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Full-Text Articles in Law
Structural Labor Rights, Hiba Hafiz
Structural Labor Rights, Hiba Hafiz
Michigan Law Review
American labor law was designed to ensure equal bargaining power between workers and employers. But workers’ collective power against increasingly dominant employers has disintegrated. With union density at an abysmal 6.2 percent in the private sector—a level unequaled since the Great Depression— the vast majority of workers depend only on individual negotiations with employers to lift stagnant wages and ensure upward economic mobility. But decentralized, individual bargaining is not enough. Economists and legal scholars increasingly agree that, absent regulation to protect workers’ collective rights, labor markets naturally strengthen employers’ bargaining power over workers. Existing labor and antitrust law have failed …
Are Unions A Constitutional Anomaly?, Cynthia Estlund
Are Unions A Constitutional Anomaly?, Cynthia Estlund
Michigan Law Review
This term in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Ass’n, the Supreme Court will consider whether ordinary public employees may constitutionally be required to pay an “agency fee,” as a condition of employment, to the union that represents them in collective bargaining. The Court established the terms of engagement in the 2014 decision Harris v. Quinn, which struck down an agency fee on narrower grounds while describing the current doctrine approving agency fees, blessed many times by the Court itself, as an “anomaly.” This Article asks whether labor unions are themselves anomalies in our legal system, particularly in their constitutional entitlements. Its …
Deconstructing 'Just And Proper': Arguments In Favor Of Adopting The 'Remedial Purpose' Approach To Section 10(J) Labor Injunctions, William K. Briggs
Deconstructing 'Just And Proper': Arguments In Favor Of Adopting The 'Remedial Purpose' Approach To Section 10(J) Labor Injunctions, William K. Briggs
Michigan Law Review
Congress, through the 1947 addition of section 10(j) to the National Labor Relations Act, authorized district courts to grant preliminary injunctive relief for unfair labor practices if they deem such relief "just and proper." To this day a circuit split persists over the correct interpretation of this "just and proper" standard. Some circuits interpret "just and proper" to require application of the traditional equitable principles approach that normally governs preliminary injunctions. Other circuits interpret "just and proper" to require an analysis of whether injunctive relief is necessary to preserve the National Labor Relations Board's remedial power This Note examines the …
The Four Pillars Of Work Law, Orly Lobel
The Four Pillars Of Work Law, Orly Lobel
Michigan Law Review
In our contemporary legal landscape, a student wishing to study the law of the workplace has scarce opportunity to encounter an integrated body of scholarship that analyzes the labor market as the subject of government regulation, contractual duties, collective action, and individual rights. Work law developed in the American legal system as a patchwork of common law doctrine, federal and state statutes, and evolving social norms. Typical law school curricula often include courses relating to the four pillars of work law: "employment law," "labor law," "employment discrimination," and some variation of a tax-oriented "employee-benefits law." Employment law, in most categorizations, …
How American Workers Lost The Right To Strike, And Other Tales, James Gray Pope
How American Workers Lost The Right To Strike, And Other Tales, James Gray Pope
Michigan Law Review
To paraphrase a veteran labor scholar, if you want to know where the corpses are buried in labor law, look for the "of course" statements in court opinions. By "of course" statements, he meant propositions that are announced as if they were self-evident, requiring no justification. Each year, thousands of law students read such statements in labor law casebooks. And each year, they duly ask themselves - prodded sometimes by the casebook's notes - how these conclusions could be justified in legal terms. But often there seems to be no answer, and the mystery continues. This Essay recounts the origins …
Orchestrated Experimentalism In The Regulation Of Work, Orly Lobel
Orchestrated Experimentalism In The Regulation Of Work, Orly Lobel
Michigan Law Review
Since the advent of the New Deal vision, work and the workplace have undergone dramatic changes. Policies and institutions that were designed to provide good working conditions and voice for workers are no longer fulfilling their promise. In Working in America: A Blueprint for the New Labor Market ("Blueprint"), four MIT economists take on the challenge of envisioning a new regulatory regime that will fit the realities of the new market. The result of several years of deliberation with various groups in business and labor, academia, and government, Blueprint provides a thoughtful yet unsettling vision of the future of work. …
Contract Rights And Civil Rights, Davison M. Douglas
Contract Rights And Civil Rights, Davison M. Douglas
Michigan Law Review
Have African Americans fared better under a scheme of freedom of contract or of government regulation of private employment relationships? Have court decisions striking down regulation of employment contracts on liberty of contract grounds aided black interests? Many contemporary observers, although with some notable dissenters, would respond that government regulation of freedom of contract, particularly the antidiscrimination provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, has benefited African Americans because it has restrained discriminatory conduct by private employers. Professor David E. Bernstein challenges the view that abrogation of freedom of contract has consistently benefited African Americans by …
The Continuing Relevance Of Section 8(A)(2) To The Contemporary Workplace, Michael C. Harper
The Continuing Relevance Of Section 8(A)(2) To The Contemporary Workplace, Michael C. Harper
Michigan Law Review
After embarking on his illustrious career as a legal academic, Theodore St. Antoine, through a multitude of roles, including those of scholar, teacher, administrator, pragmatic law reformer, and arbitrator, made innumerable contributions to the practice and development of many parts of American law. For most of us, however, as a scholar he will be associated primarily with the system of collective bargaining established and encouraged by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and its progeny. During the first part of Professor St. Antoine's years as an academic, this system continued to flourish in America, as he, along with other legal …
Are Trojan Horse Union Organizers "Employees"?: A New Look At Deference To The Nlrb's Iterpretation Of Nlra Section 2(3), Jonathan D. Hacker
Are Trojan Horse Union Organizers "Employees"?: A New Look At Deference To The Nlrb's Iterpretation Of Nlra Section 2(3), Jonathan D. Hacker
Michigan Law Review
This Note takes a different approach to interpreting section 2(3). Although this Note agrees that section 2(3) neither clearly includes nor clearly excludes trojan horse organizers, it also argues that the definition of employee under section 2(3) must be determined by looking to common law principles of agency. In other words, the question whether courts should defer to the Board's interpretation of section 2(3) does not turn on statutory ambiguity. Rather, courts have a continuing duty to ensure that the Board interprets employee consistently with common law agency principles. Nevertheless, the correct interpretation of employee under agency principles ultimately turns …
Substantiating "Competitive Disadvantage" Claims: A Broad Reading Of Truitt, Brandon David Lawniczak
Substantiating "Competitive Disadvantage" Claims: A Broad Reading Of Truitt, Brandon David Lawniczak
Michigan Law Review
This Note argues that the broad reading of Truitt is correct. It advocates a broad rule which would require an employer to disclose substantiating financial information to its employees' union whenever it claims that meeting a proposed wage demand would place the firm at a competitive disadvantage. Because the appropriateness of substantiating financial information is factually dependent, this Note will not focus on the type or amount of information that should be disclosed. Instead, it will focus on the legal and policy justifications for a broad disclosure rule. Part I reviews Truitt and discusses the various interpretations given to it …
Labor Law's Alter Ego Doctrine: The Role Of Employer Motive In Corporate Transformations, Gary Alan Macdonald
Labor Law's Alter Ego Doctrine: The Role Of Employer Motive In Corporate Transformations, Gary Alan Macdonald
Michigan Law Review
This Note examines the differing judicial approaches for reviewing NLRB alter ego findings, and concludes that a fundamental problem with all of the current approaches is the unwarranted consideration of motive in varying degrees. This Note proposes a modified "reasonably foreseeable benefit" standard which does not depend in any degree on the employer's motive for changing its corporate form. Part I discusses the origin and evolution of the alter ego doctrine, including its genesis in Southport Petroleum, the well-settled Crawford Door factors, and the related "successorship" doctrine. Part II analyzes the conflict among the federal courts of appeals over …
Employer Postcertification Polls To Determine Union Support, James D. Dasso
Employer Postcertification Polls To Determine Union Support, James D. Dasso
Michigan Law Review
This Note evaluates these competing standards in light of the two major policy objectives of the NLRA: industrial stability and employee free choice. It concludes that the courts of appeals properly apply a less stringent standard. Part I considers employer polling in the larger context of the general law of employer interrogation. This section concludes that the Board's standard for postcertification polling deviates significantly from the general law of employer interrogation as well as the more specific rules established for precertification polling. The remainder of this Note demonstrates that the Board's distinctions between pre- and postcertification polling do not justify …
Evaluating Unions: Labor Economics And The Law, Michael J. Goldberg
Evaluating Unions: Labor Economics And The Law, Michael J. Goldberg
Michigan Law Review
A Review ofWhat Do Unions Do? by Richard B. Freeman and James L. Medoff
Participatory Management Under Sections 2(5) And 8(A) (2) Of The National Labor Relations Act, Michigan Law Review
Participatory Management Under Sections 2(5) And 8(A) (2) Of The National Labor Relations Act, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This Note argues that participatory management programs initiated by the employer in nonunion settings should be permissible under the NLRA when they do not restrict the freedom of employees to choose their own bargaining representative. Section I describes the major currents of participatory management theory. Section II explores the restrictive interpretation the National Labor Relations Board (Board) and the courts have traditionally given those sections of the NLRA applicable to participatory management programs. Section III describes the increasingly permissive approach taken by some courts, and to a lesser extent by the Board, in applying the NLRA to participatory management settings. …
Values And Assumptions In American Labor Law, Michigan Law Review
Values And Assumptions In American Labor Law, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Values and Assumptions in American Labor Law by James B. Atleson
Secondary Consumer Picketing, Statutory Interpretation And The First Amendment, Michigan Law Review
Secondary Consumer Picketing, Statutory Interpretation And The First Amendment, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This Note examines both the statutory and constitutional implications of Safeco and Tree Fruits. It suggests that the confusion surrounding existing Board and court interpretations of section 8(b)(4)(ii)(B) stems from the Supreme Court's failure to assess realistically the impact that consumer picketing has on secondary businesses, as well as the Court's refusal to examine the objectives of unions that resort to secondary picketing.
The Labor-Bankruptcy Conflict: Rejection Of A Debtor's Collective Bargaining Agreement, Michigan Law Review
The Labor-Bankruptcy Conflict: Rejection Of A Debtor's Collective Bargaining Agreement, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This Note examines the courts' accommodation of the labor and bankruptcy policies when a debtor in possession or trustee seeks to reject a collective bargaining agreement. Part I criticizes a series of recent cases that failed to confront the statutory conflict. If these courts had recognized the conflict between the language of the Bankruptcy Act (now the Code) and the Labor Act, they would have been forced to consider whether the labor and bankruptcy policies actually clashed. Part II finds that in most instances they do not, and argues that requiring the debtor in possession to bargain with the union …
Title Vii And Nlra: Protection Of Extra-Union Opposition To Employment Discrimination, Michigan Law Review
Title Vii And Nlra: Protection Of Extra-Union Opposition To Employment Discrimination, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act guarantees freedom from employment discrimination based on race, religion, sex, or national origin and establishes remedial procedures for aggrieved employees. A nondiscrimination clause in a collective bargaining agreement may also protect employees from discriminatory treatment; typically, the contract will also contain grievance machinery through which the employee, with the aid of his union, can present his complaint. The question remains: When both title VII and contract grievance procedures are available, can an individual employee or a group of employees take direct action against an allegedly discriminatory employer independently of the union and …
Labor Law--Boycotts And Strikes--Picketing--The Picketing Of An Independent Warehouse I Which A Primary Employer's Goods Are Stored-- Steelworkers, Local 6991 (Auburndale Freezer Corp.), Michigan Law Review
Labor Law--Boycotts And Strikes--Picketing--The Picketing Of An Independent Warehouse I Which A Primary Employer's Goods Are Stored-- Steelworkers, Local 6991 (Auburndale Freezer Corp.), Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
When a group of employees strike against their own employer--the primary employer-their purpose usually is to disrupt his operations in the hope that economic pressure will persuade or coerce him to meet their demands. They may picket the primary employer's premises in order to publicize the strike or to try to persuade fellow employees to join it; and even if the picketing induces third persons not to deal with the primary, the employees' activity constitutes protected primary picketing. If the goal of the striking employees is in fact to publicize the strike and to persuade their co-workers, they will naturally …
Labor Law--Collective Bargaining--The Retirement Benefits Of Retired Employees Are A Mandatory Subject Of Bargaining Because Retirees Are "Employees" Under The Nlra And Because Active Employees Have An Interest In Such Benefits--Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, Chemical Division, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This Recent Development will examine the substance and implications of the latter aspect of Pittsburgh Plate Glass, although it is only dictum in the case. The third ground of the Board's conclusion regarding retirement benefits was really only a general reiteration of the first two. It is therefore apparent that that ground is dependent upon the validity of either or both of the other two bases of the Board's conclusion.
Labor Law--Jurisdiction--Contractual Interpretation, Unfair Labor Practices, And Arbitration: A Proposed Resolution Of Jurisdictional Overlap, Michigan Law Review
Labor Law--Jurisdiction--Contractual Interpretation, Unfair Labor Practices, And Arbitration: A Proposed Resolution Of Jurisdictional Overlap, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
In San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, the Supreme Court held that the state and federal courts must defer to the exclusive jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board when an activity is arguably an unfair labor practice as defined by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). At the same time, section 301(a) of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) provides that the courts have jurisdiction in actions alleging violations of collective agreements. Two distinct factual settings have emerged in which these jurisdictional propositions are at odds.
Labor Relations--Consumer Picketing Under Section 8(B) (4) (Ii) (B) Of The National Labor Relations Act--Honolulu Typographical Union, No. 37, I.T.U., A.F.L.-C.I.O. V. Nlrb, Michigan Law Review
Labor Relations--Consumer Picketing Under Section 8(B) (4) (Ii) (B) Of The National Labor Relations Act--Honolulu Typographical Union, No. 37, I.T.U., A.F.L.-C.I.O. V. Nlrb, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The principal case is concerned generally with the problem of secondary activity by unions, and specifically with the application of a judicially created exception to the general prohibition against such activity. As originally written, section 8(b)(4) was intended to protect neutral employers from becoming involved in disputes between other employers and unions by prohibiting certain union activities. Among the practices forbidden was the traditional secondary boycott which arises when a union in a dispute with a primary employer brings pressure to bear on other employers (secondary employers), through their employees, to cease doing business with the primary. However, the statute …
Labor Law--Res Judicata--The Applicability Of Res Judicata And Collateral Estoppel To Actions Brought Under Section 8(B) (4) Of The National Labor Relations Act, Michigan Law Review
Labor Law--Res Judicata--The Applicability Of Res Judicata And Collateral Estoppel To Actions Brought Under Section 8(B) (4) Of The National Labor Relations Act, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This Note is concerned primarily with the possibility of granting preclusive effect to the Board's determination of the issue of union liability under the section 8(b)(4) charge. Since traditional collateral estoppel principles must be adapted somewhat when applied to the Board's procedures, the preclusive effect given to the prior determination of liability will be referred to simply as "estoppel" in order to avoid confusion with the doctrine of collateral estoppel as it was developed in the courts.
Labor Law--Remedies--An Assessment Of The Proposed "Make-Whole" Remedy In Refusal-To-Bargain Cases, Michigan Law Review
Labor Law--Remedies--An Assessment Of The Proposed "Make-Whole" Remedy In Refusal-To-Bargain Cases, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The conventional National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) remedy against an employer who has violated section 8(a)(5) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by refusing to bargain with a properly certified union is a cease-and-desist order coupled with a directive ordering the employer to bargain with the union at the union's request. However, the interval between an employer's initial refusal to bargain and the final entry of a court of appeals' decree enforcing the NLRB's order to bargain has often been of such long duration that unions have complained that the conventional remedy is relatively meaningless and ineffective. The unions' …
Labor Law-Prima Facie Tort Doctrine Bars Unreasonable Deprivation Of Union Membership-Hurwitz V. Directors Guild Of America, Inc., Michigan Law Review
Labor Law-Prima Facie Tort Doctrine Bars Unreasonable Deprivation Of Union Membership-Hurwitz V. Directors Guild Of America, Inc., Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
In July 1965 the officers of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the Screen Directors International Guild (SDIG) concluded a merger agreement which provided that DGA was to be the surviving union and SDIG members were to become members of DGA automatically upon signing the DGA non-Communist loyalty oath. Although the SDIG membership ratified the merger agreement by a majority vote, six members steadfastly refused to sign the oath and as a result were not admitted to membership in DGA. They thereupon brought a diversity suit in a New York federal district court: and moved for a preliminary injunction …
Labor Law-Nlrb Regulation Of Employer's Pre-Election Captive Audience Speeches, Michigan Law Review
Labor Law-Nlrb Regulation Of Employer's Pre-Election Captive Audience Speeches, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
One of the most effective weapons that an employer may utilize to dissuade his employees from accepting unionization is an antiunion speech delivered to the assembled employees on company time and property shortly before a scheduled representation election. Two recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decisions have provided an opportunity for reopening the much debated question of a campaigning union's right to reply under equal opportunity conditions to such a captive audience speech. In McCulloch Corp., a union sought to have the unfavorable results of a representation election set aside on the ground that the employer's refusal to allow …
The Unanswered Questions Of American Ship, Michigan Law Review
The Unanswered Questions Of American Ship, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The National Labor Relations Act does not specifically prohibit an employer from temporarily locking out his employees during collective bargaining negotiations. For many years, nevertheless, only lockouts used solely to avoid substantial economic loss as a result of union action-so-called "defensive" lockouts-were allowed. However, the emphasis which Congress placed on equality of bargaining pressure in enacting the Taft-Hartley amendments to the NLRA has caused a change in this judicial attitude. Although a few courts have gone so far as to suggest that the lockout should be as freely available as the strike, the United States Supreme Court has been more …
Labor Law-State Court Jurisdiction Over Employee's Damage Action Against Union For Failure To Process Fully Grievance Is Not Pre-Empted By The Nlrb-Sipes V. Vaca, Michigan Law Review
Labor Law-State Court Jurisdiction Over Employee's Damage Action Against Union For Failure To Process Fully Grievance Is Not Pre-Empted By The Nlrb-Sipes V. Vaca, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff, discharged by his employer on the ground that he was no longer physically able to work, enlisted the aid of his union to contest the dismissal. Under the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement between the union and the employer, the union was to seek redress of employee complaints by means of a five step grievance procedure, with arbitration as the final step. The union processed plaintiff's grievance without success through the first four steps of the procedure, but refused to take the issue to the arbitral level. Plaintiff brought suit against the union in a Missouri county circuit …
"Runaway Shop" Must Bargain With Union Upon Request At New Site Whether Or Not Union Reacquires Its Majority Status--Garwin Corporation, Michigan Law Review
"Runaway Shop" Must Bargain With Union Upon Request At New Site Whether Or Not Union Reacquires Its Majority Status--Garwin Corporation, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The sole stockholder of the Garwin Corporation, a New York apparel manufacturer, caused a similar manufacturing company to be incorporated in Florida. The Garwin Corporation then terminated its New York operations, discharged its employees, and resumed operations at the Florida location. The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, which represented a majority of the discharged employees, filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that the Garwin Corporation had violated sections 8(a)(l), (3) and (5) of the National Labor Relations Act because the relocation was motivated by anti-union animus and because the discharged employees were deprived of their rights …
Boulwareism And Good Faith Collective Bargaining, Michigan Law Review
Boulwareism And Good Faith Collective Bargaining, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The obligation to bargain collectively in good faith is imposed on both the employer and the representative of his employees by the National Labor Relations Act. Generally, some form of ask-and-bid bargaining is used to satisfy this statutory obligation. Since 1947, however, the General Electric Company has developed and used a bargaining technique known as Boulwareism, which, on its face, seems capable of achieving the same results as the ask-and-bid method, but in a more efficient manner. Nevertheless, the National Labor Relations Board recently found Boulwareism to be in violation of the duty to bargain in good faith.