Law Commons^™

Before Wisconsin And Ohio: The Quiet Success Of Card-Check Organizing In The Public Sector, Rafael Gely, Timothy D. Chandler

Faculty Publications

Card-check laws, which have been unsuccessfully pursued by private-sector unions, mandate that employers recognize the union as the representative of employees on the basis of signed authorization cards without reliance on a representation election. Card check authorization benefits unions because it short circuits the usual organizing process by eliminating the union's need to further prove majority support in a secret ballot election.' But by doing so, it imposes costs on employers by restricting their efforts to erode union support through aggressive campaign tactics. Our paper seeks to better understand the development of these laws and their effects, and in that …

Card-Check Laws And Public-Sector Union Membership In The States, Rafael Gely, Timothy D. Chandler

Faculty Publications

We examine the impact of state card-check legislation on public-sector union membership. Based on an empirical analysis of data from 2000 to 2009, a time during which eight states enacted card-check legislation for public employees, we find significantly higher levels of public-sector union membership for states that passed card-check legislation in years after the laws were enacted relative to states that did not pass such laws. Moreover, average public-sector union membership increased for the states that passed card-check legislation after the laws were passed relative to their precard-check law union-membership levels.

Organizing Principles: The Significance Of Card-Checks Laws, Rafael Gely, Timothy D. Chandler

Faculty Publications

The use of “card checks” as a method of union organizing has recently garnered a lot of attention, much of it surrounding the proposed Employee Free Choice Act. If passed, this legislation would amend the National Labor Relations Act by requiring employers to recognize a union when the employer is presented with evidence of majority support for union recognition via union authorization cards. Although the proposed bill has had difficulty gaining traction in the U.S. Congress, several states have recently passed similar legislation covering state and local public employees. In this article, we compare card-check organizing by public sector employees …

Card Check Recognition: New House Rules For Union Organizing?, Rafael Gely, Timothy D. Chandler

Faculty Publications

A significant policy debate has been occurring regarding union organizing methods in the United States. This debate focuses on the appropriateness of granting union recognition based on majority support as demonstrated by union authorization card signatures, also known as “card checking.” Critics describe the practice as anathema to basic democratic principles and accuse unions of wanting to deal from the bottom of the deck to secure undeserved representation of employees. Proponents of card check recognition argue that reliance on National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) organizing procedures fails to protect employees' rights to organize, and forces unions to compete against a …

Chapter 5: Unions, Finance, And Labor's Capital, Peter R. Pitegoff

Faculty Publications

Events in recent decades have dramatized the need for labor attention beyond narrow issues of wages and working conditions. In the face of widespread industrial disinvestment, unions have been hard-pressed to protect the job status or employment, or the future of their members. At the same time, the developing labor law has narrowed the range of bargaining opportunities for unions to affect corporate decisions-the very decisions that result in job dislocations and corporate transformations. The effectiveness of strikes has been undermined by growing use of permanent replacement workers.

To thrive in the coming decades, unions must carve out a new …

Maintaining Order In The Post-Strike Workplace: Employee Expression And The Scope Of Section 7, Lyrissa Lidsky

Faculty Publications

In the aftermath of a typical strike, management often seeks to restore order to the workplace by imposing restrictions on employee expression. Although in principle employee expression is protected by section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, courts, relying on outdated notions of workplace organization, often accept ad hoc management justifications for restrictions on employee expression. The author argues that after a strike, it is crucial for employees to be able to express their grievances or vent their frustrations at exactly the same time that employers feel it necessary to restrict expression as a way of re-imposing order in …

Antitrust And Employer Restraints In Labor Markets, Robert H. Jerry Ii

Faculty Publications

This Article argues that the Sherman Act regulates concerted employer activity in the labor market only if such activity restrains or attempts to restrain the product market. After discussing the legislative history of the Act, the Article examines and synthesizes two conflicting lines of cases. Finally, the Article suggests how courts should dispose of challenges to employer conduct and posits the basis for a unified theory of labor-antitrust law.