Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Labor Law Reform-The Nlrb And A Labor Court, Florian Bartosic

Georgia Law Review

THE G-- D --- Labor Board." That expletive, the title of ." a 1938 Fortune article,' has become an unceasing chant of protest over the years. Today, as in 1938, the National Labor Relations Board finds itself at the center of a whirlpool of criticism. This is not at all surprising in light of the Board's mandate to strike a balance between the conflicting motifs of the national labor policy. My personal experience has been that the Board welcomes constructive criticism. The familiar refrain of persecution and ordeal at the hands of the Board that runs through the perennial anti-Board …

Some Aspects Of The Lmrda Reporting Requirements, James R. Beaird

Georgia Law Review

COLLECTIVE bargaining became the keystone of our national labor policy with the passage of the Wagner Act in 1935. The central role of this procedure was preserved in the Taft-Hartley  and Landrum-Griffin  Acts. By choosing collective bargaining as the principal instrument of labor market control, Congress sought to remove sources of industrial strife by a method which preserved private determination free from either unchecked employer power or smothering governmental control. An additional attribute of this device has been pointed out by Professor Clyde Summers:

Collective bargaining . . . was historically conceived as something more than an ingenious gimmick of …

Issues And Practical Problems Caused By Fleetwood Trailer And Laidlaw Manufacturing, Guy Farmer

Georgia Law Review

THE Court and Board decisions in Fleetwood Trailer Co. and Laidlaw Corp. present an interesting study in judicial and administrative policy making. This is a subject which has claimed the attention of the Senate Subcommittee on Separation of Powers and led to an extensive investigation and a recent report in which the Sub- committee concluded that both the Board and the Supreme Court have engaged in legislative policy making in the labor field.While not addressing itself to these particular decisions, the Subcommittee could have found in Fleetwood and Laidlaw the same familiar pattern of administrative and judicial exercise of legislative …

The Supreme Court Looks At Bargaining Orders Based On Authorization Cards, Elihu Platt

Georgia Law Review

LANDMARK decisions often tend to engender further debate. The Supreme Court's decision in NLRB v. Gissel Packing Co., upholding the authority of the Labor Board to issue bargaining orders on the basis of union authorization cards, is no exception. In the after- math of that decision, many conflicting views are being expressed. Admittedly, some questions still remain open, while other questions of at least equal, if not greater, significance have been finally adjudicated. Discussion is healthy as to both types of questions, particularly as to those for which ready answers are not yet available. It has been said-and in a …

Labor Relations Policy For Public Employees: A Legal Perspective, J. Ralph Beaird

Scholarly Works

Because approximately one-sixty of the nation's nonagricultural work force are public employees and because labor strife in public employment is increasing each year, the need for thoughtful examiniation of public policy in this vital area is manifest. The purpose of this article is to provide a basic legal framework to which the labor relations posture of the public employee can be related. Hopefully this can be accomplished by focusing on two separate but related areas. One concerns the oft told story of the evolution of labor-management relations policy for the private sector, while the other deals withe the law's changing …

Labor Relations Policy For Public Employees: A Legal Perspective, James R. Beaird

Georgia Law Review

GOVERNMENT is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. Of a total nonagricultural work force in July 1968, of approximately 69 million persons, nearly twelve million were employed by government.' Approximately three million were employed at the federal level and almost nine million at the state and local levels. In Georgia, state and local governments employ 186,000 men and women. Estimates indicate that by 1975 11.4 million government employees will function at the state and local levels. Although strikes by public employees are universally considered un- lawful, strike idleness of government employees rose to 1.2 million man-days …

Foreword, James R. Beaird

Georgia Law Review

This symposium issue brings together a collection of papers notable for diversity of subject matter as well as for point of view. Yet all relate to what is generally referred to as our National Labor Policy. A quick glance through this issue will remind the reader of the many faceted nature of this policy. A more careful study will make clear that its content, whether expressed by Congress, an administrator or an administrative board, is simply the balance that evolves from the continuing effort to blend national purpose with economic change.

In 1938, the Fair Labor Standards Act' became a …

New And Novel Remedies For Unfair Labor Practices, John H. Fanning

Georgia Law Review

My topic is the need for new and novel remedies for unfair labor practices. I do not mean to suggest that there is no such need, but I would, before going any further, like to put it into perspective. The case load of the National Labor Relations Board (the Board) has been rising steadily, being over 30,000 cases per year at the present time, a development which should concern all of us. About 17,000 of these cases involve alleged unfair labor practices. That number, in it- self, seems to suggest that the Board is not successfully accomplishing its purpose. But …

Obligation To Bargain On Basis Of A Card Majority: Recognition Of Unions Through Authorization Cards, Jacob Sheinkman

Georgia Law Review

THE controversy over the use of union authorization cards to support an order of the National Labor Relations Board (the Board) directing union recognition has become one of the most heated areas in labor law today. The veritable tempest, however, is in a proverbial teapot, for the overwhelming majority of questions concerning repre- sentation before the Board are resolved through the election process. In fiscal year 1967, the Board conducted 8,116 elections and issued only 157 bargaining orders based on a card majority, a fraction under merely two percent. Of these 157 cases, all but 16 involved employers whose commission …

The Obligation To Bargain On The Basis Of A Card Majority, Melvin J. Welles

Georgia Law Review

THE purpose of this paper, as the title indicates, is to discuss an employer's legal obligation under the National Labor Relations Act (the Act) to bargain with a union which has obtained authorization cards from a majority of the employees in an appropriate unit. I am assuming throughout this paper that the union's authorization cards are authentic, that they are unambiguous cards, that the signers understand the cards, and that the union obtained them without coercion, fraud, misrepresentation, or indeed any suggestion to the signers that the cards were for any purpose other than to authorize the union to represent …

Current Problems In The Administration Of Wage-Hour Laws, Harold C. Nystrom

Georgia Law Review

WHENEVER extensive amendments such as those effective last year are made to general wage and hour legislation, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act which applies to businesses of all kinds, large and small, throughout the nation, a great variety of new problems in administration of the law arises concerning the meaning and application of the new and amended provisions in the many fact situations involved in the operation of different businesses. In order to administer the law, the Department of Labor has to consider the possible alternatives in interpreting the scope and meaning of the terms used, and must …

The Impact Of Tides I-Vi Of The Landrum-Griffin Act, Frank M. Kleiler

Georgia Law Review

THE Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (commonly known as the Landrum-Griffin Act) is much more than its name implies. Besides the reporting and disclosure requirements, the statute contains a "Bill of Rights"  for union members, enforceable by district courts of the United States upon actions brought by union members. The Act prevents abuses in the establishment and administration of trusteeships by labor organizations, prescribes minimum standards for election of union officers, imposes fiduciary responsibility upon union officers and certain others, makes embezzlement of union funds a federal crime, requires bonding for the handling of funds, limits loans from …

Practical Problems In The Handling Of Grievances And Labor Arbitrations, R. A. Levitt

Georgia Law Review

ESSENTIALLY, it will be my purpose to consider four principal questions, namely: (1) What is arbitration and what is it for? (2) When should management go to arbitration? (3) How should one go to arbitration-How should you prepare and try the arbitration case? (4) How can we improve the arbitration process? After considering these questions, I intend to consider several arbitration-related issues which are of considerable interest and importance to management. Among these subjects is the matter of so-called "voluntary" arbitration of new contract terms which has been the focus of considerable publicity and interest recently, especially in the last …

Legal Questions Of Successorship, H. Stephan Gordon

Georgia Law Review

LONG before the United States Supreme Court in 1964 handed down its now celebrated Wiley decision,' drawing attention to the problems of successorship in the field of labor law, the National Labor Relations Board (the Board) on frequent occasions had to wrestle with these problems under the National Labor Relations Act (the Act). The Board's shift of position over the years on one of the two chief successorship issues-the liability of a successor to remedy the predecessor's unfair labor practices - is indicative of the legal and practical difficulties inherent in this issue. In recent years, the increasing number of …

Obligation To Bargain On Basis Of Card Majority: Some Thoughts On The Board's "Decision" In Levi Strauss, Or New Straws In Support Of Cumberland Shoe, Harry L. Browne

Georgia Law Review

FOLLOWING what must have been a deflating series of reversals by the court of appeals in Cumberland Shoe "card-check" cases, and shortly after the Supreme Court declined to review the Fourth Circuit's section 8(a)(5) decision in Crawford Manufacturing Co. v. NLRB, 2 the Board in Levi Strauss & Co. reasserted its independence from the mainstream or consensus of the judiciary and restated its arguments for resisting attacks on authorization cards when solicitor representations or misrepresentations are involved. As the Board acknowledged, Levi Strauss involved nothing unique, but

because their validity [Board principles] has been questioned by some courts and in …

Dockside Injuries Under The Longshoremen's And Harbor Worker's Compensation Act, E. D. R., Jr.

Georgia Law Review

Since its enactment in 1927, the Longshoremen's and Harbor Worker's Compensation Act has been the source of much confusion in admiralty law, particularly with respect to admiralty-state jurisdictional conflicts. The Act provides compensation:

"in respect of disability or death of an employee, but only if the dis- ability or death results from an injury occurring upon the navigable waters of the United States (including any dry dock) and if recovery for the disability or death through workman's compensation proceedings may not validly be provided by State law."

Since the purpose of the Act was to cover injuries not compensable under …

Foreword: Recent Developments In Labor Law, J. Ralph Beaird

Scholarly Works

This symposium issue brings together a collection of papers notable for diversity of subject matter as well as for point of view. Yet all relate to what is generally referred to as our National Labor Policy.

Union Trusteeship Provisions Of The Labor-Management Reporting And Disclosure Act Of 1959, J. Ralph Beaird

Scholarly Works

With the passage of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, Congress embarked upon a policy of substantial federal regulation of internal union affairs. Prior to this enactment, the impact of law on this area had been determined largely by state courts with only a modicum of legislative guidance. In formulating the LMRDA Congress was greatly concerned with determining where to draw the line between necessary democratic safeguards and the preservation of union self-determination. This concern was particularly evident in drafting Title III which deals with union trusteeships. While Congress framed Title III from a somewhat limited informational base, …

Obligations Of Successor Employers: Recent Variations On The John Wiley Theme, R. F. M., Jr

Georgia Law Review

In past decisions the Supreme Court has emphasized the central role of arbitration in effectuating national labor policy.' Pursuant to its concern the Court in John Wiley & Sons Inc. v. Livingston held

that the disappearance by merger of a corporate employer which has entered into a collective bargaining agreement with a union does not automatically terminate all rights of the employees covered by the agreement, and that, in appropriate circumstances, present here, the successor employer may be required to arbitrate with the union under the agreement.

The Court's historic pronouncement in Wiley was based on derogation of common law …

Union Trusteeship Provisions Of The Labor-Management Reporting And Disclosure Act Of 1959, James R. Beaird

Georgia Law Review

WITH the passage of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, Congress embarked upon a policy of substantial federal regulation of internal union affairs. Prior to this enactment, the impact of law on this area had been determined largely by state courts with only a modicum of legislative guidance. In formulating the LMRDA Congress was greatly concerned with determining where to draw the line between necessary democratic safeguards and the preservation of union self-determination. This concern was particularly evident in drafting Title III which deals with union trusteeships. While Congress framed Title III from a somewhat limited in-formational base, …