Dallas Black Dance Theatre terminated its entire company of dancers Friday, according to a statement posted on social media by the labor union representing the dancers. A national organizer for the union confirmed Saturday that nine dancers were impacted.
A statement jointly posted on Instagram by the American Guild of Musical Artists and an account run by DBDT dancers responded to the company’s actions: “AGMA is aware that Dallas Black Dance Theatre (DBDT) leadership just terminated all their dancers, and we are appalled. This abrupt and shocking development is the latest in a series of actions the Company has taken since the dancers voted unanimously to unionize.
Is it illegal? My understanding was that the union means the employers only option to terminate was to indiscriminately terminate them all. It’s possible that it’s illegal to terminate them for the act of unionising, if that’s what you mean though
My understanding is that the only legal way to fire them for unionizing is to put on a charade of completely shutting down the business, and maintaining that closure for long enough to convince a court, before opening a “new” business.
It is illegal to retaliate against workers for organizing or joining a union. Texas is an at-will employment state, which means it is legal to fire everyone for any reason that isn’t explicitly illegal (like sex- or race-based discrimination, or retaliation against union organizers) or even no reason at all.
So the dance company can fire everyone because it was Friday and the sky was blue, and it is not illegal. But they have said that all of the dancers violated some internal conduct policy, so a court will evaluate the policy and determine whether or not they were fired for an illegal reason. At-will employment law exists to make it extremely difficult to prove that anyone was fired illegally, but there is a lot of evidence in this case so there’s a chance.
And firing people who just unionized is really fucking suspicious. You’re gonna need a real good explanation for it, because the NLRB tends to look very poorly upon it.
I hate these kinds of statements. People use them all the time while meaning “well THIS state has at-will employment, so special rules apply.” as if it’s some unique feature of that particular state.
It isn’t. 49 out of 50 states have at-will employment. That makes it the norm in the US. They don’t have special rules, they just have the default rules. Only Montana has special rules because it’s the only state that ISN’T at-will.
Fair point. I only mention that it is state law because it’s a lot easier to change state laws than it is to adopt a federal law.
I live in an at-will state (IL). And it’s such fucking bullshit. I didn’t even know why it’s a law here.
As I_Has_A_Hat pointed out, it’s the law almost everywhere in the USA (Montana is the only exception). But yes it is fucking bullshit. It’s a law because corporations are more people than people.
I just assumed the latter. I didn’t realize that wiping everyone out was a legitimate option.