By reducing this cost, the results of returning to a pre-NLRA market-supported structure may be somewhat unexpected.
My recent guest-post on changing the NLRA received some pushback that I would like to address.
How to change the NLRA going forward to remedy this failure, however, is a topic open for debate.
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) has a provision that may be the best kept secret in labor law.
FORBES: A Deep Secret That Labor Unions Don't Want Workers to Know
However, prior to the NLRA, unions gained recognition through economic power in numbers.
Without the threat of businesses outsourcing based on choice of law, unions prospered under the NLRA in a primarily domestic marketplace.
Prior to the NLRA, unions gained power by applying enough economic pressure through collective action to bring employers to the bargaining table.
The NLRA was an attempt to create fairer labor markets by shifting bargaining power from the employers to the employees through statutory regulation.
In general, these external factors are a problem for unionism by themselves, but the current state of the NLRA has magnified their effect.
Under the NLRA today, a majority-supported union is given stringent rights regardless of the economic consequences, which can make unionization costly for business owners.
The main part of this critique was that the use of economic power was unsuccessful prior to the NLRA. This is only half-true.
In deciding that the Code of Conduct complied with the NLRA, the General Counsel considered the Code within the overall context of the Ethical Guidelines.
FORBES: NLRB Grounds Union Challenge to Boeing's Code of Conduct
The argument that the NLRA has failed is not a novel point I am making, rather it is supported by labor academics from various perspectives.
Because union membership under the NLRA cannot withstand the external pressure of a globalized economy it appears the NLRA has failed in the long run.
It is true that unions struggled prior to the NLRA to gain recognition, however, the reason is not because of a lack of economic power.
Under the NLRA, after impasse, employers are permitted to implement changes.
Immediately following the enactment of the NLRA, union membership grew precipitously.
Once companies increased mobility, the NLRA became less effective as jobs could be more easily outsourced to other countries without the same legal restraints as before.
The main concern of union organizers and proponents of the NLRA with this proposal would be how to gain power and get employers to the bargaining table.
The ability of unions to generate real market power on their own today may not be as strong as it was prior to the NLRA because of globalization.
Under the NLRA, a union supported by a majority of employees is able to represent all the employees in a bargaining unit regardless of their support of the union.
Ironically, the fact that courts often interfered with non-violent labor disputes in the pre-NLRA era does not diminish my argument for the strength of economic power, but enforces it.
On the other hand, I do believe without the NLRA worker organizations would still exist, and this law limits somewhat the contracts that firms and workers can enter into.
Private sector workers around the nation already have the de-authorization option available to them through the NLRA. However, the average worker does not know about these rights.
FORBES: A Deep Secret That Labor Unions Don't Want Workers to Know
But the Times points out that the NLRB is pushing companies to rewrite their restrictive policies, believing that the NLRA protects employees who want to discuss work conditions openly without fearing sanction.
These sections of the NLRA limit not only the employers ability to access the labor market, but also the employees ability to negotiate on his or her own behalf with the employer.
The impact of globalization on the decline in private unionization has led me to conclude that unions can only survive if they are liberated from NLRA clauses that restrict both employees and employers.
The union filed an unfair labor practice charge against the company, and the NLRB, in a split decision, ruled that the company had violated the NLRA by refusing to give the financial statement to the union.
FORBES: Court Overturns NLRB; Protects Company's Confidential Financial Information
Freeman in his paper What Can We Learn from NLRA to Create Labor Law for the 21st Century?. As Freeman points out, Canada allows for such organizations while providing legal protections for the employees involved.
Note: Be sure not to infringe on employees rights under Section 7 of the NLRA. Section 7 is about employee rights to self-organization and collective bargaining and also allows for employees to discuss things with each other, such as wages or other working conditions.
FORBES: A Primer on How to Create A Sound Social Media Policy
应用推荐