Law Commons^™

Antidiscrimination Rights Of Contingent Workers In The United States, Hyun Joo Kang

Maurer Theses and Dissertations

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits an employer's discriminatory employment practices against an employee on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, or national origin. Most contingent workers in the United States are faced with discriminatory employment practices, such as low wages and low or no benefits, and they are disproportionately women and minorities. Title VII is the focal point, but Title VII has not functioned as a remedy for contingent workers. This dissertation examines why contingent workers suffer discrimination, despite Title VII, and suggests possible solutions.

In the United States, the distinctive interpretation of laws …

Comparing The Naalc And The European Union Social Charter (Transcript), Lance A. Compa

Lance A Compa

This is a transcript of Professor Lance Compa’s presentation to the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation Conference held in Washington, DC on November 12, 1996 and published in the American University Journal of International Law and Policy. [Excerpt] After all of the excellent comments this morning and so far this afternoon, both from the panelists and from the floor, I am not sure that I can say anything new about the NAALC. So, what I want to do in this intervention is add some comparative discussion with respect to the European Union and the social charter of the European …

A Strange Case: Violations Of Workers’ Freedom Of Association In The United States By European Multinational Corporations, Lance A. Compa

Lance A Compa

[Excerpt] A central conclusion of this report is that firms’ voluntary principles and policies are not enough to safeguard workers’ freedom of association. They can be important initiatives, but only when they contain effective due diligence, oversight, and control mechanisms. Otherwise, as shown here, shortcomings in US labor law create enormous temptation - especially among US managers not sufficiently overseen by European parent company officials - to take advantage of them by acts inconsistent with international norms. The pattern that emerges in the examples presented here suggests inadequate due diligence and internal performance controls to prevent and correct US management …

Unfair Advantage: Workers’ Freedom Of Association In The United States Under International Human Rights Standards, Lance A. Compa

Lance A Compa

[Excerpt] Human Rights Watch selected case studies for this report on workers’ freedom of association in the United States with several objectives in mind. One was to include a range of sectors - services, industry, transport, agriculture, high tech – to assess the scope of the problem across the economy, rather than to focus on a single sector. Another objective was geographic diversity, to analyze the issues in different parts of the country. The cases studied here arose in cities, suburbs and rural areas around the United States. Another important goal was to look at the range of workers seeking …

Undocumented Workers Are Entitled To Vote In Union Elections - But Are They "Employees" Under The Law?, Beth Wolf Mora

Golden Gate University Law Review

This note discusses the facts and procedural history of Kolkka. Part III provides a detailed legal and historical analysis of the applicable statutes, case law, and debates surrounding undocumented workers rights. Part IV describes the Ninth Circuit's analysis in Kolkka. Part V critiques the Ninth Circuit's holding in Kolkka asserting that undocumented workers have the right to vote in union elections. Finally, Part VI concludes that judicial decisions supporting undocumented workers rights as an "employees," outweighs the political opposition to rights for undocumented workers. Therefore, to protect undocumented workers, statutory language should expressly state that they are "employees."

Employment Law - Johnson V. State Of Oregon, Beryl Slavov

Golden Gate University Law Review

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to its disabled employees to enable them to perform the essential functions of their position} In Johnson v. State of Oregon, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit determined the circumstances in which the doctrine of judicial estoppel could bar a claim under the ADA when the litigant has sought or received disability benefits. Because this was an issue of first impression, the court relied upon Federal Guidelines and case law from other circuits to conclude that the pursuit or receipt of disability …

Employment Law - Duffield V. Robertson Stephens & Co., Kate S. Langer

Golden Gate University Law Review

In Duffield v. Robertson Stephens & Company, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the Civil Rights Act of 1991 prohibited an employer from requiring, as a condition of employment, that prospective or current employees agree in advance to arbitrate Title VII claims arising out of the employment relationship. Relying on the purposes and legislative history of the 1991 Act, the Ninth Circuit became the only circuit to find that the Act barred these mandatory arbitration agreements.

Union Power, Soul Power: Intersections Of Race, Gender And Law, Wendy L. Wilbanks

Golden Gate University Law Review

This Comment will cover three main topics. First, this Comment will tell the story of the Charleston strike and the individual women involved. Second, this Comment will examine, through the eyes of those individuals, the unique ways in which race and gender come together to create unique circumstances that deserve legal consideration. For both of these sections, I use the women's own voices to illustrate and reinforce substantive points. Third, this comment will describe the 10-day strike notice provision, examining how it would have affected the Charleston workers had it been enacted in 1969 during the time of the strike. …

Divinity Vs. Discrimination: Curtailing The Divine Reach Of Church Authority, Whitney Ellenby

Golden Gate University Law Review

Church authority to practice gender discrimination in employment decisions represents the collision of principles of religious liberty on one hand, and the need to eradicate invidious discrimination on the other. In order to secure the free exercise of religion, the First Amendment prohibits legislation which interferes with or significantly abridges religious belief or conduct. To the extent that employment decisions represent the extension of religious belief, churches have a strong claim of immunity from judicial review of their decisions. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 thus exempts religious entities from civil liability when their discriminatory conduct is …

Patterned Responses To Organizing: Case Studies Of The Union-Busting Convention, Richard W. Hurd, Joseph B. Uehlein

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] In June 1993, the Industrial Union Department (IUD) of the AFL-CIO initiated a project to gather cases from affiliated unions that would highlight aspects of the National Labor Relations Board process deserving attention from those shaping labor law reform proposals. Based on the cases submitted, we conclude that in its current form the National Labor Relations Act serves to impede union organizing. Particularly problematic are NLRB policies that allow employers to wage no-holds-barred antiunion campaigns. Even where there are legal restrictions on specific actions, the penalties for violations are so meager that they serve no deterrent effect. The cases …

Introduction: The Context For The Reform Of Labor Law, Sheldon Friedman, Richard W. Hurd, Rudolph A. Oswald, Ronald L. Seeber

Richard W Hurd

[Excerpt] It has become increasingly clear that the U.S. system of collective bargaining is no longer a realistic option for a large and growing proportion of American workers, and the situation will continue to worsen absent a major redirection of public policy. The decline in union density rates in this country is alarming to those who value and promote unionization. The extent to which this decline is due to management resistance and the failure of the law to promote collective bargaining is an important question that requires continued study and debate. Opinion polls reveal that for millions of nonunion American …

Labor Law, Richard Slizeski, Alice Guckeen, Tom C. Clark

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Labor Law, Mitchell H. Miller

Golden Gate University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Multiemployer Bargaining And Monopoly: Labor-Management Collusion And A Partial Solution, Anthony B. Sanders

Anthony B Sanders

Multiemployer collective bargaining relationships between unions and employer associations easily devolve into legalized cartels. Once unions establish themselves as the bargaining representative for employers’ employees, the employers have much to gain from banding together as an association, raising their prices and eliminating non-union competition, with unions happily serving as enforcement agents in the scheme. In return, unions receive a share of the increased oligopolistic profits in the form of higher wages and benefits. A threat to such a cartel is an employer who wants to bargain with the union but does not want to accept the terms the association has …

Senate Gridlock Cripples Nlrb, Michael Goldberg

Michael J Goldberg

No abstract provided.

In Defence Of Transnational Domestic Labor Regulation, David J. Doorey

David J. Doorey

“Transnational domestic labor regulation” (TDLR) is unilateral regulation introduced by a national government that is designed to influence labor practices in foreign jurisdictions. Many governments already use a variety of measures to try and influence foreign labor practices. TDLR has the potential to empower foreign workers and influence the balance of power in foreign industrial relations system in ways that might lead to improvements in labor conditions over time. Particularly interesting is the potential for TDLR to harness or steer the many private sources of labor practice governance already active in shaping labor conditions within global supply chains. However, whether …

Taxing Housework, Nancy Staudt

Faculty Working Papers

This article examines the tax policy rationale for excluding non-market household labor from the tax base and argues that the conventional rationals no longer withstand scrutiny. The article goes on to argue that it is possible to include non-market household labor into the tax base, while at the same time avoiding the imposition of costs upon the (mostly) women who supply the labor. Moreover, and mort important, tax policy reform along these line would increase householder laborers' access to public retirement benefits and signal the important of the work to society generally.

State Of Maryland V. Louis Hyman: Did Progressivism, Concern For Public Health, And The Great Baltimore Fire Influence The Court Of Appeals?, Justin Haas

Legal History Publications

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, increased immigration from eastern Europe and a growing garment industry in Baltimore led to vast growth in so-called sweatshops: cramped workspaces in which clothing was partially or completely sewn for market. As the sweatshops grew, integrated clothing factories were also emerging, finally becoming a real force in the Baltimore garment industry around the turn of the twentieth century. As the integrated factories grew, the workers joined in the growing organized labor movement, and then began to push for greater protections for the health and safety of workers, as well as fair wages. …

Justice Sonia Sotomayor And The Relationship Between Leagues And Players: Insights And Implications, Michael Mccann

Law Faculty Scholarship

This Essay examines U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s important role in shaping U.S. sports law. As a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and later on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Sotomayor authored opinions that resolved two major sports law disputes: whether Major League Baseball (“MLB”) owners could unilaterally impose new labor conditions on MLB players during the 1994 baseball strike and whether Ohio State University sophomore Maurice Clarett was obligated to wait three years from the completion of high school to become eligible for the National Football …

The Depression Era Sit-Down Strikes And The Limits Of Liberal Labor Law, Ahmed A. White

Publications

This paper explores the history of sit-down strikes from the New Deal Era and beyond and traces their influence on the substance of modern labor law. It argues that, even as the sit-down strikes proved essential to the development of a meaningful system of labor rights, the strikes also had a very different effect. As this paper undertakes to demonstrate, legal and political attacks on labor rights that were originally aimed at the sit-down strikes metastasized into a more general campaign to prohibit a range of militant strike practices, even those bearing little outward resemblance to the original sit-down strikes. …

People Are Not Bananas: How Immigration Differs From Trade, Jennifer Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

How To Make The Much-Needed Employee Free Choice Act Politically Acceptable, Charles B. Craver

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The proposed Employee Free Choice Act (AFCA) would make it easier for employees to select bargaining agents by allowing unions to become certified based upon authorization cards instead of secret ballot Labor Board elections. This practice would be similar to the practice employed by the Labor Board under the original NLRA from 1935 until 1947. To ensure that a majority of workers really desire representation, EFCA could require that 60% or 67% of employees in proposed bargaining units sign authorization cards before the designated union could be certified. EFCA would also require first contract arbitration in the many instances in …

The Relative Bargaining Power Of Employers And Unions In The Global Information Age: A Comparative Analysis Of The United States And Japan, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, Benjamin C. Ellis

Articles by Maurer Faculty

In this paper, we examine and compare the impact of American and Japanese labor law on the relative bargaining power of the labor and management within the context of the new global economy based on information technology. We begin by providing a simple economic definition of bargaining power and examining how it can be influenced by economic and legal factors. Next, we discuss the impact of new information technology and the global economy on the employment relationship and how this has decreased union bargaining power relative to management bargaining power. Finally, we compare various facets of American and Japanese labor …

Three Transnational Discourses Of Labor Law In Domestic Reforms, Alvaro Santos

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Current labor law debates, in the United States and elsewhere, reflect entrenched discursive positions that make potential reform seem impossible. This Article identifies and examines the three most influential positions, which it names the “social,” “the neoliberal,” and the “rights-based” approach. It shows that these discursive positions are truly transnational in character. In contrast with conventional wisdom, which accepts the incompatibility of these positions, this Article creates a conceptual framework that productively combines elements from each to enrich the debates over labor law reform and to foster institutional imagination. Applying this framework, the Article examines the collective bargaining systems of …

Viva State Employment Law - State Law Retaliation Claims In A Post-Crawford/Burlington Northern World, Alex B. Long

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Present At The Creation: Clyde W. Summers And The Field Of Union Democracy Law, Michael J. Goldberg

Michael J Goldberg

This article describes and analyzes the contributions of Professor Clyde W. Summers to the development of union democracy law in the United States and his contributions to the movement dedicated to bringing more democratic practices to American unions. The first part of the article evaluates Summers' writings on the importance of democracy in the labor movement. The second part describes Summers' work as both a scholar and public policy activist shaping the law of union democracy, including his critical role in the drafting of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959. The final part of the article examines Summers …