PowerPoint Slides to Accompany
BUSINESS LAW
E-Commerce and Digital Law
International Law and Ethics
5th Edition
by Henry R. Cheeseman
Chapter 42
Labor Relations Law
Slides developed by
Les Wiletzky
Wiletzky and Associates, Puyallup, WA
Copyright © 2004 by Prentice-Hall. All rights reserved.
The right of workers to form,
join, and assist labor unions is
a statutorily protected right in
the United States.
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42 - 2
Federal Labor Union Statutes
Norris-LaGuardia
Act
National Labor
Relations Act
Labor-Management
Relations Act
Railway Labor
Act
Labor-Management
Reporting and
Disclosure Act
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Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932

Stipulates that it is legal for employees to
organize.

Removes the federal courts’ power to enjoin
peaceful union activity.
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National Labor Relations Act of 1935
Also known as the Wagner Act or NLRA.
 Establishes the right of employees to:

form, join, and assist labor organizations
 bargain collectively with employers
 engage in concerted activity to promote these
rights


Places an affirmative duty on employers to
bargain and deal in good faith with unions.
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Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947
Amended the Wagner Act.
 Also known as the Taft-Hartley Act.
 Expands the activities that labor unions can
engage in.
 Gives employers the right to engage in freespeech efforts against unions prior to a union
election.
 Gives the President the right to seek an
injunction against a strike that would create a
national emergency.

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Labor-Management Reporting and
Disclosure Act of 1959
Also known as the Landrum-Griffin Act.
 Regulates internal union affairs and
establishes the rights of union members.

Requires regularly scheduled elections for
union officials by secret ballot
 Prohibits ex-convicts and communists from
holding union office
 Makes union officials accountable for union
funds and property

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Railway Labor Act of 1926 (amended in
1934)
Covers employees of railroad and airline
carriers.
 This act permits:

self-organization of employees
 prohibits interference with this right
 provides for the adjustment of grievances

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National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

Administrative agency created by the
National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act.
Oversees union elections
 Prevents employers and unions from
engaging in illegal and unfair labor practices
 Enforces and interprets certain federal labor
laws.


NLRB decisions are enforceable in court.
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42 - 9
Organizing a Union
Section 7 of the NLRA – gives employees
the right to join together to form a union.
 Appropriate Bargaining Unit – the group
that the union is seeking to represent.

Must be defined before the union can petition
for an election.
 Managers and professional employees may
not belong to unions formed by employees
whom they manage.

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42 - 10
Types of Union Elections
30 percent of the employees in the
bargaining unit must indicate interest in
joining or forming a union.
 NLRB is petitioned, investigates and sets
election date.

Contested election
 Consent election
 Decertification election

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42 - 11
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.

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42 - 12
Union Solicitation on Company Property
An 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.
 Non-employee union organizers or officers
may be prohibited from soliciting on behalf of
the union anywhere on company property.

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42 - 13
Union Solicitation on Company Property
(continued)
Inaccessibility Exception
 A rule that permits employees and union
officials to engage in union solicitation on
company property if the employees are
beyond reach of reasonable union efforts to
communicate with them.
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Illegal Interference with an Election
Section 8(a) of the NLRA – makes it an
unfair labor practice for an employer to
interfere with, coerce, or restrain employees
from exercising their statutory right to form
and join a union.
 Section 8(b) of the NLRA – prohibits unions
from engaging in unfair labor practices that
interfere with a union election.

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42 - 15
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification
(WARN) Act of 1988
Covers employers with 100 or more
employees.
 Requires employers to give their employees
60 days’ notice before engaging in certain
plant closings or layoffs.
 If the employees are represented by a union,
the notice must be given to the union.


If they are not, the notice must be given to the
employees individually.
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Collective Bargaining
The 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.
 The employer and the union must bargain with
each other in good faith.

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42 - 17
Subjects of Collective Bargaining

Compulsory Subjects
Wages
 Hours
 Other terms and conditions of employment


Illegal Subjects
Closed shops
 Discrimination

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42 - 18
Subjects of Collective Bargaining
(continued)

Permissive Subjects
Size and composition of the supervisory force
 Location of plants
 Corporate reorganizations
 Any other subjects that are not compulsory or
illegal

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42 - 19
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.

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42 - 20
Union Security Agreements (continued)

Agency Shop
Employees do not have to become union
members.
 They do have to pay an agency fee (an
amount equal to union dues) to the union.
 Agency shops are lawful.

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Check-Off Provision

Upon proper notification by the union, union
shop and agency shop employers are
required to:
1. Deduct union dues and agency fees from
employees’ wages, and
2. Forward these dues to the union.

This is called a check-off provision.
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42 - 22
State Right-to-Work Laws

Section 14(b) of the Taft Hartley Act –
allows states to 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 even
though a union has been elected by other
employees.
 21 states have enacted right-to-work laws.

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42 - 23
Strikes
The NLRA gives union management the right
to recommend that the union call a strike if a
collective bargaining agreement cannot be
reached.
 A majority vote of the union’s members must
agree to the action before there can be a
strike.

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42 - 24
Employer Lockout
Act of the employer to prevent
employees from entering the work
premises when the employer
reasonably anticipates a strike.
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42 - 25
Crossover Worker


Individual members of a union do not have
to honor the strike.
They may:
1. Choose not to strike, or
2. Return to work after joining the strikers for a
time
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42 - 26
Replacement Workers
Workers who are hired to take the place of
striking workers.
 They can be hired on either a temporary or
permanent basis.
 If replacement workers are given permanent
status, they do not have to be dismissed
when the strike is over.

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42 - 27
Illegal Strikes
Several types of strikes have been held to be
illegal.
 They are not protected by federal labor law.
 Illegal strikers may be discharged by the
employer with no rights to reinstatement.

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42 - 28
Illegal strikes are:

Violent Strikes

Wildcat Strikes

Sit-Down Strikes

Strikes during the 60day Cooling-Off Period

Partial or Intermittent
Strikes

Strikes in Violation of a
No-Strike Clause
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42 - 29
Picketing
The actions of strikers walking in front of the
employer’s premises carrying signs
announcing their strike.
 The right to picket is implied from the NLRA.
 An employer may seek an injunction against
unlawful picketing.

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42 - 30
Picketing (continued)
Picketing is lawful unless it
1. It is accompanied by violence
2. Obstructs customers from entering the employer’s
place of business
3. Prevents non-striking employees from entering the
employer’s premises
4. Prevents pickups and deliveries at the employer’s
place of business
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42 - 31
Secondary Boycott Picketing
A type of picketing where unions try to bring
pressure against an employer by picketing
his or her suppliers or customers.
 Such picketing is lawful only if it is product
picketing.
 It is illegal if it is directed against the neutral
employer instead of the struck employer’s
product.

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42 - 32
Internal Union Affairs
Unions may adopt internal union rules to
regulate the operation of the union, acquire
and maintain union membership, etc.
 Title I of the Landrum-Griffin Act – referred
to as labor’s bill of rights. Gives each union
member equal rights and privileges to:

Nominate candidates for union office
 Vote in elections
 Participate in membership meetings

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42 - 33
Internal Union Affairs (continued)

A union may discipline members for:
Walking off the job in a non-sanctioned strike
 Working for wages below union scale
 Spying for an employer
 Any other unauthorized activity that has an
adverse economic impact on the union

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