Law Commons^™

Whither The Wagner Act: On The Waning View Of Labor Law And Leviathan, Brandon R. Magner

Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal

The National Labor Relations Act’s (NLRA) well-documented weaknesses in substance and enforcement, combined with legislators’ inability to adapt the Act to the modern economy, have understandably created many cynics in the field of labor law. For several decades, legal scholars have almost unanimously derided the NLRA and the agency which administers it, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), for failing to prevent rampant anti-union conduct by employers and the collapse of the union formation process through the Board’s election machinery. This “ossification” of the law, as it has come to be known, is considered to be a key contributor to …

The Labor Gerrymander, Joel Heller

Vanderbilt Law Review

The foundational metaphor of federal labor law is “industrial democracy.” But like any good metaphor, it is subject to overuse. The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) grants employees the right to have a say in the decisions that govern their working lives through union representation and collective bargaining. Parties and policymakers often invoke the language of American political democracy when describing and debating that right. Democracy is not a unitary concept, however, and not all norms and concepts from the political sphere can or should translate into the labor sphere.

This Article interrogates the political-model analogy through the lens of …

Constitutional Clash: Labor, Capital, And Democracy, Kate Andrias

Northwestern University Law Review

In the last few years, workers have engaged in organizing and strike activity at levels not seen in decades; state and local legislators have enacted innovative workplace and social welfare legislation; and the National Labor Relations Board has advanced ambitious new interpretations of its governing statute. Viewed collectively, these efforts—“labor’s” efforts for short—seek not only to redefine the contours of labor law. They also present an incipient challenge to our constitutional order. If realized, labor’s vision would extend democratic values, including freedom of speech and association, into the putatively private domain of the workplace. It would also support the Constitution’s …

Indigent Defense In Louisville: Conditions For Unionization, Zane R. Phelps

The Cardinal Edge

This paper begins by examining the unionization efforts of the Louisville Metro Public Defender Corporation and seeks to link those conditions with national trends to cultivate a rich understanding of why the attorneys are unionizing and what policy solutions they hope to achieve. After surveying the sources of funding and oversight for indigent defense across varying state systems, it synthesizes a policy recommendation wherein federal intervention (National Labor Relations Board), state and local government budgetary oversight and appropriations powers (Kentucky General Assembly, Louisville Metro Council), and the collective bargaining and unionization process (concerted activity), protected by law, are utilized in …

We Are Never Getting Back Together: A Statutory Framework For Reconciling Artist/Label Relationships, Harrison Simons

Washington Law Review Online

Taylor Swift could tell you a thing or two about record label drama. Artists like Swift who want to break into the big leagues and top the charts must rely on record labels’ deep pockets and institutional knowledge to do so. But artists, especially young ones, are often asked to sign deals with labels that leave them with little control over their careers. For many, the risk is worth the reward. However, many others come to regret their decision, with careers that languish or sputter out in label purgatory. Anyone with an ear for the music industry knows that artist-label …

Give Starving Artists A Piece Of The Ip Pie: Making Room At The Table For Performers’ Rights, Meagan A. Sharp

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

Creators protect their valuable intellectual property interests through copyright. Historically, stage performers struggled to secure copyright ownership in their performances within a larger production. As the theatre landscape changes, however, trends indicate that producers will increasingly rely on performers to develop characters and shows. This reliance could prove to be an exploitative practice if performers do not receive additional compensation for their part in creating successful works. This Note first examines the meanings of authorship, fixation, and control under the Copyright Act of 1976, then widens its lens to consider alternate interpretations of these technical terms in light of an …

More Than They Bargained For: Ab 257 And An Alternative Approach To Labor Law In California's Fast-Food Industry, Alex Reid

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

Big Data Affirmative Action, Peter N. Salib

Northwestern University Law Review

As a vast and ever-growing body of social-scientific research shows, discrimination remains pervasive in the United States. In education, work, consumer markets, healthcare, criminal justice, and more, Black people fare worse than whites, women worse than men, and so on. Moreover, the evidence now convincingly demonstrates that this inequality is driven by discrimination. Yet solutions are scarce. The best empirical studies find that popular interventions—like diversity seminars and antibias trainings—have little or no effect. And more muscular solutions—like hiring quotas or school busing—are now regularly struck down as illegal. Indeed, in the last thirty years, the Supreme Court has invalidated …

Independent Contractors In Law And In Fact: Evidence From U.S. Tax Returns, Eleanor Wilking

Northwestern University Law Review

Federal tax law divides workers into two categories depending on the degree of control exercised over them by the service purchaser (i.e., the firm): employees, who are subject to direct supervision; and independent contractors, who operate autonomously. Such worker classification determines the administration of income tax and what it subsidizes, as well as which nontax regulations pertain, such as workplace safety and antidiscrimination protections. The Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies have codified common law agency doctrine into multifactor balancing tests used to legally distinguish employees from independent contractors. These tests have proved challenging to apply and costly to …

The Connick/Garcetti Split: Is Public Employee Association A Matter Of Public Concern?, Austin J. Wishart

University of Cincinnati Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Disaster Chain: Counter-Mapping Global Value Chains, Peer Zumbansen

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Abstract: Prevailing accounts by consultancies and logistics scholars present global value chains [GVCs] as an expression of contemporary international economic integration and connectivity. As such, they are considered crucial to the pursuit of economic growth and prosperity. At the same time, GVCs are deemed susceptible to “disruptions” through natural catastrophes, restrictive trade policies or pandemics. Left out of the standard narratives, even in light of the experience of the global Coronavirus pandemic, is the actual, as such disruptive impact of global value chain capitalism on human and natural lives. Dominant depictions of global value chain governance treat labor, environment and …

Compelled Unionism In The Private Sector After Janus: Why Unions Should Not Profit From Dissenting Employees, Giovanna Bonafede

Catholic University Law Review

This Note examines the impact of the 2018 landmark labor law case Janus v. AFSCME. Janus held it unconstitutional under the First Amendment to require public sector employees to pay fees to a union to which they are not a member. The Supreme Court based their decision on the idea that compelling public employees to subsidize union speech to which they disagreed violated their free speech rights. The author argues that the Court’s holding in Janus should be extended to protect the free speech rights of private sector employees through a finding of state action in the private unionized …

Political Equality And First Amendment Challenges To Labor Law, Luke Taylor

University of Cincinnati Law Review

This Article conceptualizes a novel basis for defending laws that strengthen labor unions from First Amendment challenge: the argument that these laws are adequately tailored to advancing a compelling state interest in reducing economic inequality’s transmission into political inequality. The Article makes two principal contributions. First, it updates criticisms of the Supreme Court’s campaign finance decisions’ rejection of any compelling interest sounding in political equality. The Article does so by bringing recent constitutional scholarship to bear on that criticism and by explaining how recent improvements in social scientists’ ability to track different economic brackets’ political influence call for the Court …

Maternity Rights: A Comparative View Of Mexico And The United States, Roberto Rosas

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Women play a large role in the workplace and require additional protection during pregnancy, childbirth, and while raising children. This article compares how Mexico and the United States have approached the issue of maternity rights and benefits. First, Mexico provides eighty-four days of paid leave to mothers, while the United States provides unpaid leave for up to twelve weeks. Second, Mexico allows two thirty-minute breaks a day for breastfeeding, while the United States allows a reasonable amount of time per day to breastfeed. Third, Mexico provides childcare to most federal employees, while the United States provides daycares to a small …

Undocumented Domestic Workers: A Penumbra In The Workforce, Abigail A. Roman

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming.

Balancing Between The Controls Of Child Labour And The Rules Of Protection Against Abuse: Study In The Light Of The Saudi Regime, Nasreen Salman Mansour

UAEU Law Journal

The Saudi child has many of lawful protection in Saudi law. As his protection laws; which the regulator embodied through it types of harming which the child confronted with, prevent him from having all rights securing his physical, psychological, mental and educational growth, and the counterbalance between these laws and the requirements of life which force the child to work in early age for money is very hard. On the one hand laws of child protection from harming stipulate that any work preventing a child from education is illegal, also make financial abuse of child is an offence and makes …

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 …

Main Trends Of Development Of Labor Law, Shukhrat Ismoilov

Review of law sciences

This article systematically analyzes some characteristic urgent problems of labor law. On this basis, the main trends in the development of labor law in the Republic of Uzbekistan are identified. Instead, recommendations and suggestions for improving labor law and law enforcement practice have been developed.

Types Of Working Time In Labor Legislation: Theoretical And Practical Analysis, Dilfuza Abdullaeva

Review of law sciences

The article attempts to formulate new approaches to determining the nature and legal nature of working time. Based on the norms of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Chapter VII of the Labor Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan and foreign experience, the concepts, contents and types of working time are investigated. Suggestions are being made to improve the legal regulation of working time.

Due Process Supreme Court Appellate Division Third Department

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Gig Economy: An Annotated Bibliography, Matthew L. Timko

Northern Illinois University Law Review

Companies like Uber, Lyft, Postmates, Airbnb, and others have become established within society, to the point that Uber has become a regularly used verb. While the consumer benefits of these companies has been immediate, the legal implications remain far murkier. This emerging market has demonstrated that the twentieth century laws are unable to cope with these twenty-first century businesses in regard to employee rights, employer responsibilities, consumer protections, and federal and state regulations. This bibliography presents the primary and secondary sources which are essential to understanding what has been termed the "gig economy" so that readers have a background of …

Epic Systems Corp. V. Lewis: Singled Out By Corporations And A Textualist Supreme Court, American Workers Are Left To Fend For Themselves, Grace O'Malley

Maryland Law Review

No abstract provided.

A More Perfect (Nfl Players) Union: Secret "Side Deals," The Nflpa, And The Duty Of Fair Representation, Sam C. Ehrlich J.D.

Ohio Northern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Where The Law Ends - Part 1: M&G; Polymers V. Tackett And Cnh Industrial V. Reese - Federal Labor Policy, The Interpretation Of Collective Bargaining Agreements, And The Failure Of Stare Decisis, Roger J. Mcclow

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

No abstract provided.

New Institution: Resolving Labour Disputes Through Mediation, M.A. Raximov

Review of law sciences

the article analyzes the essence of the mediation procedure and its applicability to labor disputes, reveals the advantages of this method of resolving conflicts in the labor sphere, and also identifies some problems of its implementation. The question of the difference between decision of court, the resolution of a dispute in the labor dispute committee and the mediation procedure is raised. Based on the results of the study, the author concludes that the inclusion of mediation in the labor dispute settlement system meets the goals of increasing the stability of labor relations and encourages employees and employers to find a …

Effects Of Senate Bill 4 On Wage-Theft: Why All Workers Are At Risk In Low-Income Occupations, Daniella Salas-Chacon

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

Abstract forthcoming

Labor-Management Cooperation: Bath Iron Works's Bold New Approach, Jonathan B. Goldin University Of Maine School Of Law

Maine Law Review

An increasing number of employers and unions have found that the best way to compete in the marketplace and secure both profits for the firm and good jobs for workers is through cooperative worker-management relations. As Americans obtain more education, and with the changing nature of some work, employers increasingly find it appropriate to rearrange responsibilities and tasks to employees, who work sometimes as teams and other times as individuals. For their part, more highly educated employees express greater desire to participate in workplace decisions and have the knowledge and competence to undertake more tasks at the workplace. It is …

Fashion Law: More Than Wigs, Gowns, And Intellectual Property, Mark K. Brewer

San Diego Law Review

[T]his article frames the emerging field of fashion law and synthesizes its substance from an international perspective in order to raise the profile of fundamental areas in which the law and fashion intersect as well as identify key areas for future research. Part II examines the background on fashion law, initially focusing on its origins and then examining IP, traditionally the main area of the field. Additionally, the Article defines, frames, and justifies the emerging field of fashion law. Because an exhaustive analysis of the emerging trends in fashion law is beyond the scope of this Article, Part III only …

Resurrecting Labor, Rick Bales

Maryland Law Review

Participation in American labor unions has changed radically, albeit incrementally, over the last fifty years. Private-sector union density has declined five-fold, whereas public-sector density has increased almost as significantly. Today, unions rarely strike, and in much of the country, they are politically impotent. As traditional manufacturing declines and is replaced by on-demand work, unions risk becoming a historical footnote.

This Article ties the decline in union density and power to macroeconomic trends that are highly troubling in an advanced democracy, such as rising income inequality and the failure of wage growth to keep pace with gross domestic product (“GDP”) growth. …

How Organizing Collegiate Student-Athletes Under The National Labor Relations Act With The Ncaa As A Joint Employer Can Lead To Significant Changes To The Student-Athlete Compensation Rules, Andrew Gruna

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

This paper will provide an overview of how National Labor Relations Board cases of Northwestern University and Browning Ferris combined with the analysis presented in the National Labor Relations Board General Counsel Memorandum GC 17-01: General Counsel’s Report on the Statutory Rights of University Faculty and Students in the Unfair Labor Practice Context could impact the laws behind unionization, the contracts of university athletes, and, ultimately through contract negotiations, reintroduce the discussion regarding compensation of student-athletes.