Deck 4: Labor Law

Question 1

A Kenyan proverb states, "When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers." How is U.S. labor law premised on this belief? Describe specific provisions in the U.S. labor law that is intended to address this concern.

Answer 1

When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers is a Kenyan proverb which is true in context of the workers, union, management and government. The objective of labor laws is to balance the bargaining power between employees and employers. The laws principally deal with the relationship between unions and employers. Labor laws grant employees the right to unionize and allow employees and employers to involve in particular activities (e.g. picketing, strikes, lookouts and seeking injunctions, and lockouts) so as to have their demands fulfilled. Although union and workers find themselves in loss whenever a fight occur regarding the rights. Sometimes it is the labor that forgets its sole purpose and sometimes management turns out obstinate towards its policies and decisions.
State and Federal laws defend workforces from employment, on grounds of gender, race, religion, age and national origin. It gives them right to unionize or un-unionized themselves. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) institutes overtime rights and minimum wage rights for most private sector workers, with a number of exceptions and exemptions.

Question 2

Outline the arguments in support of the Taft-Hartley Act. Outline the opposing arguments.

Answer 2

The Taft-Hartley Act is a US centralized law that limits the power and activities of industry unions. It became rule by overwhelming the veto of President H. S. Truman. It was perceived as a means of dismissing the workers undertaking by daunting limits on abilities of workers to attack and by barring extremists from their management. The Taft-Hartley Act banned strikes of jurisdictional, wildcat, political or solidarity strikes, subordinate and bulk enclosing, secondary boycotts, closed shops, and financial aids by unions to centralized radical movements. It also mandated union majors to sign non-communist affirmations with the administration. Furthermore, the federal government's executive branch could acquire legal injunction of strikebreaking if a current or an impending strike exposed the safety or national health, an examination that has, unfortunately, been interpreted largely by the courts.

Question 3

S. politics the Democratic party has generally been more supportive of labor unions than the Republican party. Explain why it makes sense that the Wagner Act was sponsored by a Democrat, the Taft-Hartley Act by two Republicans, and the Landrum-Griffin Act by one of each.

Answer 3

In all the assemblies of Democratic coalition, labor remains the one with the greatest organizational strength and ground force and which signifies a constituency rather than precise issues (like the environment) that can help Democrats endure a comprehensive coalition. Democrats can't bear to lose the enthusiastic support of organized labor. It is also true that the unions provide nearly all the money Democrats use for political campaigns for election to public office.
The Wagner Act sponsored by Senator Robert Wagner, a New York based Democrat, established by the federal government as the ultimate arbiter and regulator of labor relations. The act barred employers from involving in such unfair labor practices as firing, discriminating or setting up a company union against workers who organized or joined unions. It established a permanent, three-member National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with the power to encourage collective bargaining and to defend the right of most workers to organize unions of their own.
The Taft-Hartley Act was co-sponsored by Republican Senators Fred Hartley of New Jersey and Robert Taft of Ohio. This Act reserved the features of the previous Wagner Act but supplemented to it in ways extensively interpreted as anti-labor. Labor leaders called it a bill of "slave labor".
Landrum-Griffin Act formally called as the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (1959), a response of legislature to extensive publicity about autocratic method and corruption in certain American labor unions during the 1950s. The McClellan committee and president Dwight Eisenhower, which had inspected ties between organized crime and labor, insisted on a law to put affairs of internal union on a democratic and more honest basis. Thus, the Landrum-Griffin Act introduced federal penalties for labor officials who had been found guilty of specific crimes, who misused union funds, or who had violently prevented union members from exercising their legal rights. 

Question 4

One of the main tasks of the NLRB is applying the facts of a certain case to the general principles of the NLRA to determine if an unfair labor practice has been committed. To gain a greater understanding of this process, answer the questions in the "Labor Law Discussion" cases that follow.

Question 5

In both the private and public sectors, a sharp increase in union membership coincides with the passage of protective legislation. A longstanding debate is whether increased demand for unionization causes new legislation or vice versa. Explain how causality can work in both directions. In which direction is labor law more important? Which direction do you think is more realistic?

Question 6

Draw pictures to represent the NLRA's employer and union unfair labor practices.

Question 7

Reconsider the examples of protected and unprotected concerted activity in "Take the Section 7 Quiz." Explain how each tries to balance property rights and labor rights.