As part of an organizing campaign at a Jimmy John’s sandwich-shop franchise, workers organized a sick leave campaign. The franchise’s handbook stated that it did “not allow people to simply call in sick!” and required employees who would be absent from a shift to find a replacement and notify the store manager; failure to do so would result in termination. 

As flu season approached, the union organizers designed and placed on stores’ community bulletin boards posters that showed two identical Jimmy John’s sandwiches, and two different messages: “Your sandwich made by a sick Jimmy John’s worker” and “Your sandwich made by a healthy Jimmy John’s worker” with the words “healthy” and “sick” in large red letters. Below the pictures, the posters stated: “Can’t Tell the Difference? That’s too bad because Jimmy John’s workers don’t get paid sick days. Shoot, we can’t even call in sick.” The poster then asked for help getting the workers paid sick days by going to a union website. The posters were removed, and the employees who distributed the posters were disciplined or discharged. Did the franchise violate the NLRA?