1. LABOR LAW AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
CHAPTER 32
LABOR LAW AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
© 2010 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice-Hall

2. The right of workers to form, join, and assist labor unions is a statutorily protected right in the United States.

3. Federal Labor Union Statutes
Norris-LaGuardia Act
National Labor Relations Act
Labor-Management Relations Act
Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act
Railway Labor Act

4. National Labor Relations Board
5-member board.
Oversees union elections.
Prevents employer and union unfair labor practices.
Enforces and interprets federal labor laws.

5. Organizing a Union Employees have right to:
form, join, and assist labor organizations
bargain collectively with employers
engage in concerted activity to promote these rights
Bargaining unit must be defined before union petitions for election.
E.g., maintenance workers at all company plants.

6. Types of Union Elections
Contested Election
Contested by employer.
Consent Election
Employer does not contest.
Decertification Election
Employees may wish to dissolve union.

7. Contested Union Elections
30% of employees in the bargaining unit must indicate interest in joining or forming a union.
NLRB is petitioned, investigates, and sets election date.
Simple majority wins election.

8. Union Elections (continued)
If a simple majority of the employees of the appropriate bargaining unit vote to join a union,
the union is certified as the bargaining agent of all the employees,
even those who did not vote for the union.

9. Union Solicitation on Company Property
Employer may restrict union solicitation activities by employees to nonworking areas during employees’ free time.
Off-duty employees may be barred from union solicitation on company premises.
Nonemployee union organizers or officers may be prohibited from soliciting on behalf of the union anywhere on company property.

10. Union Solicitation on Company Property (continued)
Inaccessibility Exception
Permits employees and union officials to engage in union solicitation on company property if employees are beyond reach of reasonable union efforts to communicate with them.
E.g., logging camps, company towns.

11. Illegal Interference with an Election
Unfair labor practice for employer to interfere with, coerce, or restrain employees from exercising their statutory right to form and join union.
E.g., threatening closure of plant or loss of benefits.
Unions also prohibited from engaging in unfair labor practices that interfere with a union election.
E.g., coercion, physical threats.

12. Collective Bargaining
Act of negotiating contract terms between an employer and the members of a union.
Collective Bargaining Agreement – the resulting contract from a collective bargaining procedure.
Employer and union must bargain with each other in good faith.

13. Subjects of Collective Bargaining
Compulsory Subjects
Wages
Hours
Other terms and conditions of employment
Illegal Subjects
Closed shops
Discrimination

14. Subjects of Collective Bargaining (continued)
Permissive Subjects
Size and composition of the supervisory force
Location of plants
Corporate reorganizations
Other subjects if company and union agree

15. Union Security Agreements
Union Shop
Employee must join the union within a certain number of days after being hired.
Employees who do not join must be discharged by the employer upon notice from the union.
Union members pay union dues to the union.
Union shops are lawful.

16. Union Security Agreements (continued)
Agency Shop
Employees do not have to become union members.
Must pay an agency fee to the union.
Amount equal to union dues.
Agency shops are lawful.

17. State Right-to-Work Laws
States may enact right-to-work laws that outlaw union or agency shops.
Individual employees cannot be forced to join a union or pay union dues and fees.
Applies even though a union has been elected by other employees.
22 states have enacted right-to-work laws.

18. Strikes
NLRA gives union management the right to recommend that the union call a strike if a collective bargaining agreement cannot be reached.
A majority of the union’s members must vote in favor before there can be a strike.

19. Cooling-Off Period
Before strike, union must give 60-day notice to employer that it intends to strike.
Illegal to strike within this period.
Time to negotiate settlement.

20. Illegal Strikes Violent strikes Sit-down strikes
Partial or intermittent strikes
Wildcat strikes
Strike in violation of no-strike clause.
Illegal strikers may be discharged by employer with no rights to reinstatement.

21. Crossover Workers
Individual members of a union do not have to honor the strike.
They may:
Choose not to strike, or
Return to work after joining the strikers for a time.

22. Replacement Workers
Workers hired to take the place of striking workers.
Can be hired on either temporary or permanent basis.
If replacement workers are given permanent status, they do not have to be dismissed when the strike is over.

23. Employer Lockout
Act of the employer to prevent employees from entering the work premises when the employer reasonably anticipates a strike.

24. Picketing
Strikers walking in front of the employer’s premises carrying signs announcing their strike.
Right to picket is implied from the NLRA.
An employer may seek an injunction against unlawful picketing.

25. Picketing (continued)
Picketing is lawful unless it:
Is accompanied by violence.
Obstructs customers from entering the employer’s place of business.
Prevents nonstriking employees from entering the employer’s premises.
Prevents pickups and deliveries at the employer’s place of business.

26. Secondary Boycott Picketing
A type of picketing where unions try to bring pressure against an employer by picketing its suppliers or customers.
It is illegal if directed against the neutral employer instead of the struck employer’s product.

27. Internal Union Affairs
Unions may adopt internal union rules to regulate the operation of the union, acquire and maintain union membership, etc.
Subject to Landrum-Griffin Act’s labor bill of rights. Each union member has equal rights and privileges to:
Nominate candidates for union office
Vote in elections
Participate in membership meetings

28. Internal Union Affairs (continued)
A union may discipline members for:
Walking off the job in a nonsanctioned strike.
Working for wages below union scale.
Spying for an employer.
Any other unauthorized activity that has an adverse economic impact on the union.

29. Plant Closing Act (WARN)
Employers with 100 or more employees must give employees 60 days notice before certain plant closings or mass layoffs.
Certain exemptions
Action caused by unforeseen business circumstances.
Employer actively seeking capital and acted in good faith.