Labor and Employment Law Commons^™

Introduction: Democracy At Work, Ruben J. Garcia

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Trilogy Redux: Using Arbitration To Rebuild The Labor Movement, Ann C. Hodges

Law Faculty Publications

This Article analyzes the possibility of creating a program to provide representation to workers bound to arbitrate their legal disputes with their employers, while at the same time building a movement to challenge the practice of compulsory arbitration and its impact on workers' rights. First, I briefly review the Supreme Court's recent arbitration jurisprudence and its impact on workers, with a particular focus on the limitations on class actions. Then I move to a discussion of the advantages and challenges to the creation of such a program. Finally, I examine some alternative visions of what such a program might look …

Citizenship At Work: How The Supreme Court Politically Marginalized Public Employees, Ruben J. Garcia

Scholarly Works

Collective bargaining by public sector employees has been the subject of recent heated debates in the state legislatures of Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. The right of public sector employees to freedom of association, collective bargaining, and the right to participate in politics are among the “citizenship rights” of public employees. In many states, however, the citizenship rights of public employees are under threat both in state legislatures and in the courts. Paradoxically, the ability of public sector employees to change legislation has been hampered over the years by Supreme Court decisions, making it more difficult to organize politically by …

Undermining Or Promoting Democratic Government?: An Economic And Empirical Analysis Of The Two Views Of Public Sector Collective Bargaining In American Law, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt, Mohammad Khan

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Rights Of Belonging For Women, Rebecca E. Zietlow

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

"…And Women Must Weep" V. "Anatomy Of A Lie": An Empirical Assessment Of Two Labor Relations Propaganda Films, Thomas G. Field Jr., Juanita V. Field

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Linden Lumber: The Demise Of Authorization Cards As A Means Of Establishing Majority Status , Wesley R. Harrison

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Management's Right To Resort To Injunctive Relief And Self-Help In Order To Prevent Trespassory Union Activity: An Examination Of May Department Stores Co. V. Teamsters Union Local No. 743, Frank J. D'Oro Jr

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Great Recession And The Pressure On Workplace Rights, Katherine S. Newman

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This paper explores the impact of the Great Recession on the rights of workers in the U.S. and overseas. While secular trends in play before the economic downturn began had already eroded employment benefits and workers’ right, recent economic conditions have exacerbated conditions for workers. With the Great Recession have come record levels of long term unemployment, a rise in the number of involuntary part-time workers, and a growth in the already high rates of youth unemployment. All of these conditions, along with the decline of union representation, have placed downward pressure on wages and forced workers to give back …

Union Dues In The Public Sector: Legislative Changes And Legal Challenges, Ann C. Hodges

Law Faculty Publications

The economic crisis that began in 2008 led many states and localities to look for ways to reduce labor costs, which form a substantial portion of government budgets. Some state legislatures focused on collective bargaining laws, with Wisconsin being the most high profile example. Along with the restrictions on bargaining, a number of states moved to limit the collection of union dues. The limitations were not across the board, but primarily directed at either political expenditures of unions or at particular unions, most commonly education unions. Not surprisingly, the laws enacted were immediately subjected to legal challenge sinceunions, like every …

General Knit Revives Hollywood Ceramics; The Nlrb Again Prohibits Campaign Misrepresentations, Dwight Tracy Shaw

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Muko And Conex: The Third Circuit Responds To Connell , Robert A. King, Melvin L. Moser

Pepperdine Law Review

The authors discuss the application of federal antitrust laws to organized labor. The article, written for practitioners, defines the elements necessary to obtain a recovery in labor antitrust actions. The authors analyze the standard of review, burden of proof and the elements which the unions must show in order to be exempted from antitrust law. The focal point of the article is the comparison between the Supreme Court's most recent discussion of the labor exemption in Connell Construction Co. v. Plumbers & Steamfitters Local Union 100 and the Third Circuit's application of that exemption in Larry V. Muko v. Southwestern …

From Coolidge To Christie: Historical Antecedents Of Current Government Officials Dealing With Public Sector Labor Unions, Bryan J. Soukup

Law Student Publications

One might ask: what do Calvin Coolidge, Ronald Reagan, Scott Walker and Chris Christie have in common? The most obvious answer is that they all are (or were) Republican Governors, but these four men have something much deeper in common. All four have faced-off against powerful public sector labor unions and won. This paper will address and examine the similarities between the anti-union actions taken by these men— Coolidge and the Boston Police Strike of 1919, Reagan and the Professional Air Traffic Controllers (“PATCO”) Strike of 1981, and Walker and Christie’s recent dealings with public employee unions. In the end, …

California Ex Rel. Harris V. Safeway, Inc.: Mismanaging The Intersection Of Antitrust And Labor Law, Peter L. Cooch

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Public-Sector Unions, Public Employees: May You Live In Interesting Times, Anne M. Lofaso

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Continuing The White-Collar Unionization Movement: Imagining A Private Attorneys’ Union, Kimberly Y. Chin

Pace Law Review

Given the still-rebounding legal market and the secrecy that characterized the employment decisions at many of the nation’s top law firms during the height of attorney layoffs, this Article imagines the formation of private attorney labor unions as a possible solution. Part I briefly discusses the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, the primary piece of legislation that governs employees’ right to organize and collectively bargain, focusing primarily on who is covered with particular attention placed on the inclusion of professional employees. Part II introduces an understanding of white-collar professionals as a distinct economic class, highlighting specifically its similarities and …

Before Wisconsin And Ohio: The Quiet Success Of Card-Check Organizing In The Public Sector, Rafael Gely, Timothy D. Chandler

Faculty Publications

Card-check laws, which have been unsuccessfully pursued by private-sector unions, mandate that employers recognize the union as the representative of employees on the basis of signed authorization cards without reliance on a representation election. Card check authorization benefits unions because it short circuits the usual organizing process by eliminating the union's need to further prove majority support in a secret ballot election.' But by doing so, it imposes costs on employers by restricting their efforts to erode union support through aggressive campaign tactics. Our paper seeks to better understand the development of these laws and their effects, and in that …

Mexico's Dilemma: Workers' Rights Or Workers' Comparative Advantage In The Age Of Globalization?, Ranko Shiraki Oliver

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Sheathed Sword: Union Efficacy In Nonbargaining States, Ann C. Hodges

Law Faculty Publications

Section I of this article briefly reviews the law in Virginia and North Carolina. Section II examines, in detail, many of the strategies and tactics unions have utilized, both successfully and unsuccessfully, in Virginia and North Carolina. Section III discusses the overwhelming challenges that public-sector unions, despite their success, still face under the laws and political climate in hostile states. Finally, section IV offers a brief analysis of how unions in other states that prohibit or severely limit collective bargaining can emulate their successes and learn from their failures.

The Sheathed Sword: Public-Sector Union Efficacy In Non-Bargaining States, William Warwick

Law Student Publications

Section I of this article briefly reviews the law in Virginia and North Carolina. Section II examines, in detail, many of the strategies and tactics unions have utilized, both successfully and unsuccessfully, in Virginia and North Carolina. Section III discusses the overwhelming challenges that public-sector unions, despite their success, still face under the laws and political climate in hostile states. Finally, *277 section IV offers a brief analysis of how unions in other states that prohibit or severely limit collective bargaining can emulate their successes and learn from their failures.

Card-Check Laws And Public-Sector Union Membership In The States, Rafael Gely, Timothy D. Chandler

Faculty Publications

We examine the impact of state card-check legislation on public-sector union membership. Based on an empirical analysis of data from 2000 to 2009, a time during which eight states enacted card-check legislation for public employees, we find significantly higher levels of public-sector union membership for states that passed card-check legislation in years after the laws were enacted relative to states that did not pass such laws. Moreover, average public-sector union membership increased for the states that passed card-check legislation after the laws were passed relative to their precard-check law union-membership levels.

Non-Majority Union Representation Conforms To Ilo Freedom Of Association Principles And (Potentially) Promotes Inter-Union Collaboration: New Zealand Lessons For Canada, Mark Harcourt, Helen Lam

Dalhousie Law Journal

North American union certification violates workers' freedom of association, a fundamental human right well established by the International Labour Organization (ILO); by denying workers the right to be represented when a majority of their co-workers does not favour a union. In Canada, the Supreme Court has drawn on ILO standards to recognize a constitutional right to bargain collectively and organize as part of freedom of association under section 2(d) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. However, such recognition of the ILO principles has, as yet, to translate into legislation that would provide non-exclusive, non-majority union representation, at least in …

Work, Caregiving, And Masculinities, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

In her book Reshaping the Work-Family Debate, Joan Williams demonstrates the vulnerability of parent workers in working class America. In Chapter 2, "One Sick Child Away from Being Fired," she examines the records of ninety-nine union arbitrations to analyze the problems of working class parents who struggle to juggle their working and parenting responsibilities. Because this chapter is a tour de force in an overall excellent book, and because it suggests an area that Professor McGinley's research has focused on over the past number of years, in this Essay, Professor McGinley limits her discussion almost exclusively to this chapter. …

Organizing Principles: The Significance Of Card-Checks Laws, Rafael Gely, Timothy D. Chandler

Faculty Publications

The use of “card checks” as a method of union organizing has recently garnered a lot of attention, much of it surrounding the proposed Employee Free Choice Act. If passed, this legislation would amend the National Labor Relations Act by requiring employers to recognize a union when the employer is presented with evidence of majority support for union recognition via union authorization cards. Although the proposed bill has had difficulty gaining traction in the U.S. Congress, several states have recently passed similar legislation covering state and local public employees. In this article, we compare card-check organizing by public sector employees …

Promoting Employee Voice In The American Economy: A Call For Comprehensive Reform, Kenneth G. Dau-Schmidt

Articles by Maurer Faculty

It has become apparent that there are serious deficiencies in the American model of production. Our model of corporate governance has recently come under intense scrutiny in the academic literature and the popular press. There are increasing concerns that American corporations are too focused on short-run profits and stock prices, at the expense of long-term strategies and investments that would benefit the long-run value of the firm, employees, and the American economy at large. In the pursuit of short-run shareholder interests, American corporations have bestowed on senior executives enormous compensation packages that seem increasingly divorced from any notion of rationality, …

Yes, Labor Markets Are Flawed--But So Is The Economic Case For Mandating Employee Voice In Corporate Governance, Scott A. Moss

Publications

No abstract provided.

Temporarily Unchained: The Drive To Unionize Foreign Seasonal Agricultural Workers In Canada – A Comment On Greenway Farms And Ufcw, Robert Russo

All Faculty Publications

A Case Comment on Greenway Farms and UFCW

Section 8(F) Prehire Agreements And The Exception To Majority Representation: Are Construction Workers Getting The Shaft?, Desiree Leclercq

Scholarly Works

Congress has neglected the federal labor rights of construction workers for half a century. Back in 1959, Congress addressed the needs of construction workers and attempted to ensure that those workers, who were hired by construction employers for erratic and short periods of time, retained the right to organize in unions. To that end, Congress added section 8(f) to the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA"), authorizing construction employers and unions to enter voluntarily into prehire collective bargaining agreements covering construction workers. Additionally, Congress included a proviso permitting employers to require, as a condition of employment, that their employees join the …

Card Check Recognition: New House Rules For Union Organizing?, Rafael Gely, Timothy D. Chandler

Faculty Publications

A significant policy debate has been occurring regarding union organizing methods in the United States. This debate focuses on the appropriateness of granting union recognition based on majority support as demonstrated by union authorization card signatures, also known as “card checking.” Critics describe the practice as anathema to basic democratic principles and accuse unions of wanting to deal from the bottom of the deck to secure undeserved representation of employees. Proponents of card check recognition argue that reliance on National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) organizing procedures fails to protect employees' rights to organize, and forces unions to compete against a …

Don't Mourn --- Reorganize! An Introduction To The Next Wave Organizing Symposium Issue, Seth Harris

ExpressO

On January 27 and 28, 2005, New York Law School’s Labor & Employment Law Program, in cooperation with the Justice Action Center and the Institute for Information Law & Policy, presented the Next Wave Organizing Symposium. The Symposium brought together worker organizers, trade union officials, technologists, students, and scholars in law, industrial relations, economics, public policy, and other fields to tell the story of how, despite all of the forces arrayed against them, workers are organizing.

This article is the introduction to the Next Wave Organizing Symposium issue of the New York Law School Law Review. The purpose of the …