Digital Commons Network^™

Reflections On The Technicolor Right To Association In American Labor And Employment Law, Paul M. Secunda

Paul M. Secunda

It is time to rethink how the United States enforces the right of association in the workplace. The proliferation of political associational rights, intimate association rights, and expressive association rights in the constitutional sphere over the last thirty years has made the scope of this fundamental civil liberty confusing and hard to enforce. Outside of the constitutional framework, which generally applies only to public employees, low union density and the lack of common law associational claims have made private-sector employees' associational rights vulnerable. The unfortunate consequence may be that American workers currently enjoy less associational freedoms than almost any other …