Law Commons^™

The Supreme Court's Labor And Employment Decisions: 2002-2003 Term, Maria O'Brien

Faculty Scholarship

This article summarizes U.S. Supreme Court cases from the October 2002 term that related directly or indirectly to labor or employment law or have implications for labor and employment practitioners. Of particular interest are the University of Michigan affirmative action cases' and the Texas criminal sodomy case. ² Although not nominally "labor and employment" cases, these cases will profoundly affect labor and employment issues. Lawrence v. Texas has already altered the lenses through which society views homosexuality and altered public discourse related to homosexuality and same-sex relationships. ³ The reasoning of the Court shows how far issues of sexuality have …

Law And The Future Of Organized Labor In America, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

This paper, prepared for "The Future of Organized Labor in America" symposium at Wayne State University Law School, examines two questions: 1) what are the implications of the decline of unions for the future of labor law, and 2) what are the implications of labor law for the decline of unions? After documenting the recent trends (decline in the private sector coupled with slight growth in the public sector), I argue that the change in the public-versus-private composition will lead unions to pursue legislative strategies that will further reduce the share of the private sector workforce in unions. A law …

A Framework For The Rejuvenation Of The American Labor Movement, Michael C. Harper

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Efficiency And Labor Law, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, I examine the economic efficiency of labor law. My claim is that much of labor law seems to be efficient-in a sense that will be made precise below.⁹ I approach this issue by examining the process by which labor law develops and some important areas of labor law doctrine. The central question addressed is whether the process by which labor law develops differs substantially from the common law process. I demonstrate that there are differences that have implications for the efficiency of labor law. But the differences do not seem to be so great as to …

Reconciling Collective Bargaining With Employee Supervision Of Management, Michael C. Harper

Faculty Scholarship

The realities of economic organization in modern industrial states pose a critical dilemma for all who care about democratic ideals. Technological developments and attendant complicated divisions of work have enabled these states to transform their citizens' standards of living; such developments have also, however, brought hierarchical economic organizations' that are unresponsive to the influence of most individual employees. A society that claims to be democratic cannot ignore this condition.² Enhancing individuals' control over their own lives requires institutions that will facilitate democratic decisionmaking about economic production as well as governmental authority.

This Article contributes to thought about such institutions …

Leveling The Road From Borg-Warner To First National Maintenance: The Scope Of Mandatory Bargaining, Michael C. Harper

Faculty Scholarship

The Supreme Court's most recent effort to distinguish nonmandatory bargaining topics, First National Maintenance Corp. v. NLRB, ¹⁹ illustrates the Court's lack of clarity in this area and vindicates Cox's and Wellington's criticisms of the Court's approach in Borg-Warner. In First National Maintenance (F.N.M.), the Court held that an employer's decision "to shut down part of its business purely for economic reasons" was outside the scope of mandatory bargaining.²⁰ The Court could cite no evidence that Congress intended to prevent employee representatives from obtaining full effective bargaining over such decisions, nor did it articulate any general principle to …