribute organizational literature in nonwork areas during nonwork time, thereby validating an employer’s blanket no-distribution rule on company property.
2. Whether a contractual bulletin-board arrangement controlled by the employer is an adequate substitute for employee-to-employee distribution communications protected by § 7.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court reversed the Sixth Circuit and ordered enforcement of the NLRB’s order.
- The Court held that employees’ core § 7 organizational and representational rights are individual statutory rights that a union may not waive through a collective bargaining agreement.
- Magnavox’s blanket prohibition on distribution on company property, including in nonwork areas during nonwork time, unlawfully interfered with § 7 rights.
- The contractual bulletin-board provision did not cure the interference because it did not provide equal access for employees or groups opposing the incumbent union and remained subject to employer control.

## Legal Principles

- NLRA § 7 rights concerning self-organization, choice of representation, and the right to refrain are personal rights of employees and are not waivable by an exclusive bargaining representative.
- Employer rules that bar distribution of organizational literature in nonwork areas during nonwork time presumptively interfere with § 7 absent special justification tied to production or discipline.
- A contract clause authorizing “fair and nondiscriminatory” workplace rules does not validate rules that restrict non-waivable § 7 rights.
- Restricted, employer-controlled bulletin-board access for union notices is not an adequate alternative channel where it limits access by employees or by the union’s opponents in representational matters.

## Conclusion

The Court held that an exclusive bargaining representative cannot bargain away employees’ § 7 organizational rights, and an employer’s blanket ban on employee literature distribution on company property remains unlawful even when embedded in, or tolerated by, a collective bargaining agreement.


NLRB v. Magnavox Co. of Tenn., 415 U.S. 322 (1974)