Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Labor Law - Extent Of Jurisdiction Of The National Labor Relations Board, Ward P. Allen

Michigan Law Review

What possible legal or logical connection is there between an employee's membership in a labor organization and the carrying on of interstate commerce? It is "clear that the mere reduction in the supply of an article to be shipped in interstate commerce, by the illegal or tortious prevention of its manufacture, is ordinarily an indirect and remote obstruction on that commerce." Strange sounding words, these, so completely have these doctrines been repudiated in the National Labor Relations Act and the cases supporting it. The law is anything but static; and the legal touchstone of this "extension" of the interstate commerce …

Administrative Adjudication Of Contract Disputes: The Walsh-Healey Act, Walter Gellhorn, Seymour L. Linfield

Michigan Law Review

The ashes of the National Recovery Act were scarcely cool before evils, sought to be abated by the statute, once more manifested themselves in virulent form. Temptation to increase hours of labor, often with the accompaniment of sharp reductions in wages, and to utilize more freely the services of child laborers, was resisted by many employers. But it was resisted with ever diminishing success in the face of grim competition for a none too voluminous business. Out of disillusion and disappointment was born the Walsh-Healey Act, to salvage from the Blue Eagle at least a few of its less conspicuous …

Labor Law - Right Of Employer Guilty Of Unfair Labor Practices To Discharge For Illegal Acts, John C. Griffin

Michigan Law Review

During a membership drive in the Fansteel Metallurgical plants, the petitioner corporation was guilty of an unfair labor practice in that it hired espionage agents to spy upon the union. Lodge 66 attempted to bargain collectively with the petitioner and on its rejection of their offer, the union seized the key plants, effectively stopping production. The petitioner, on the union's refusal to vacate, made a blanket discharge of everyone within the plant, and secured an injunction against the union's possession. Compliance with the order was not obtained, and a writ of attachment for contempt was issued. On the second attempt …

The Legal Significance Of Labor Contracts Under The National Labor Relations Act, William Gorham Rice Jr.

Michigan Law Review

The National Labor Relations Act was passed, as it declares in its first section, to encourage "the practice and procedure of collective bargaining'' and to give workers freedom to designate "representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment"; and the last of the unfair labor practices named in section 8 is for an employer "to refuse to bargain collectively." Bargaining and negotiating, the National Labor Relations Board has repeatedly declared, must be done in good faith. Discussion is not true negotiation or bargaining. For the employer to bargain in good faith …

German Social Honor Courts, Harlow J. Heneman

Michigan Law Review

Germany's National Socialist regime has prided itself on its ability to maintain peaceful employer-employee relations at a time when other countries of the world are seriously troubled by industrial disturbances. The German government has actively intervened to see that neither employers nor workers overstep bounds set for them by Nazi social and economic policies. Dr. Robert Ley, head of the German Labor Front, has said that the government owes its success in this field to measures that are a "healthy combination of freedom and compulsion." Since Hitler's advent to power, the former organizations of both employers and employees have largely …

Labor Law - "Substantial" Evidence To Support The Fact Findings Of The National Labor Relations Board, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Three employees of respondent company, members of a union, were discharged. They had attended an organization meeting of the union two days previous to their discharge. Two hundred of the company's fifteen hundred employees attended, of whom eighteen, including these three, stayed when asked to join. The alleged reasons of the company for the discharge of these men were that one took a fifty-cent lamp at a company banquet a month previously, that another destroyed raw material through faulty adjustment of his machine, and that the third openly expressed resentment because not promoted. As against this, the evidence showed that …

Labor Law - Power Of National Labor Relations Board To Invalidate Contract Between Employer And A Bona Fide Union, Ward P. Allen

Michigan Law Review

After a C. I. O. affiliate had filed complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against the Consolidated Edison Company of New York for encouraging membership in A. F. of L. affiliates and thus interfering with the free choice of its employees, the company entered into collective agreements with the latter relating to wages, hours, working conditions, arbitration and representation. The board, ordering the company to cease its preferential treatment, also found that the contracts were executed under such circumstances that they were invalid and required the company to desist from giving them effect. This order was enforced by the …

Proceedings Of The Law Institute Part I, University Of Michigan Law School

Event Materials

Proceedings of the Law Institute held at the University of Michigan Law School, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday June 22-24, 1939

Master And Servant - Liability For Torts Of Servant - Scope Of Employment, Robert E. Sipes

Michigan Law Review

Defendant corporation was an owner and operator of taxicabs. One of its cabs was hailed by another taxicab driver to pursue the latter's taxicab which had just been stolen from him. During the pursuit defendant's taxicab struck plaintiff's car. Plaintiff seeks to recover from defendant for the damage to his car. Held, the driver of the cab was not acting in the scope of his employment so defendant cannot be held. Bindert v. Elmhurst Taxi Corp., (N. Y. Mun. Ct. 1938) 6 N. Y. S. (2d) 666.

Constitutional Law - Schools And School Districts - Teachers' Tenure Legislation, Bertram H. Lebeis

Michigan Law Review

Although the question of security of employment for public school teachers was discussed as far back as the year 1885, when tenure was interpreted to mean the application of civil service principles to the teaching profession, the organized teacher tenure movement is of comparatively recent origin. From within the profession itself impetus was given to the movement by continuous campaigns carried on by local, state and national teachers' associations. From without, the growth of the movement was facilitated by a wider recognition of the evils attendant upon the unlimited power of school boards to "hire and fire" their employees at …

Injunctions - Labor Unions - Enforcement Of Employer's Closed Shop Agreement, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff unions entered into an agreement with the defendants by the terms of which the defendants were to employ union men, all of whom were to be furnished by the Bricklayers Central Employment Bureau at certain wages and for certain hours. Contrary to the agreement, the defendants employed nonunion men of their own selection and at lower wages and for longer hours than provided by the agreement. Plaintiff sought an injunction pendente lite on behalf of the unions to restrain defendants from disregarding the terms of the agreement. Held, motion for injunction pendente lite granted. Murphy v. Ralph, …

"Extra Time For Overtime" Now Law, Frank E. Cooper

Michigan Law Review

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 presents a great many legal and practical problems of importance commensurate with the comprehensiveness of the act itself, which is probably the most far-reaching of the New Deal statutes since the N. R. A. The act is conceived on the theory that any physical handling of goods destined to be subsequently shipped to another state is an act so closely and substantially related to the flow of interstate commerce as to be subject to Congressional regulation, and thus depends for its validity upon an extension of the theories approved in the Wagner Act …

Labor Law -Associations - Suability Of Unincorporated Labor Union In Action At Law For Damages, Thomas E. Wilson

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff sued defendant trade union, an unincorporated association, in its association name in a county court of North Carolina for damages arising out of its action in expelling him from the union, putting his name on a blacklist, and obtaining his discharge from employment. North Carolina had no enabling statute permitting suit against unincorporated associations in their association name. Service of process was obtained upon the local union's secretary-treasurer. Judgment for the plaintiff was taken by default, and plaintiff brought an action on the judgment in the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia. The District …

Labor Law - Workers Who Struck Prior To Effective Date Of National Labor Relations Act As "Employees" Within The Meaning Of Act, Edward J. Wendrow

Michigan Law Review

Prior to the passage of the Wagner Act, respondent's employees went on strike when the respondent refused to negotiate with the union. Thereupon respondent notified them they were all discharged and that the mill was closing down. Subsequent to the effective date of the act, respondent still refused to negotiate with the union and refused to hire any strikers who would not sign a "yellow dog" contract. The National Labor Relations Board held the refusal to negotiate and the discrimination in regard to hire to be violations of section 8 (5) and (3) respectively of the act and, inter alia …

The Labor Relations Acts-Their Effect On Industrial Warfare, Lennart Larson

Michigan Law Review

This article is addressed to the query whether the labor relations acts have any effect on the ends and means of labor warfare. During the hey-day of the NIRA, decisions may be found which indicated that industrial warfare for the objects within the regulatory power of the code authorities was unlawful. Strikes and picketing were enjoined where carried on for higher wages and hours, objects which were thought properly to be for code authorities to adjust. Those decisions were of dubious soundness, but they suggest an argument which may be advanced under the labor relations acts. The NIRA was of …

Injunctions - Courts - Labor Law - Power Of A State Court To Enjoin National Labor Relations Board Officials, Amos J. Coffman

Michigan Law Review

The Circuit Court of Washtenaw County, Michigan, recently issued an injunction enjoining the regional officials of the National Labor Relations Board from holding a scheduled hearing in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The injunction was issued on the theory that if any unfair labor practices were being practiced by the Ann Arbor Press (a local job printer charged with violating the act) they did not affect interstate commerce and hence were not within the jurisdiction of the board. The injunction was at least temporarily effective. The hearing was not held in Ann Arbor. The regional office of the board in Detroit withdrew …

Labor Law - Liability Of Labor Union To Member For Modification Of Collective Agreement Negotiated With Employer, Thomas E. Wilson

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff, a married woman, was a member of an unincorporated labor union which in 1921 negotiated a collective agreement with a railroad company, of which plaintiff was an employee, and under which agreement plaintiff acquired a preferred seniority standing. Subsequently, as a result of agitation against the employment of married women during periods when single women were being discharged, the union and the employer by mutual action modified the agreement of 1921 in regard to the seniority provisions, the new agreement providing that married women should be relieved of service irrespective of seniority. As a consequence of this action, plaintiff …

Labor Law -- Anti-Injunction Acts -- Presence Or Absence Of Labor Dispute As Affecting "Jurisdiction", Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff secured a temporary injunction against the picketing of her beauty shop by members of a union who sought an agreement as to the prices which plaintiff would charge her customers. None of plaintiff's employees were dissatisfied with the terms and conditions of employment. The trial court, on the basis of allegations in plaintiff's bill, affidavits and oral testimony, but without an answer being filed by defendant, held that the case did not "involve or grow out of a labor dispute" and awarded a temporary injunction. A Minnesota statute provided that no court of the state should have "jurisdiction" to …

Labor Law-Power Of National Labor Relations Board To Order Disestablishment Of Company Union, Wayne E. Babler

Michigan Law Review

In two recent Supreme Court cases, National Labor Relations Board v. Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines, lnc., and National Labor Relations Board v. Pacific Greyhound Lines, lnc., it was held that the Board had the power under section 10 (c) to order an employer, who had created, fostered and dominated a labor organization of its employees, to withdraw recognition from such organization of its employees, to withdraw recognition from such organization as representative of the employees and to post notices that it was "so disestablished." In so doing the Court reversed the respective circuit courts which had held the Board was …

Labor Law - When A "Labor Dispute" Exists Within Meaning Of The Norris-Laguardia Act, Erwin B. Ellmann

Michigan Law Review

Two recent Supreme Court decisions, interpreting the Norris-LaGuardia Act at its most troublesome area, confirm the Congressional revision of the rules governing scrimmages between capital and labor in the federal courts. In holding in Lauf v. Shinner that the struggle by an outside union for unionization of a shop, none of whose employees were affiliated with the organizing union, and in New Negro Alliance v. Sanitary Grocery Co. that agitation by members of a negro racial protective organization to compel employment of negro workers were "labor disputes" within the meaning of section 13, the Supreme Court has substantially put to …

Constitutional Law - Separation Of Powers - Validity Of Statute Requiring Reference Of Disputes To Commissioner Of Labor, Edward D. Ranson

Michigan Law Review

The plaintiff was conducting a private employment agency under a license issued by the commissioner of labor. The defendant, a movie actress, secured an engagement through the plaintiff's influence, pursuant to a contract. A dispute arose as to the amount of compensation due the plaintiff under the terms of the contract. A statute required reference of such disputes to the commissioner of labor, who was to hear and determine the same. Within ten days a dissatisfied party could appeal to the superior court and have a hearing de novo. The plaintiff, failing to comply with the statute, commenced the action …

Taxation - Stevedoring As Interstate Commerce - Constitutionality Of Occupation Tax, Ralph Winkler

Michigan Law Review

The state of Washington enacted a business privilege tax, the amount of which was to be determined on a gross income basis. A domestic corporation had been servicing vessels engaged in interstate commerce in two ways-it supplied stevedores to the vessels, and it did the work of loading and unloading. In a bill to enjoin the collection of this tax the Supreme Court of Washington dismissed the suit on the ground that the corporation was not engaged in interstate commerce. On appeal, held (1) furnishing stevedores to the vessels without maintaining control over the operations of the workmen is a …

The Uncompensated Industrial Injury, Stanley Law Sabel

Michigan Law Review

Workmen's compensation laws as means by which industry shares part of the burden of the human toll incident to the cost of production are reaching the maturity of their development. The adoption of such laws has been wide; all but two states in the union now have some provision by which employees engaged in most lines of work are compensated without regard to fault for injuries caused by their work.

Labor Law - Rights And Duties Under The National Labor Relations Act- Effect Of Norris-Laguardia Act, Lennart V. Larson

Michigan Law Review

Defendants, members of a C.I.O. organization, petitioned for an election in plaintiff corporation's factory in order to determine the representatives of the employees for the purposes of collective bargaining. An employees' association, a union the members of which were restricted to employees of the corporation, received a majority of votes and was certified by the National Labor Relations Board as bargaining representative. Nevertheless, the C.I.O. union called a strike, demanding sole bargaining privileges and a closed shop. Picketing, violence and intimidation are alleged, as a result of which plaintiff's factory has had to shut down. Held, plaintiff is entitled …

Contracts - Illegality - Enforcement Of Contract Declared "Invalid" By Statute, Amos J. Coffman

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff was injured while in the employ of defendant. Thereupon the defendant agreed to give the plaintiff employment for life if he would not prosecute the claim before the State Industrial Commission. After thirteen years plaintiff was summarily discharged. The time having elapsed for filing a claim with the Industrial Commission, he brought this action for breach of contract. Statutes of Oklahoma provide that no agreement to waive the right to compensation shall be valid and that claims shall not be released. The lower court awarded plaintiff $3,000 damages. Defendant appealed. Held, the rule that invalid contracts will not …

Contracts - Definiteness - Effect Of Provision In Employment Contract For Termination Only By Mutual Consent, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff entered into a written contract with defendant whereby defendant was to employ plaintiff as a salesman and plaintiff was to receive a salary of seven per cent of the annual profits of defendant's business with a guaranteed drawing account of forty-five dollars per week. The agreement provided that it should be terminable only by the mutual consent of both parties and contained no other stipulation for duration. Plaintiff was employed under the agreement from August 1912 until April 1933, when he was discharged because of a decrease in defendant's business. Held, that the contract was too indefinite to …

Labor Law - Constitutionality Of State Anti-Injunction Acts - Existence Of A "Labor Dispute", Theodore R. Vogt

Michigan Law Review

Organized labor has long contested the use of the injunction in labor disputes and since the turn of the century has been active in legislative circles to secure statutory relief from the paralyzing effect of the too-freely granted temporary injunction and restraining order. A substantial step forward was the enactment of the Clayton Act by Congress. Similar legislation was adopted by several states, some before and some after the congressional action. However, the expected benefits to labor did not accrue, for the Supreme Court in Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering so narrowly construed the statute as to rob it …

Constitutional Law - Validity Of Minimum Wage Legislation Under The Fourteenth Amendment, Jack L. White

Michigan Law Review

A state statute provided that it should be unlawful to employ women at wages not adequate for their maintenance, and established a commission to fix wages according to such a standard after a public hearing and a conference of representatives of employees and employers, and disinterested persons representing the public. The appellee was employed as a chambermaid in the hotel of appellant at less than the minimum wage prescribed, and brought suit to recover the difference between these amounts. The state court gave judgment for the appellee, and on certiorari the Supreme Court held that the statute was valid and …

Businesses Subject To The National Labor Relations Act, Joseph H. Mueller

Michigan Law Review

Justice Holmes once remarked that, "the life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience." This observation is illustrated in a striking manner by the recent change in the attitude of the Supreme Court with respect to Congressional regulation of labor relations in the field of production. Holding that the National Labor Relations Act applied to the steel, automobile, and clothing industries, as well as to the agencies of interstate commerce, the Court restated existing doctrine relating to interstate commerce, giving it new direction and content.

Labor Law -- Legal Status Of Sit-Down Strike -- Legal And Equitable Remedies, Charles C. Spangenberg

Michigan Law Review

The country finds itself infected with a strike rash. Conditions are now like those which previously have resulted in this state of affairs. The midtide of recovery from a depression low has brought rising prices, freer spending, business increase, and speeded up production, but only incomplete relief to labor from depression hours and wages and the later speed-up. Such traditional causes of strikes have been coupled with a new demand for labor recognition. Moreover, a strike now has a much greater chance of success than it would have had at any time within the past several years--a potent stimulant to …