Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Work, Study, Organize!: Why The Northwestern University Football Players Are Employees Under The National Labor Relations Act, César F. Rosado Marzán, Alex Tillett-Saks

Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal

This article analyzes the first case of college athlete unionization under the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA") that has reached the National Labor Relations Board – that of the Northwestern University football players. We reanalyze the case and concur with Region 13 of the NLRB, which determined that these college athletes are employees under the NLRA. However, we also go beyond Region 13's decision and argue that the walk-on players, or those football players who do not receive scholarships, may also be employees under the NLRA.

The grant-in-aid football players of Northwestern University meet the three rules normally used to …

Social Media Policy Confusion: The Nlrb's Dated Embrace Of Concerted Activity Misconstrues The Realities Of Twenty-First Century Collective Action, Geordan G. Logan

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

How The Nlrb's Light Still Shines On Anti-Discrimination Law Fifty Years After Title Vii, Michael Z. Green

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Play Ball: What Can Be Done To Prevent Strikes And Lockouts In Professional Sports And Keep The Stadium Lights On, Alexandra Baumann

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This comment analyzes the role that the National Labor Relations Board and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service play in ending strikes and lockouts caused by collective bargaining in professional sports. It then looks at what can be done to prevent lockouts and strikes in the future, which would not only benefit fans, but also stadium employees, players, and owners, as none of them make money if there are no games.

N.L.R.B. Campaign Propaganda: A Call For Congressional Reform, Susan Gardner

Pepperdine Law Review

With its decision in Midland National Life Insurance Company, the National Labor Relations Board no longer probes into the truth or falsity of statements made during he course of preelection campaigns. The decision marks the third policy reversal in regulating campaign propaganda during the last five years. Of concern to employers and unions is the uncertainty of Board resolutions in this area, particularly when each policy reversal was preceded immediately by Presidential appointments to the Board. This article traces the shifting Board policy of regulating campaign misrepresentations and calls for Congressional intervention to stabilize the preelection process.

Technology, Robotics, And The Work Preservation Doctrine: Future Considerations For Labor And Management, Christie A. Moon

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Comments On Proposed Changes To Captive Audience Speech Rules And Use Of Card Checks, Rik Lineback

Indiana Law Journal

Labor and Employment Law Under the Obama Administration: A Time for Hope and Change? Symposium held November 12-13, 2010, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana.

Proposals To Reinstate The Voluntary Recognition Bar And Rein In Captive Audience Speeches: A Rationale For Change At The National Labor Relations Board, Nora L. Macey

Indiana Law Journal

Labor and Employment Law Under the Obama Administration: A Time for Hope and Change? Symposium held November 12-13, 2010, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Bloomington, Indiana.

Elections, Neutrality Agreements, And Card Checks: The Failure Of The Political Model Of Industrial Democracy, James Y. Moore, Richard A. Bales

Indiana Law Journal

The secret-ballot election is the National Labor Relations Board’s preferred method for employees to determine whether they wish to be represented by a union. Employer domination of the election process, however, has led many unions to opt out of elections and instead to demand recognition based on authorization cards signed by a majority of employees. The primary objection to this “card check” process is that it is less democratic than the secret-ballot election. This Article places the issue in the context of the theoretical basis for claims of industrial democracy and argues that card checks are more consistent with the …

Ten Years After Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. V. Nlrb: The Power Of A Labor Law Symbol, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Water Cooler: Speech And The Workplace In An Era Of Social Media, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

A Moral Contractual Approach To Labor Law Reform: A Template For Using Ethical Principles To Regulate Behavior Where Law Failed To Do So Effectively, Zev J. Eigen, David S. Sherwyn

Faculty Working Papers

If laws cease to work as they should or as intended, legislators and scholars propose new laws to replace or amend them. This paper posits an alternative—offering regulated parties the opportunity to contractually bind themselves to behave ethically. The perfect test-case for this proposal is labor law, because (1) labor law has not been amended for decades, (2) proposals to amend it have failed for political reasons, and are focused on union election win rates, and less on the election process itself, (3) it is an area of law already statutorily regulating parties' reciprocal contractual obligations, and (4) moral means …

A New Board Policy On Deferral To Arbitration: Acknowledging And Delimiting Union Waiver Of Employee Statutory Rights, Michael C. Harper

Faculty Scholarship

This article considers the extent to which the National Labor Relations Board should defer in its protection of statutory rights to the private arbitration process under collective bargaining. The article explains and criticizes the theory of implied union waiver advanced by the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals under the leadership of Judge Harry Edwards. It posits a reformulation of Board deferral doctrine for waivable substantive rights. The article also consider the relevance of the Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in 14 Penn Plaza, LLC v. Pyett to Board deferral to arbitration in cases involving § 7 rights that are …

Gathering Moss: The Nrla's Resistance To Legislative Change , James J. Brudney

Faculty Scholarship

Why has the NLRA been so resistant to legislative change for more than 60 years? How was Congress able to enact two major labor relations laws within a 12-year period (1935 and 1947) but then unable to approve proposed reforms in the years since 1947? In an effort to answer these questions, the article closely examines contemporaneous newspaper accounts from the 1935 and 1947 legislative “successes” as well as from two more recent congressional “failures” in 1978 and 1992. The article’s examination proceeds based on an analytic framework borrowed from political scientist John Kingdon that posits a recurring interplay among …

Awaking Rip Van Winkle: Has The National Labor Relations Act Reached A Turning Point?, William R. Corbett

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Of Service Workers, Contracting Out, Joint Employment, Legal Consciousness, And The University Of Miami, Kenneth M. Casebeer

Articles

No abstract provided.

The Limitation On Undocumented Workers’ Lost Earnings After Balbuena And Sanango: Crafting A Fair And Principled Balance Of Immigration Policy And New York State Labor Law § 240 Safety Goals, Meredith R. Miller

Scholarly Works

In December 2004, in a pair of cases, the Appellate

Division, First Department, held that under state labor

and tort laws, injured workers who are not legally permitted

to be present or employed in the United States

are only entitled to receive lost earnings reflecting what

they could have earned in their country of origin. This

article explores these First Department decisions by first

discussing the federal statutory and decisional backdrop

against which the cases arose. This article then

provides a discussion of the First Department cases and

the competing economic incentives they implicate.

Finally, this article posits that a …

Law, Lawyers, And Labor: The United Farm Workers' Legal Strategy In The 1960s And 1970s And The Role Of Law In Union Organizing Today , Jennifer Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

What does law offer labor? It depends. The specifics of the law in question are critical, as are the make-up and funding of the agency that is charged with implementing it and the economic strength, political clout, and strategic creativity of the unions and employers that it governs. Today's discussions of the NLRA from the union perspective are tinged with desperation about what law does for and to organizing-a desperation that is born of labor's sense that it has lost too many important battles before the NLRB and the courts over the interpretation of the NLRA. In despair, however, workers …

Neutrality Agreements And Card Check Recognition: Prospects For Changing Paradigms , James J. Brudney

Faculty Scholarship

The rise of neutrality agreements is a major development in labor-management relations in this country. The union movement's new approach to organizing displaces elections supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with negotiated agreements that provide for employers to remain neutral during an upcoming union campaign and (in most instances) for employees to decide if they wish to be represented through signing authorization cards rather than through a secret ballot election. Professor Brudney demonstrates the substantial role now being played by this contractually based approach to union organizing. He also explains why so many employers have agreed to neutrality …

Isolated And Politicized: The Nlrb's Uncertain Future The National Labor Relations Board In Comparative Context: Introduction, James J. Brudney

Faculty Scholarship

The National Labor Relations Board has managed to remain unusually detached or isolated in its decision-making even as it has come to operate in an openly partisan manner. There is a certain paradoxical quality to the coexistence of these two descriptors for Board conduct: isolation in agency performance ordinarily suggests a neutral separation from the political process whereas politicization implies a close connection to the elected branches. The explanation for this odd pairing involves a number of factors: some reflect political realities beyond the agency's ability to control, others relate to the structure of the NLRA, and still others are …

Let Unions Be Unions: Allowing Grants Of Benefits During Representation Campaigns, Michael Hayes

All Faculty Scholarship

Unions exist to provide assistance to employees; this is their reason for being. Yet once a union begins a campaign to represent a group of employees, it is legally barred from extending tangible assistance to the workers. The National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB" or the "Board") and courts deem a union grant of benefits to employees during or prior to a representation campaign objectionable conduct that requires setting aside the results of the representation election and holding another election.

This article's proposal to open the door to unconditional union benefits during an organizing campaign will likely be controversial. Part of …

After "Hiding The Ball" Is Over: How The Nlrb Must Change Its Approach To Decision-Making, Michael Hayes

All Faculty Scholarship

Is the National Labor Relations Board (the NLRB or the Board), the agency that oversees federal labor law, still relevant? When this question is considered, as it frequently is by scholars, lawyers and officials of the NLRB itself, the focus typically is on whether changes in the workplace, the economy and society are diminishing the relevance of the Board. But there is a new and more immediate threat to the relevance of the Board that so far has been mostly ignored - that the Board is in danger of being rendered a superfluous legal institution in the scheme of American …

Has Wright Line Gone Wrong? Why Pretext Can Be Sufficient To Prove Discrimination Under The National Labor Relations Act,, Michael Hayes

All Faculty Scholarship

Every year in the United States, thousands of employees are illegally fired for joining or supporting unions. These employees must bring their claims to the National Labor Relations Board (the “Board”), which applies its famous Wright Line standard to decide thousands of discrimination cases each year.

Probably the most common issue in labor discrimination cases is “pretext.” In virtually every case, an employer claims that it fired an employee not for an illegal anti-union motive, but for a legitimate business reason. The pretext issue arises when the evidence shows that the legitimate reason asserted by the employer was most likely …

Business-Only E-Mail Policies In The Labor Organizing Context: It Is Time To Recognize Employee And Employer Rights, Allegra Kirsten Weiner

Federal Communications Law Journal

Cyberspace changed communication in the workplace. Now that employees are on employers' e-mail systems, union organizers can contact employees in the workplace, during working hours, without any of the obstacles that more traditional forms of union communication impose. Of course this new technologically-advanced labor organizing is ideal for the labor organizers, but it also interferes with the rights of employers. Which groups interests' prevail? Unfortunately there is no precedent. Normally, adherence to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decisions is the answer but no case has come before the NLRB that solves this issue. Therefore, employers and employees are left …

The Legacy Of Industrial Pluralism: The Tension Between Individual Employment Rights And The New Deal Collective Bargaining System, Katherine V.W. Stone

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Time For A New Approach: Why The Judiciary Should Disregard The "Law Of The Circuit" When Confronting Nonacquiescence By The National Labor Relations Board, Rebecca H. White

Scholarly Works

The National Labor Relations Board has been criticized for its nonacquiescence policy, under which the Board interprets the national Labor Relations Act, issues an order, and then defends this order before a circuit court that previously had rejected the Board's interpretation of the Act. In this Article, Professor Rebecca White begins by stating that the NLRB's nonacquiescence policy is both lawful and proper. From this basic premise, White then argues that courts of appeals should abandon the "law of the circuit" doctrine when confronting Board nonacquiescence. She contends the policy concerns that justify application of the "law of the circuit"-- …

A Probit Model Of Nlrb Bargaining Order Cases In The Appellate Courts, Terry A. Bethel, C. A, Melfi

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This study examines NLRB bargaining orders that have gone to appeals courts and ascertains what factors influence whether or not the order is enforced and to what degree these factors influence the likelihood of enforcement. Substantial information has been collected from each reported appellate decision that reviewed NLRB bargaining orders issued over a four-year period. A probit regression model is employed to examine whether factors related to an employer's unfair labor practice campaign are involved in the circuit court's enforcement decisions or if more weight is given to unrelated factors, such as the circuit in which the appeal is heard …

Nlrb Guidelines For Determining Health Care Industry Bargaining Units: Judicial Acceptance Or Back To The Drawing Board, John Robert Shelton

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Viability Of Distinguishing Between Mandatory And Permissive Subjects Of Bargaining In A Cooperative Setting: In Search Of Industrial Peace, Thomas T. Crouch

Vanderbilt Law Review

In July 1985 General Motors entered into an agreement with the United Auto Workers (UAW) setting forth the terms and conditions of a future automobile facility, known as the Saturn Corporation, in Spring Hill, Tennessee. General Motors and the UAW view this project as an unprecedented achievement in "union-management partnership." The goal of the Saturn project is to maintain General Motors'viability as a domestic enterprise through an agreement to build a new subcompact car in the United States. This partnership between the corporation and the UAW will include employee participation and enhanced job security. Faced with mounting competition from overseas …

Reconciling Differences: The Theory And Law Of Mediating Labor Grievances, Deborah A. Schmedemann

Faculty Scholarship

While grievance arbitration is the most common method of resolution of disputes arising under collective bargaining agreements, the author proposes that there is also a place for grievance mediation. The author compares mediation to arbitration and negotiation, and describes the strengths and weaknesses of mediation. She explains how mediation clauses in labor agreements could be enforced under section 301 of the LMRA, to protect rights created by those agreements, and proposes that mediation clauses be a basis for injunctions against strikes during the term of an agreement in certain situations. However, the author suggests that courts and the National Labor …