After lengthy deliberation, the National Labor Relations Board has ruled that Amazon’s “captive-audience meetings” are a violation of the National Labor Relations Act. These are mandatory meetings where the employer shares its stance on unionization.

“Ensuring that employees can make a truly free choice about whether they want union representation is one of the fundamental goals of the National Labor Relations Act. Captive audience meetings — which give employers nearly total freedom to impose their message about unionization on workers under threat of discipline or termination — undermine this important goal,” President Lauren McFerran said of the decision.

“Today’s decision better protects workers’ freedom to make their own choices in exercising their rights under the Act, while ensuring that employers can express their views about unionization in a non-coercive manner.”

The decision states that employers can hold meetings about unionization as long as workers receive advance notice about the topic, are told that attendance is voluntary and there will be no consequences if they choose not to attend, and attendance records are not kept.

Today’s ruling focuses on Amazon, which has had a difficult history with its workers’ attempts to organize and with the NLRB. However, the decision could impact other big tech firms that have followed similar practices in terms of forming unions.

It was quite a challenge, as there were countless contenders in the landscape. As expected, most of the things we saw at this CES had an AI component, including AR glasses, hearing aid earbuds, solar-powered technology, robot vacuums, and even emotional support robots. (Apparently people love robovacs that can pick up socks.) Our team also found more growth in technology designed to improve the lives of people with disabilities and mobility issues.

As many new twists as we saw on traditional tech like laptops, TVs, and soundbars, we also saw a lot of pretty weird off-beat tech at the show. And we were pleasantly surprised to see that some of the recently announced CES 2025 products were actually already available for sale or preorder.

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