DOCSLIB.ORG

Rebalancing Economic and Political Power: a Clean Slate for the Future of American Labor Law

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Rebalancing Economic and Political Power: a Clean Slate for the Future of American Labor Law Rebalancing Economic and Political Power: A Clean Slate for the Future of American Labor Law Literature Review Memo WG III: Collective Action 1. Introduction Working group III is focused on law’s relationship to workers’ freedom to fight for change in their workplaces and beyond. Our vision is that law should protect workers’ political and social engagement, a concept that includes workers’ collective advocacy for workplace and broader social change, free from employer interference. More specifically, we are tasked with considering what forms of collective action can empower workers, including striking, picketing, and boycotting; and collective action in cyberspace. We think of “workers” broadly, including public sector workers, agricultural and domestic workers, independent contractors, supervisors, etc., although the scope of who is covered by labor law is mainly the purview of other working groups. This literature review mainly relies on case studies to discuss how US labor law inhibits and empowers workers’ collective action. Group III RAs Rio Scharf and Joey Cherney have drafted a memo discussing our main case studies in depth; this memo references but does not duplicate their work, and so the two documents should be read together. 2. Under current labor law, workers’ legitimate targets for collective action to improve working conditions are too limited. a. Introduction During our December working group meeting, group members and others seemed enthusiastic about removing the current barriers that workers face in choosing targets of collective action. One option would be to simply remove all legal barriers to workers’ collective action, so that practical constraints on workers’ resources and attention to act as the only limits on the workers’ collective action. Alternatively, we could explore a middle ground that would ensure that workers can target their “economic employers” – entities that have the market power to set wages & working conditions. For example, Mark Barenberg has argued for reform so that “an entity would be deemed an ‘indirect employer’ of a given employee if it has ‘sufficient bargaining power’ (vis-à-vis the direct employer) to determine the employee’s ‘terms and conditions of employment.”1 Or, more simply, “an entity is an indirect employer if, 1 http://rooseveltinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Widening-the-Scope-of-Worker- Organizing.pdf 1 Research Draft prepared for Clean Slate Project - Not for Circulation, Citation, or Attribution assuming it had the will to do so, it could approach the direct employer and successfully insist that the direct employer agree to terms and conditions of employment specified by the entity.”2 b. Example cases i. CIW, Justice for Janitors: Successful campaigns that focus on rate-setters & take labor out of competition The Coalition of Immokalee Workers Fair Food Campaign and Program illustrates the importance of targeting rate-setters, which often are not the employers of the relevant employees.3 The CIW launched its Campaign for Fair Food in 2001, with the goal of convincing large buyers – McDonalds, Sodexo, Walmart, and others – to pay one penny per pound more for tomatoes, on the condition that growers comply with the fair Food Code of Conduct.4 This campaign succeeded despite dire working conditions and legal disadvantages facing workers: some workers were survivors of human trafficking who worked in conditions that amounted to involuntary servitude; many were immigrants who spoke either Spanish or indigenous languages and therefore could not always easily communicate with each other or with consumers; and the NLRA’s exclusion of agricultural laborers (and absence of state-level protections for farmworkers’ collective action) meant that workers would have little legal recourse if they were fired in retaliation for their activism. The CIW began its innovative focus on large buyers just as those buyers were accumulating more market power through consolidations, and as increasing gas prices increased cost pressures on growers.5 The CIW’s key insights were that if large buyers could depress wages they could also raise them; and that those large buyers (unlike growers) were household names that cared deeply about their brand image and therefore could be influenced by consumer-focused publicity campaigns. Accordingly, the CIW began this stage of its work by calling for a consumer boycott of Taco Bell. This stage of the campaign involved a multi-city publicity effort that involved customers, shareholders (about 40 percent of whom voted in favor of “resolutions supporting the CIW”, and allied social movement and religious groups.6 It succeeded four years later, with Taco Bell agreeing to work with CIW to improve farmworkers’ wages and working conditions. CIW then replicated this strategy with McDonalds, and then with other brands. 2 Id.; see also Brishen Rogers, Libertarian Corporatism is not an Oxymoron, 94 TEX. L. REV. 1623 (2016) (arguing that an agency could be delegated authority to “determine whether a lead firm is an appropriate bargaining partner with a union representing workers within its supply chain.” 3 There are several other important aspects of the Fair Food Campaign & Program, and the CIW’s work more generally, such as its “popular education” strategy that brings workers together to talk about their lived experiences and strategize potential solutions to shared problems. Susan L. Marquis, I Am Not a Tractor 21; see also Manoj Dias-Abey, Justice on our Fields: Can Alt-Labor Organizations Improve Migrant Farm Workers’ Conditions?, 53 HARV. CR-CL L. REV. 167 (2018) (discussing CIW’s work and situating it against that of other farmworker justice organizations). This memo focuses mainly on the CIW’s campaign to encourage large buyers to require growers to sign on to the Fair Food Program; it does not discuss either CIW’s other activities, or potential legal barriers to replicating CIW’s model that do not bear directly on workers’ collective action. Cf. Heather M. Whitney, Rethinking the Ban on Employer-Labor Organization Cooperation, 37 CARDOZO L. REV. 1455 (2016) (discussing that because CIW is not a “labor organization,” it may accept money from employers). 4 http://www.fairfoodstandards.org/resources/fair-food-code-of-conduct/. The Code of Conduct governs when, how, and how much workers will be paid; health and safety measures, and more. It also establishes an enforcement mechanism. 5 Marquis at 47. 6 Id. at 64-65. 2 Research Draft prepared for Clean Slate Project - Not for Circulation, Citation, or Attribution As brands started signing on to work with CIW, the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange responded with collective action of its own: it “agreed to a $100,000 fine for every instance of any member grower cooperating with the CIW and the Fair Food Program.”7 The FTGE also claimed that participating in the program violated antitrust law, and raised the specter of other legal problems.8 It then attempted to start its own competitor labor standards verification organization – though that effort fell apart when brands decided to stick with CIW.9 In short, the CIW’s ability to organize brands through relentless, nationwide collective action was critical to overcoming the resistance of the FTGE and its member growers. The Fair Food Program emerged after several years of more traditional collective action that had resulted in some successes, but little enduring change. The CIW had “organized community-wide strikes and work stoppages to pressure Florida growers to increase the tomato harvesting piece rates,” and worked with the Department of Justice on forced labor cases.10 But while that “burst of activity brought new visibility to Florida’s farmworkers, and even succeeded in eliminating proposed wage cuts and the most egregious abuses in the fields, the CIW was unable to significantly raise wages across the board or to even compel growers to join its members at the negotiating table.”11 It was not until the CIW focused on the large buyers that exerted downward pressure on prices (and by extension wages and working conditions) that their campaign succeeded in creating enduring structural improvements for workers. Justice for Janitors began in 1986 in Pittsburgh, and quickly spread. Like the CIW, J4J realized that the customers that hired the small, often fly-by-night companies for which they worked held most of the power over janitors’ wages and working conditions; moreover, if a subcontractor’s workers voted to unionize, its customers could simply move on to another subcontractor.12 Also like the Florida farmworkers, the janitors involved in J4J were a largely immigrant workforce. J4J relied on collective action aimed at building owners and tenants to use union contractors, and to convince janitorial companies to accept neutrality and card check agreements.13 These actions included public-facing actions, civil disobedience, and strikes, including a 1990 strike in during which Century City police brutally attacked strikers; the televised attack ultimately galvanized support for the janitors in Los Angeles and beyond.14 As Erik Loomis recounts, “by 2000, the Justice for Janitors campaign had organized janitors around the country, with companies seeking to sign new contracts in order to stave off bad publicity SEIU had successfully used in Los Angeles and elsewhere.” The result was master contracts that applied to organized employers throughout Los Angeles and other cities. Unlike the CIW, the janitors were employees covered by the NLRA, and the SEIU is a “labor organization.” Among other things, this meant that the janitors had to contend with Section 8(b)(4) of the NLRA. As Erickson et al. explained, “many janitors work in office buildings where there are a number of employers. As a result, protests outside the building may be deemed to be pressure against employers other than the janitors’ own. Second, janitors might be prohibited from pressuring building owners because the 7 Id. at 76. 8 Id. 9 Id. at 92. 10 Greg Asbed & Sean Sellers, The Fair Food Program: Comprehensive, Verifiable and Sustainable Change for Farmworkers, 16 Penn.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Tort Liability of Labor Unions for Picket Line Assaults
    University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Volume 10 1977 Tort Liability of Labor Unions for Picket Line Assaults David R. Case University of Michigan Law School Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjlr Part of the Labor and Employment Law Commons, Legal Remedies Commons, Legislation Commons, and the Torts Commons Recommended Citation David R. Case, Tort Liability of Labor Unions for Picket Line Assaults, 10 U. MICH. J. L. REFORM 517 (1977). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjlr/vol10/iss3/7 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. TORT LIABILITY OF LABOR UNIONS FOR PICKET LINE ASSAULTS In the tense and volatile atmosphere that accompanies labor disputes, no situation is more likely to produce violence than the picket line. The confrontation of antagonistic parties at the picket line enhances the possibility of personal assaults. Although as­ saults by pickets will usually be unfair labor practices,1 the Na­ tional Labor Relations Act (NLRA) 2 does not provide a mechanism for fully compensating the victims of such assaults. 3 In addition, those who commit picket line assaults will often be judgment-proof. 4 Thus, in order to secure adequate compensation for their injuries, the victims of picket line assaults must be able to attach tort liability to labor unions.
    [Show full text]
  • The 2017 ITUC Global Rights Index the WORLD's WORST
    THE WORLD'S WORST COUNTRIES FOR WORKERS The 2017 ITUC Global Rights Index | 4 The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is a confederation of national trade union centres, each of which links trade unions of that particular country. It was established on 1 November 2006, bringing together the organisations which were formerly affiliated to the ICFTU and WCL (both now dissolved) as well as a number of national trade union centres which had no international affiliation at the time. The new Confederation has 340 affiliated organisations in 163 countries and territories on all five continents, with a membership of 181 million, 40 per cent of whom are women. It is also a partner in “Global Unions” together with the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD and the Global Union Federations (GUFs) which link together national unions from a particular trade or industry at international level. The ITUC has specialised offices in a number of countries around the world, and has General Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The 2017 ITUC Global Rights Index | 6 Foreword .............................................9 ASIA .................................................. 70 Bangladesh ....................................... 71 Part I ..................................................13 Cambodia .......................................... 71 The 2017 Results ...............................14 China ................................................ 72 The ITUC Global Rights Index ...............19 Fiji
    [Show full text]
  • May Made Me an Oral History of the 1968 Uprising in France
    May Made Me An Oral History of the 1968 Uprising in France Mitchell Abidor 2018 Contents Acknowledgements 4 Abbreviations 5 Timeline of Events in 1968 6 CHAPTER ONE. Introduction: May ’68 Revisited 8 CHAPTER TWO. Veterans in the Struggle 19 JEAN-JACQUES LEBEL ................................... 19 ALAIN KRIVINE ....................................... 27 PRISCA BACHELET ..................................... 35 HENRI SIMON ........................................ 41 CHAPTER THREE. Students in Paris 48 SUZANNE BORDE ...................................... 48 ISABELLE SAINT-SAËNS .................................. 53 INTERLUDE: SONIA FAYMAN—A DUTIFUL DAUGHTER IN MAY . 58 JEAN-PIERRE FOURNIER .................................. 58 PAULINE STEINER ..................................... 64 PIERRE MERCIER ...................................... 67 CHAPTER FOUR. May Outside Paris 70 JACQUES WAJNSZTEJN .................................. 70 JOSEPH POTIRON ...................................... 76 GUY, BERNARD, DOMINIQUE ............................... 80 MYRIAM CHÉDOTAL AND ELIANE PAUL-DI VICENZO . 89 JEAN-MICHEL RABATÉ .................................. 96 JOSÉ AND HÉLÈNE CHATROUSSAT . 101 CHAPTER FIVE. May and Film 108 MICHEL ANDRIEU ..................................... 108 PASCAL AUBIER AND BERNARD EISENSCHITZ . 115 CHAPTER SIX. Some Anarchists 122 DANIEL PINOS ....................................... 122 WALLY ROSELL ....................................... 129 THIERRY PORRÉ ...................................... 136 About the Author 142 2 People
    [Show full text]
  • Latino Immigrant Civic Engagement in Nine US Cities
    CONTEXT MATTERS: Latino Immigrant Civic Engagement in Nine U.S. Cities Series on LatIno ImmIGrant CIVIC enGAGEment charlotte, nc • chicago, il • fresno, ca • las vegas, nv • los angeles, ca • omaha, ne • san jose, ca • tucson, az • washington, dc CONTEXT MATTERS: LatINO ImmIGrant CIVIC ENGAGement IN NIne U.S. CITIes Series on Latino Immigrant Civic Engagement Authors: Xóchitl Bada University of Illinois at Chicago Jonathan Fox University of California, Santa Cruz Robert Donnelly Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Mexico Institute Andrew Selee Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Mexico Institute Authors: Xóchitl Bada, Jonathan Fox, Robert Donnelly, and Andrew Selee Series Editors: Xóchitl Bada, Jonathan Fox, and Andrew Selee Coordinators: Kate Brick and Robert Donnelly Translator: Mauricio Sánchez Álvarez Preferred citation: Xóchitl Bada, Jonathan Fox, Robert Donnelly, and Andrew Selee. Context Matters: Latino Immigrant Civic Engagement in Nine U.S. Cities, Reports on Latino Immigrant Civic Engagement, National Report. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, April 2010. © 2010, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Cover image: Upper photo: Demonstrating against HR 4437 and the criminalization of the undocumented, thousands of immigrants and supporters filled the streets of Los Angeles two times on May 1, 2006—first, with a march downtown; then, with another through the Wilshire District’s Miracle Mile, where this photo was taken. Chants heard included, “¡Aquí estamos y no nos vamos!” Photo by David Bacon. Used by permission. Lower photo: Naturalization rates of Latin America-born immigrants, particularly Mexicans, increased sharply over 1995-2005 for a variety of reasons. Photo of a naturalization ceremony by David McNew/Getty Images News.
    [Show full text]
  • Resisting Anti-Union Violence Report 2018 - 2019 for the Truth HONDURAS and Justice!
    Resisting anti-union violence Report 2018 - 2019 For the truth HONDURAS and justice! Resisting anti-union violence Report 2018 - 2019 HONDURAS Table of contents Presentation 7 1. About the Network 8 2. Context 9 Socioeconomic Reality in Numbers 10 Human Rights 3. Anti-union Violence 12 12 13 3.33.1 DocumentedAnti-union Violence: Cases a definition of the concept 13 3.2SITRATERCO The Case of Honduras 13 SINDICATO DE TRABAJADORES/AS DE LA AGROINDUSTRIA Y SIMILARES (STAS) (SITRAINFOP) DEPARTAMENTSindicato de Trabajadores OF COLON del Instituto Nacional de Formacion Profesional (SITRASEMCA) IselaSindicato Juarez de and Trabajadores Esly Banegas de Servicios Municipales, Comunales y Afines Labor Activist Miguel Angel Lopez 4. -union Violence in Numbers 26 28 Cases and Victims by Year: 2015 – February 2019 32 Gender of the Victims Final Considerations 33 Recommendations 34 Presentation The Red Contra la Violencia Antisindical [Network Against Anti-Union Violence] is an organization of members of the Honduran Trade Union Movement (General Confederation of Workers - CGT, United Confederation of Honduran Workers - CUTH, Confederation of Honduran Workers - CTH) and labor activists from various parts of Honduras. Today, for the fourth consecutive year, the network presents our annual report, Defending the Right to Freedom of Association: Honduras, 2018-2019. This report details specific information on anti-union violence in Honduras referring to the cases documented and accompanied by this organization during the period of February 2018 to February 2019. The report is composed of four sections: a general description of the context facing considerationsHonduran society, and the recommendations conceptual definition to the of trade‘anti-union union violence’, movement details and 07 of the cases of documented anti-union violence, and finally, a section of the government of Honduras.
    [Show full text]
  • Soros Foundations Network Report
    2 0 0 7 OSI MISSION SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK REPORT C O V E R P H O T O G R A P H Y Burmese monks, normally the picture of calm The Open Society Institute works to build vibrant and reflection, became symbols of resistance in and tolerant democracies whose governments SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK REPORT 2007 2007 when they joined demonstrations against are accountable to their citizens. To achieve its the military government’s huge price hikes mission, OSI seeks to shape public policies that on fuel and subsequently the regime’s violent assure greater fairness in political, legal, and crackdown on the protestors. Thousands of economic systems and safeguard fundamental monks were arrested and jailed. The Democratic rights. On a local level, OSI implements a range Voice of Burma, an Open Society Institute of initiatives to advance justice, education, grantee, helped journalists smuggle stories out public health, and independent media. At the of Burma. OSI continues to raise international same time, OSI builds alliances across borders awareness of conditions in Burma and to support and continents on issues such as corruption organizations seeking to transform Burma from and freedom of information. OSI places a high a closed to an open society. more on page 91 priority on protecting and improving the lives of marginalized people and communities. more on page 143 www.soros.org SOROS FOUNDATIONS NETWORK REPORT 2007 Promoting vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens ABOUT THIS REPORT The Open Society Institute and the Soros foundations network spent approximately $440,000,000 in 2007 on improving policy and helping people to live in open, democratic societies.
    [Show full text]
  • Groups Pushing an Anti American Agenda That Are Receiving Support from Soros
    GROUPS PUSHING AN ANTI AMERICAN AGENDA THAT ARE RECEIVING SUPPORT FROM SOROS Many protests and riots were uncovered to have consisted of paid individuals, some of whom had no affinity for the cause or even knew much about what they were protesting. The groups have a common organizer, Soros, who was either a founder or financial supporter or influencer. We have names of global companies, tax exempt entities, non government organizations (NGOs), media affiliations, owners, founders, members, supporters, vendors, contractors, attorneys, accountants, banks, U.S. government affiliations and foreign government affiliations. Many of the groups were formed to pretend to be supportive of particular causes that are contrary to the ideology of the subversive groups so the bad actors could infiltrate including placing their own regimented personnel and making demands before they contributed funds. Advancement Project Air America Radio Al Haq All of Us or None Alliance For Global Justice Alliance For Justice America Coming Together America Votes America’s Voice American Bar Association Commission on Immigration Policy American Bridge 21st Century America Civil Liberties Unions American Constitution Society American Family Voices American Federation of Techers American Friends Service Committee American Immigration Council American Immigration Law Foundation American Independent News Network American Institute For Social Justice American Library Association American Prospect INC Applied Research Center Arab American Institute Aspen Institute ACORN Ballot
    [Show full text]
  • The Crime of Staging an Effective Strike and the Enduring Role of Criminal Law in Modern Labor Relations
    Workingusa The Journal of Labor and Society THE CRIME OF STAGING AN EFFECTIVE STRIKE AND THE ENDURING ROLE OF CRIMINAL LAW IN MODERN LABOR RELATIONS Ahmed A. White This article concerns the role of criminal law in modern, post-New Deal labor relations. I emphasize the continuing function of the criminal law in limiting basic labor rights (to organize, strike, and provoke collective bargaining) as reflected in several common practices: the prosecution of labor organizing and protest activity as crimes; the persistent use of injunctions by the courts to curtail labor rights; and the indirect use of the criminal law by the courts and the NLRB to define unfair labor practices and to limit the scope of worker protections under the labor law. I hope to show how these functions reflect both change and continuity relative to the criminal law in pre-New Deal times. The modern criminal law’s labor-repressive functions are far less crude and overt, and administered in a far more professional fashion, than in the days when criminal conspiracy, syndicalism, and vagrancy laws, for example, were used so extensively and blatantly to undermine labor rights. And rather than simply destroying labor rights, these functions operate alongside, and are incorporated into, a body of labor law designed to protect labor rights. On the one hand, this shift has been of real benefit to labor, allowing workers and organizers much more freedom in their struggles with employers. On the other hand, I argue, modern criminal law still plays a significant role in limiting labor rights. The very factors that now ease the criminal law’s impact on workers—the subtlety, professionalism, and procedural regularity with which it is applied, and its coexistence alongside a functional system of labor laws—also obscure and rationalize its real effects on labor rights, making it easier for governments to use the criminal law against labor and harder for labor activists to challenge such practices.
    [Show full text]
  • 5/Groups/Public/---Ed Norm/---Relconf/Documents/Meetingdocument/Wcms 153533.Pdf, Paragraphs 727-903
    Fair Labor Association Op Memo: Freedom of Association: Monitoring Against Protection Contracts in Mexico Author: CIMP Date: February 14, 2012 Audience: FLA Staff, Constituencies, and Board of Updated: Directors Background The use of “protection contracts” in Mexico to limit workers’ right to freedom of association and collective bargaining is an endemic practice that contravenes ILO’s Conventions 87 and 98 and FLA Workplace Code of Conduct and Monitoring Benchmarks.1 An employer protection collective agreement (generally known as a protection contract) typically takes the form of an agreement between an employer and either the representative of a “ghost” (or yellow) union or a lawyer who has created such a union that purports to be a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). These agreements typically are done without the knowledge or consent of workers. In some instances, protection contracts are drawn up prior to the hiring of any workers at a facility, and are intended to prevent the negotiation of a CBA in the future by an independent union.2 Protection contracts generally reproduce requirements of the labor law and do not contain additional benefits to workers that would be expected from a collective negotiation. An added element of protection contracts are “exclusion clauses.” Exclusion clauses are roughly akin to closed shop agreements, but in the Mexico context, union membership is required for workers to obtain employment at the facility and membership must be maintained. In other words, workers may be fired for establishing or joining an organization that is not the union holding title to the (protection) contract. In February 2009, the International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), with backing from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and five Mexican union confederations, filed a complaint before the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association challenging the compatibility of the Mexican practice of protection contracts with the principles of ILO Convention 87.
    [Show full text]
  • South African Labour-Community Alliances to Promote Public Services
    South African labour-community alliances to promote public services Dr. Dale T. McKinley MUNCIPAL SERVICES PROJECT DRAFT PAPER Not for citation or circulation without permission from the author 0 Table of Contents Executive Summary __________________________________________________________________ 2 Introduction ________________________________________________________________________ 4 Core context ___________________________________________________________________ 4 Paper purpose and structure ______________________________________________________ 5 Methodology and limitations _____________________________________________________ 6 Labour and community in neoliberal transition ____________________________________________ 7 Repression, resistance and contradiction ____________________________________________ 7 What kind of alliances, what kind of power? ________________________________________ 11 Resistance, division and realignment ______________________________________________ 14 Whither post-apartheid labour-community alliances? ______________________________________ 18 Undermining the bases for unity __________________________________________________ 18 Impacts of the ‘Zunami’ _________________________________________________________ 21 Three cases of contemporary alliances _____________________________________________ 23 Other labour-community initiatives _______________________________________________ 28 The sources of weakness and disconnection ________________________________________ 31 Reclaiming (some of) the past, inventing
    [Show full text]
  • Sources and Extent of Union Power Sylvester Petro
    Notre Dame Law Review Volume 35 Article 4 Issue 5 Symposium 9-1-1960 Sources and Extent of Union Power Sylvester Petro Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Sylvester Petro, Sources and Extent of Union Power, 35 Notre Dame L. Rev. 603 (1960). Available at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr/vol35/iss5/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Notre Dame Law Review by an authorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE SOURCES AND EXTENT OF UNION POWER By Sylvester Petro* The most pressing need in labor relations today is a policy which will meet the social threats posed by union power without increasing the even more critical threats posed by big government. Many unions have abused working men and businessmen, exploited consumers, and demonstrated again and again their power to disrupt the economy. The abuses of big government are different, but they are even more deadly and more irrevocable. Unchecked they mean an end to the personal freedom and private property rights which have been the most significant features of western civilization. A policy which will remove the union threat without increasing the role of government is available and can be expressed in very simple terms. Al- though that policy is at present politically unacceptable, politics can be trusted to follow public opinion. The job, therefore, is one of establishing that the gravest threats can be effectively removed without increasing the role and power of government.
    [Show full text]
  • Gender Stereotypes, Picket Line Violence, and the Law of Strike
    Gender Stereotypes, Picket Line Violence, and the "Law" of Strike Misconduct Cases DIANNE AVERY* I. INTRODUCTION This article explores the role of gender stereotypes in the construction of the legal boundaries of acceptable strike behavior for individual workers. Strikes and their accompanying picket lines are a prominent feature of American labor relations and the subculture of unions. As a part of the economic "weaponry" of contract negotiations and union organizing, strikes and pickets are a legitimate - legally protected - form of collective worker activity. But, there are also a number of legal constraints on strikes and pickets. One of these constraints arises from the 1947 Taft-Hartley Amendments to the 1935 Wagner Act. Section 8(b)(1)(A) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) permits an employer to obtain remedies by filing an unfair labor practice charge against a union which engages in violence during a strike.' There must be evidence, however, that the union had * Professor, School of Law, State University of New York at Buffalo; B.A., Duke University, 1966; M.A.T., Wesleyan University, 1967; J.D., State University of New York at Buffalo, 1982. I am indebted to Carol Darstein, Mary Leary, and Debbie Muhlbauer for their research assistance. An early draft of portions of this paper was presented to several University at Buffalo colleagues and students at a meeting of the Baldy Working Group on Community and Difference in the fall of 1991. The collective and individual responses of the members of that group-especially David Engel, David Gerber, and Frank Munger-were very helpful and greatly appreciated.
    [Show full text]