Law Commons^™

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 …

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 …

Beyond The Glass Ceiling: The Maternal Wall As A Barrier To Gender Equality, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Maternal Wall: Relief For Family Caregivers Who Are Discriminated Against On The Job, Joan C. Williams, Nancy Segal

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Bringing Your Part Time Policy Up To Par, Joan C. Williams

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Gender, Work, And The Nafta Labor Side Agreement, Kate Andrias

Faculty Scholarship

It has been nearly ten years since the public debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement ("NAFTA") and the advent of trade liberalization with America's neighbors to the north and south. In the years since NAFTA's signing in 1993, economic globalization has fundamentally changed our conception of the nation-state, citizenship, trade, and work. Economic life in the United States now involves massive cross-border capital and labor flows, and integrated cross-border production chains, particularly with our trading partners in NAFTA. We have seen greater trade liberalization throughout the world, the ascendance of transnational organizations like the World Trade Organization, recurrent …

Double Dipping: The Cross-Border Taxation Of Stock Options, Jeffrey M. Colon

Faculty Scholarship

Once awarded exclusively to upper management, stock options are now granted increasingly to rank-and-file employees and are becoming a greater component of employee compensation. The expanding use of stock options is undoubtedly due in part to the large increase in equity prices over the last twenty years. Further fueling the demand was the Internet start-up boom of the late 1990s, the spectacular financial success of many technology and computer companies, notably Microsoft and Oracle, and the well- publicized lucre acquired by their employees. The collapse of the initial public offerings market for Internet start-up companies at the dawn of the …

Consensual Sex And The Limits Of Harassment Law, Carol Sanger

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter discusses an enormous achievement of the campaign against the harassment of working women, which is the establishment of a set of facts about sex at work that had previously been denied, mocked, and misunderstood. It is now understood that sex can be unwelcome, that unwelcome overtures are neither harmless nor fun, and that consent to sex demanded on the job does not shift the behavior from the category of unwanted sex to the category of the welcome. On the other hand, one of the most ferocious complaints against the establishment of sexual harassment as a legal wrong is …

Robust Public Debate: Realizing Free Speech In Workplace Representation Elections, Kate Andrias

Faculty Scholarship

The First Amendment stands as a guarantor of political freedom and as the “guardian of our democracy.” It seeks to expand the vitality of public discourse in order to enable Americans to become aware of the issues before them and to pursue their ends fully and freely. As the Supreme Court wrote in the canonical case of New York Times Co. v . Sullivan, the First Amendment’s function is to create the “uninhibited, robust and wide-open” public debate necessary for the exercise of self-governance.

The Amendment plays a prominent role in the regulation of workplace representation elections, the process …

Employee Stock Ownership After Enron: Proceedings Of The 2003 Annual Meeting, Association Of American Law Schools Section On Employee Benefits, Norman P. Stein, Colleen E. Medill, Susan J. Stabile, Jeffrey N. Gordon, Louis H. Diamond, Damon Silvers, Patricia E. Dilley

Faculty Scholarship

This session is entitled "Employee Stock Ownership After Enron," and I assume that title has drawn into this room people who know something about either Enron or employee stock, or both. For our purposes, the Enron story has as its focus the Enron 401(k) plan, which was the principal retirement plan for most Enron employees. Employees could make elective contributions to the 401(k) plan, which offered nineteen investment options, one of which was Enron stock. The 401(k) plan also provided that Enron would match employee contributions up to 3 percent of compensation. Enron's match, however, was made in Enron stock. …