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Full-Text Articles in Law

Compensation, Commodification, And Disablement: How Law Has Dehumanized Laboring Bodies And Excluded Nonlaboring Humans, Karen M. Tani Apr 2021

Compensation, Commodification, And Disablement: How Law Has Dehumanized Laboring Bodies And Excluded Nonlaboring Humans, Karen M. Tani

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Injury Impoverished: Workplace Accidents, Capitalism, and Law in the Progressive Era. by Nate Holdren.


Structural Labor Rights, Hiba Hafiz Feb 2021

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 …


Accommodating Absence: Medical Leave As An Ada Reasonable Accommodation, Sean P. Mulloy Jun 2020

Accommodating Absence: Medical Leave As An Ada Reasonable Accommodation, Sean P. Mulloy

Michigan Law Review

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is widely regarded as one of the most significant pieces of civil rights legislation in American history. Among its requirements, Title I of the ADA prohibits employers from discriminating against people with disabilities and requires that employers make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals. Many questions about the scope of the reasonable-accommodation mandate remain, however, as federal circuit courts disagree over whether extended medical leave may be considered a reasonable accommodation and whether an employee on leave is a qualified individual. This Note argues that courts should presume finite unpaid medical leaves of absence are …


Employment Law And Social Equality, Samuel R. Bagenstos Jan 2013

Employment Law And Social Equality, Samuel R. Bagenstos

Michigan Law Review

What is the normative justification for individual employment law? For a number of legal scholars, the answer is economic efficiency. Other scholars argue, to the contrary, that employment law protects against (vaguely defined) imbalances of bargaining power and exploitation. Against both of these positions, this Article argues that individual employment law is best understood as advancing a particular conception of equality. That conception, which many legal and political theorists have called social equality, focuses on eliminating hierarchies of social status. This Article argues that individual employment law, like employment discrimination law, is justified as preventing employers from contributing to or …


Reverse Monitoring: On The Hidden Role Of Employee Stock-Based Compensation, Sharon Hannes May 2007

Reverse Monitoring: On The Hidden Role Of Employee Stock-Based Compensation, Sharon Hannes

Michigan Law Review

This Article develops a new understanding of equity-based compensation schemes, such as employee stock option plans. Current literature views such schemes as a measure aimed at motivating the recipient employees to work harder for the firm. Under that view, this method of remuneration either complements or substitutes for other measures used to monitor the performance of the recipient employees. In contrast, this Article proposes that recipient employees be viewed as potential monitors of other employees and that stock options (or similar types of compensation) motivate them to fulfill this task. This view has many applications and can shed light on …


The Continuing Relevance Of Section 8(A)(2) To The Contemporary Workplace, Michael C. Harper Jan 1998

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 …


Evaluating Purely Reproductive Disorders Under The Americans With Disabilities Act, Todd Lebowitz Dec 1997

Evaluating Purely Reproductive Disorders Under The Americans With Disabilities Act, Todd Lebowitz

Michigan Law Review

Approximately 2.8 million American couples suffer from infertility, a condition generally defined by the medical community as the failure to conceive after one year of unprotected intercourse. During the past thirty years, diagnostic and therapeutic techniques for treating infertility have improved drastically, enabling many previously infertile couples to bear children. These techniques, however, involve considerable expense and inconvenience, frequently requiring patients to take time off from work. Disputes with employers may follow, sometimes resulting in the infertile employee's termination. Some terminated employees, claiming that infertility constitutes a disability, then sue their former employers under the Americans with Disabilities Act of …


The Prima Facie Case Of Age Discrimination In Reduction-In-Force Cases, Jessica Lind Dec 1995

The Prima Facie Case Of Age Discrimination In Reduction-In-Force Cases, Jessica Lind

Michigan Law Review

This Note proposes that courts require the plaintiff in a RIF case to show, as part of her prima facie burden, that the employer reassigned at least part of her job responsibilities to a younger individual of equal or lesser qualifications. Part I describes the analytical framework applied to most intentional discrimination cases the McDonnell Douglas framework. Part II explains that the RIF plaintiff cannot meet the specific requirements of the prima facie case as articulated in McDonnell Douglas because her firing occurs in conjunction with the elimination of her position. This Part then examines two approaches taken by the …


Due Process Review Under The Railway Labor Act, Christopher L. Sagers Nov 1995

Due Process Review Under The Railway Labor Act, Christopher L. Sagers

Michigan Law Review

This Note contends that the RLA prohibits due process review and further argues that such a result is constitutional. Part I examines the statutory language of the RLA itself and contends that it limits district court review to the three statutory grounds. Part II argues that the Supreme Court's opinion in Sheehan reaffirms this interpretation because the Court's language unmistakably conveys an intent to bar due process review. Part III explains that such a limitation does not violate the Constitution. The only constitutional provision that could be implicated in an RLA proceeding, the right of procedural due process, is protected …


Rearranging Deck Chairs On The Titanic: The Inadequacy Of Modest Proposals To Reform Labor Law, Charles B. Craver May 1995

Rearranging Deck Chairs On The Titanic: The Inadequacy Of Modest Proposals To Reform Labor Law, Charles B. Craver

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Agenda for Reform: The Future of Employment Relationships and the Law by William B. Gould IV


Are Trojan Horse Union Organizers "Employees"?: A New Look At Deference To The Nlrb's Iterpretation Of Nlra Section 2(3), Jonathan D. Hacker Feb 1995

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 …


Collective Bargaining Or "Collective Begging"?: Reflections On Antistrikebreaker Legislation, Samuel Estreicher Dec 1994

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.


Labor Law Successorship: A Corporate Law Approach, Edward B. Rock, Michael L. Wachter Nov 1993

Labor Law Successorship: A Corporate Law Approach, Edward B. Rock, Michael L. Wachter

Michigan Law Review

In this article, we take an approach fundamentally different from that of the labor law commentators. We start from a broader perspective than is common: successorship is as important an issue for corporate law as it is for labor law. Given that the two principal inputs to the firm are labor and capital, it would be surprising if the laws for labor law successorship were completely different from the laws for corporate law successorship. To the extent that differences exist, those differences should hinge upon differences between the employees' and the creditors' relationships with the firm.


The Constitutionality Of Employer-Accessible Child Abuse Registries: Due Process Implications Of Governmental Occupational Blacklisting, Michael R. Phillips Oct 1993

The Constitutionality Of Employer-Accessible Child Abuse Registries: Due Process Implications Of Governmental Occupational Blacklisting, Michael R. Phillips

Michigan Law Review

This Note discusses the due process implications of permitting employer access to state child abuse registries when disclosure affects registry members' employment.


Life-Cycle Justice: Accommodating Just Cause And Employment At Will, Stuart J. Schwab Oct 1993

Life-Cycle Justice: Accommodating Just Cause And Employment At Will, Stuart J. Schwab

Michigan Law Review

The goal of this article is to articulate a coherent framework for understanding the default rules for employment termination. While most observers see chaos here, I find a certain logic in the leading cases. The courts have been boldest when job protection is most appropriate, and they have hesitated precisely when at will plays its most useful role.


"Take This Job And Shove It": The Rise Of Free Labor, Jonathan A. Bush May 1993

"Take This Job And Shove It": The Rise Of Free Labor, Jonathan A. Bush

Michigan Law Review

A Review of The Invention of Free Labor: The Employment Relation in English and American Law and Culture, 1350-1870 by Robert J. Steinfeld


Which Side Are You On?: Trying To Be For Labor When It's Flat On Its Back, John Edward Connelly May 1992

Which Side Are You On?: Trying To Be For Labor When It's Flat On Its Back, John Edward Connelly

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Which Side Are You On?: Trying to Be for Labor When It's Flat on Its Back by Thomas Geoghegan


Collective Bargaining In The Federal Public Sector: Disclosing Employee Names And Addresses Under Exemption 6 Of The Freedom Of Information Act, Trina Jones Feb 1991

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 …


Substantiating "Competitive Disadvantage" Claims: A Broad Reading Of Truitt, Brandon David Lawniczak Jun 1989

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 Apr 1988

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 …


The Bfoq Defense In Adea Suits: The Scope Of "Duties Of The Job", Robert L. Fischman Nov 1986

The Bfoq Defense In Adea Suits: The Scope Of "Duties Of The Job", Robert L. Fischman

Michigan Law Review

This Note examines these three possible interpretations of which job characteristics a court must examine when determining the validity of a BFOQ defense to an ADEA suit and concludes that the Eighth Circuit's standard is correct. Because disputes over which interpretation is proper arise almost exclusively in cases involving public safety occupations, this Note discusses the standards for measuring that scope within the framework of the policy considerations associated with public safety. Part I of this Note discusses the three current standards used to determine the scope of the BFOQ defense. Part II illuminates the problems inherent in having three …


Shareholders Versus Managers: The Strain In The Corporate Web, John C. Coffee Jr. Oct 1986

Shareholders Versus Managers: The Strain In The Corporate Web, John C. Coffee Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Part I will seek to understand why firms trade in the stock market at a substantial discount from their asset value. It will answer that existing theories of the firm have not given adequate attention to a critical area where shareholders and managers have an inherent conflict, one that the existing structure of the firm does not resolve or mitigate. Despite the significant changes in the internal structure of the corporation over the last half century that have been described by business historians, there remains a deep internal strain between shareholders, on the one hand, and managers and employees, on …


Participatory Management Under Sections 2(5) And 8(A) (2) Of The National Labor Relations Act, Michigan Law Review Jun 1985

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. …


The Supervision Of Corporate Management: A Comparison Of Developments In European Community And United States Law, Alfred F. Conard May 1984

The Supervision Of Corporate Management: A Comparison Of Developments In European Community And United States Law, Alfred F. Conard

Michigan Law Review

In 1971, Eric Stein published an account of the remarkable progress of the European Economic Community (EEC) toward a harmonized law of business corporations. The progress was particularly striking from an American viewpoint, because the harmonization was achieved by moving toward the more rigorous of the various national standards, in contrast to the "race of laxity" or "race for the bottom" that has characterized the movement toward uniformity in the corporation laws of U.S. states.


Employee Standing Under Section 4 Of The Clayton Act, Michigan Law Review Aug 1983

Employee Standing Under Section 4 Of The Clayton Act, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note will focus on the confusion that plagues one category of antitrust standing cases, those in which an employee alleges wrongful discharge for his refusal to participate in a scheme that violates the antitrust laws. Conflicts among the circuits in their analysis and resolution of these employee standing cases have not been definitively settled by the Supreme Court's recent pronouncements on the right to seek recovery under section 4. This Note argues that these recent Supreme Court decisions, as well as the policies behind the antitrust laws, weigh in favor of permitting an employee to maintain a section 4 …


Employee Selection Base On Susceptibility To Occupational Illness, Mark A. Rothstein May 1983

Employee Selection Base On Susceptibility To Occupational Illness, Mark A. Rothstein

Michigan Law Review

This Article attempts to compile the latest information available concerning this difficult problem. Part I reviews the scientific literature, explaining the biological basis of increased risk of occupational disease. Part II explores the efforts of various employers to incorporate this research into their personnel practices. Part III surveys the legal response to these practices. Employees may challenge medical screening on a variety of theories, most of which were not designed to deal with the problem of susceptibility to occupational disease. Not surprisingly, none of the approaches offers an entirely satisfactory response to the problem. This Article offers no clear answers. …


The Impact If Howard Johnson On The Labor Obligations Of Successor Employer, Michigan Law Review Jan 1976

The Impact If Howard Johnson On The Labor Obligations Of Successor Employer, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

This Note assesses the impact of Howard Johnson on the labor-law obligations of successor employers. Part I analyzes the prior case law; part II critiques the reasoning of the Howard Johnson opinion; part III considers the merits of a new approach to the successorship problem, suggested in a footnote in Howard Johnson.


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 Mar 1970

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--Bankruptcy--The Effect Of The Bankruptcy Of An Employer On The Employment Relationship And On Jurisdiction Over Labor Disputes Involving The Employer, Michigan Law Review Mar 1970

Labor Law--Bankruptcy--The Effect Of The Bankruptcy Of An Employer On The Employment Relationship And On Jurisdiction Over Labor Disputes Involving The Employer, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Litigation arising in connection with the recent bankruptcy of Turney Wood Products, Inc., has brought into issue the general problem of the operation of a bankrupt employer under the federal labor laws. The provisions of both the federal labor laws and the Bankruptcy Act are clear in purpose, but in areas of their interaction they have produced jurisdictional confusion. The situation presented to a single court by the cases arising from the Turney Wood Products bankruptcy provided an ideal vehicle to resolve much of that confusion; in fact, the parties involved viewed it as a test-case situation. But the resulting …


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 Jun 1969

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 …