Law Commons^™

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 …

Collective Bargaining Or "Collective Begging"?: Reflections On Antistrikebreaker Legislation, Samuel Estreicher

Michigan Law Review

The strike is a necessary part of collective bargaining. Workers should not ordinarily lose their jobs by pressing their disputes in this manner. But neither should strikes be viewed as a risk-free means of empowering unions to lock employers into uncompetitive contracts.

A Bargaining Analysis Of American Labor Law And The Search For Bargaining Equity And Industrial Peace, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt

Michigan Law Review

In this article, I present an alternative economic analysis of unions and collective bargaining that utilizes recent advances in labor economics and some simple applications of game theory to address the deficiencies of the traditional monopoly model.

The article proceeds in four parts. In Part I, I provide a brief primer on the economic analysis of unions and collective bargaining. I discuss the various possible sources of union wage increases, possible employer responses to union wage demands, and alternative models of the costs of collective bargaining. In Part II, I outline the traditional monopoly theory of unions by combining the …

Collective Bargaining In The Federal Public Sector: Disclosing Employee Names And Addresses Under Exemption 6 Of The Freedom Of Information Act, Trina Jones

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines the application of FOIA and the Privacy Act to union requests for employee names and addresses under the Fed. LM Statute. Part I briefly explores the importance of employee names and addresses to collective bargaining. This Part also examines the increasingly significant role of public sector unions due to the growth in federal public sector employment and the decline of private sector unionization. Part II analyzes the various circuit court decisions supporting disclosure in the federal public sector. Part III examines Reporters Committee and Department of the Treasury and discusses the potential policy implications resulting from the …

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 …

The Propriety Of Section 10(J) Bargaining Orders In Gissel Situations, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The courts have split on the question of whether a bargaining order constitutes ''just and proper" relief under section 10(j). This Note contends that such an order is always just in a Gissel situation but that a district court may properly issue one only in situations where the Board's prior decisions clearly establish the relevant labor policy and indicate a high probability that the Board will eventually issue a Gissel bargaining order. Part I of the Note develops the criteria relevant to determining what kind of temporary relief is "just." Although section 10(j) does not itself define these criteria, the …

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 …

Contribution Between Parties To A Discriminatory Collective Bargaining Agreement, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines rules of title VII back pay liability and apportionment. Part I argues that all signatories to a discriminatory collective bargaining agreement should be jointly and severally liable to injured persons for back pay. Although a union or employer may object to joint and several liability if its opponent in collective bargaining proposed and bargained for the discriminatory term, the purposes of title VII require that the parties become jointly and severally liable upon signing the agreement. Since joint and several liability fully serves the compensatory purpose of the statute, Part II of the Note looks to deterrence …

Union Decisions On Collective Bargaining Goals: A Proposal For Interest Group Participation, Eileen Silverstein

Michigan Law Review

This Article assesses the consequences of unions' virtually unrestrained power to set bargaining priorities and to reconcile antagonisms among the workers they represent. It then evaluates the function that economic interest groups within unions might serve if workers were encouraged to form interest groups and these groups were recognized as legitimate mechanisms for meeting the diverse needs of a heterogeneous workforce.

Labor Relations Law In The Public Sector, Arvid Anderson

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Labor Relations Law in the Public Sector by Russell A. Smith, Harry T. Edwards, and R. Theodore Clark, Jr.

The Emerging Duty To Bargain In The Public Sector, Harry T. Edwards

Michigan Law Review

Whether the public sector is indeed sufficiently different from the private sector to warrant the assumption that private sector precedents should be avoided, or at least modified, is a question that can and has been argued at length; therefore, it will serve no useful purpose to rehash the issue in this Article. Rather, it is probably sufficient to observe that, for the most part, legislators and judges at the federal, state, and municipal levels have assumed that the two sectors are different; as a consequence, the initial legislative and judicial reactions to public sector unionism have been cautious. Arguments about …

Organized Labor, The Environment, And The Taft-Hartley Act, James C. Oldham

Michigan Law Review

The legal issues inherent in treating out-plant pollution under the Taft-Hartley Act cannot be fully evaluated without a realistic appreciation of practical considerations and industrial experience. For this reason, considerable empirical information has been collected from a variety of sources. The examination and evaluation of this data will precede the legal analysis. The data, it is hoped, will resolve two questions: What is the effect of out-plant pollution on the workers, and what has been the response of labor unions to date?

Labor Law--The Permissible Scope Of The National Labor Relations Board's Rule Against Relitigation, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Under section 9 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or Act), the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) is charged with the responsibility of determining what group of employees constitutes an appropriate unit for purposes of collective bargaining with an employer. While the Board itself originally handled representation petitions and determined appropriate bargaining units, Congress in 1959 amended the NLRA and authorized the Board to delegate its section 9 powers to the regional directors in order to expedite NLRB operations. Pursuant to this authorization, and in accordance with its rule-making authority under section 6 of the Act, the …

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.

Collective Bargaining For Public Employees And The Prevention Of Strikes In The Public Sector, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In recent years, a number of states have enacted legislation providing collective bargaining rights for public employees. Almost invariably these statutes have reaffirmed the traditional prohibition against strikes by government workers. But the strike-or the threat of a strike-has been a key economic weapon for employees in the private sector, and some observers contend that without that weapon the new collective bargaining rights for public employees are illusory.

Racial Equality In Jobs And Unions, Collective Bargaining, And The Burger Court, William B. Gould

Michigan Law Review

In dealing with the problems of employment discrimination, the Burger Court will have to face several new and major issues. This Article is concerned with two of the most important of those issues. The first is whether the present requirement that workers seek redress of their grievances through the exclusive representation of the union is applicable to victims of racial discrimination; and if not, what other remedies should be available to those workers. The second is whether quotas and ratios based on race are permissible; and if so, whether it is required that they be used to integrate union leadership …

Labor Law--Boycotts And Strikes--Replaced Economic Strikers Who Apply For Reinstatement Remain Employees And Are Entitled To Reinstatement When Positions Become Available--Laidlaw Corporation And Local 681, International Brotherhood Of Pulp, Sulphite, And Paper Mill Workers, Afl-Cio, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The collective bargaining agreement between the Laidlaw Corporation and Local 681 of the International Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite, and Paper Mill Workers, the certified bargaining agent for Laidlaw's employees, contained a provision for modification of wages during the term of the contract. In October 1965, the union notified the company that, pursuant to this provision, it desired to negotiate a wage increase. On January 10, 1966, after two unproductive bargaining sessions, the union voted to reject Laidlaw's only offer, and two days later approximately seventy employees went on strike. When no settlement was reached by February 11, forty of the …

Collective Bargaining In The Public Service Of Canada: Bold Experiment Or Act Of Folly?, H. W. Arthurs

Michigan Law Review

This brief background sketch of the Canadian labor relations scene suffices to indicate that several important impediments to the introduction of a full-fledged system of public service collective bargaining which exist in the United States have no counterpart north of the border. Particularly at the practical level, there were no insuperable hurdles to the enactment of the 1967 Canadian federal law. To understand how and why the new federal statute came to be enacted within this reasonably hospitable environment, it is important to trace the course of employment relations in the Canadian Public Service.

The Evolution Of A Collective Bargaining Relationship In Public Education: New York City's Changing Seven-Year History, Ida Klaus

Michigan Law Review

The bargaining relationship between the New York City Board of Education and its teachers had its roots in the social forces of the mid-fifties and its formal origins in the events of the early sixties. The relationship came about without benefit of law or executive policy. No law permitting public employees to bargain collectively was in effect anywhere in those years, and Mayor Wagner's 1958 Executive Order-the culmination of three years of study and public inquiry-did not apply to teachers. Instead, the impetus came directly from the persistent and increasingly powerful drive of the teachers themselves. They demanded a substantial …

Collective Bargaining In Higher Education, Ralph S. Brown Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Clearly, there are many institutions where the model of shared authority has been attained; there are many more where it is attainable; and, unfortunately, there are many where it is not foreseeable. It is the first thesis of this Article that the advantages of an internal framework of representation make it worthwhile to strive for its realization.

Constraints On Local Governments In Public Employee Bargaining, Charles M. Rehmus

Michigan Law Review

It is to the basic financial and administrative constraints upon the powers of local governing units that this Article is primarily directed. The examples used are taken largely from Michigan experience and Michigan law. The same limitations upon the financial and administrative powers of local government, however, exist in almost all other states. The Michigan experience with public administration and public employee bargaining should provide both a warning and a guide to other states as they cope with the so-called public employee revolution.

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' …

The Labor Court Idea, R. W. Fleming

Michigan Law Review

When the War Labor Board first began to exert pressure on companies and unions to adopt grievance arbitration clauses during World War II, there was a considerable hesitance on both sides. Both groups worried that while third party decision making might momentarily improve productive efficiency, it would do so at the price of a long-run loss in institutional integrity and autonomy, and peace at any price held little fascination for either side. Nevertheless, grievance arbitration was accepted and gradually became the normal mechanism for resolving contractual disputes in the United States.

Establishment Of Bargaining Rights Without An Nlrb Election, Howard Lesnick

Michigan Law Review

Those who have become accustomed to keep one ear cocked for the five-part harmony relentlessly ground out by the mimeograph machines at NLRB headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue-those whom one may call professional Board-watchers-have doubtless noticed how fashions come and go in the subjects of NLRB litigation. It is as if the interest of litigants as easily wanes as does that of the reader of opinions, for there is a fairly regular succession of themes, each to be developed for a time until, as though by common consent, attention swings toward a different problem entirely. The wave of the present, I …

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 …

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.

Unfair Representation As An Unfair Labor Practice, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

In its 1962 Miranda Fuel Co. decision, the National Labor Relations Board formulated a novel doctrine whereby it acquired jurisdiction over unfair representation complaints filed by union members in good standing on the theory that a union which fails to represent all of its members fairly commits unfair labor practices in violation of sections 8(b)(1)(A) and 8(b)(2) of the National Labor Relations Act. Formerly, unfair representation complaints filed by union members had been cognizable only by the courts, since unfair representation was not considered an unfair labor practice and, consequently, was outside the jurisdiction of the NLRB.

Management And Labor Appraisals And Criticisms Of The Arbitration Process: A Report With Comments, Dallas L. Jones, Russell A. Smith

Michigan Law Review

Although arbitration as a means of resolving disputes arising under collective bargaining agreements has received widespread acceptance in this country/ in recent years there has been some evidence of increasing criticism of the process. As part of a research project dealing with the impact of the 1960 Supreme Court decisions in the Warrior & Gulf "trilogy" and the 1962 Sinclair "trilogy," we decided to ascertain how parties are appraising the arbitration process. We report here the more significant results of this survey along with our evaluation of the criticisms and suggestions which were received.

The Worker And Three Phases Of Unionism: Administrative And Judicial Control Of The Worker-Union Relationship, Alfred W. Blumrosen

Michigan Law Review

This article will examine the extent to which, and the methods by which, individual rights are protected in each of these three phases of union activity. We will see that the employee is well protected in his right to oppose political action of the union and has considerable legal protection for his rights to engage in internal union political struggles, but the employee has received little protection for his economic interests in collective bargaining between unions and employers. A recent decision by the NLRB, which will be examined in some detail, suggests that additional protection for individual economic rights in …

Reflections On The Nature Of Labor Arbitration, R. W. Fleming

Michigan Law Review

The use of arbitration as a means of settling labor-management disputes has increased steadily in the past twenty years. Recent decisions of the Supreme Court have underlined the importance of the process. The natural tendency is to compare labor arbitration with the court system as an adjudicatory process. There are, however, significant differences between the two, and this needs to be better understood.

An intelligent evaluation of the differences, and of the labor arbitration tribunal in general, can be made only after an exploration of its origin and history, and after some consideration of the kinds of cases which are …