Labor Unions, Solidarity, and Money

For labor, 2018 was a year of highs and lows. A wave of teachers’ strikes in states traditionally hostile to public sector labor unionism and collective bargaining garnered widespread popular support. The passions animated by the strikes were credited with inspiring a range of progressive political shifts, including the rollback of right to work laws in Missouri and new challengers running on education platforms aimed at increasing investment in public education. Less than three months later, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Janus v. AFSCME, Council 31 invalidating agency fees that public sector unions relied on to cover costs related to collective bargaining, contract administration and grievance adjustment. Janus was a major blow to union coffers, to the Democratic Party as a recipient of labor union funds, and to other progressive causes historically supported by labor. These developments should prompt us to rethink what labor solidarity really means. American labor law encourages unions to identify as service organizations dedicated primarily to promoting workers’ economic interests. Under the agency fee doctrine approved by the Court in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, for example, it was constitutionally permissible for unions to negotiate agency fee arrangements by which non-union members within the bargaining unit could be required to pay a service charge to the union to subsidize the cost of collective bargaining and contract administration, as long as chargeable fees were limited to expenditures “for the purposes of collective bargaining, contract administration, and grievance adjustment.” Straining to salvage union funding, the unions argued in Janus that compelled subsidization via agency fees did not implicate workers’ First Amendment interests because the union’s speech at the bargaining table and in contract administration contexts dealt only with “prosaic” “‘bread-and-butter’ employment issues” rather than with significant matters of public concern. Thus, the unions’ arguments in Janus embraced a vision of solidarity in which unions function as economic agents engaged in transactional relationships with workers over a narrow range of economic subjects, rather than political entities advancing issues of common concern to workers and the public, such as the trend of state disinvestment in public schools and its impact on democratic participation. At a legal level, the arguments raised in Janus are not surprising. But turning the future of public sector unionism into a battle over money was short-sighted. Subsequent proposals to bring back agency fee arrangements in another form make worker engagement largely irrelevant to union survival, undermine incentives for internal union democracy and a participative culture, and eschew the kind of grassroots solidarity that has historically been the source of workers’ power. Labor’s greatest successes in 2018 demonstrate the power that can arise from grassroots mobilization of workers and citizens alike in a movement that transcends workplace boundaries and politicizes workers’ struggles. In some ways, the Janus Court got things right: public sector unions are political entities, they do (and should) engage in advocacy for reform that transcends bread-and-butter employment issues, and funding should come from workers and others who support those agendas. It is time to divorce the need for funding from the meaning of solidarity and to relinquish the vision of unions as service organizations that has indirectly cabined labor’s mission, undermined incentives to do vigorous internal organizing and to work toward members’ full engagement, and contributed to an outsized reliance on law -- particularly the exclusivity doctrine and the principle of majority rule -- as the source of worker power. Unions should not allow solidarity to be defined by money. Especially in a time when labor unions are under siege, unions must stand for more, not less. They should embrace their political identities rather than seeking to avoid or deny them. Ultimately, law reform will follow the moral legitimation of labor’s demands, not precede it

Law and the Collective Struggle for Economic Justice

Abstract of the complete monograph: Inequality of income and wealth has skyrocketed since the 1970s. As the super-rich have grasped the vast majority of the gains from economic growth, labor’s share of income has declined. The middle class has stagnated, and those at the bottom have become even worse off. Persistent structural discrimination on the basis of race and gender exacerbates these economic disparities.The Great Polarization brings together scholars from disparate fields to examine the causes and consequences of this dramatic rise in inequality. Contributors demonstrate that institutions, norms, policy, and political power—not the “natural” operation of the market—determine the distribution of wealth and income. The book underscores the role of ideas and ideologies, showing how neoclassical economics and related beliefs have functioned in public debates to justify inequality. Together, these essays bear out an inescapable conclusion: inequality is a choice. The rules of the economy have been rewritten to favor those at the top, entrenching the imbalances of power that widen the gap between the very rich and everyone else.Contributors reconsider the data on inequality, examine the policies that have led to this predicament, and outline potential ways forward. Using both theoretical and empirical analysis and drawing on the knowledge of experts in policy, political economy, economics, and other disciplines, The Great Polarization offers a kaleidoscopic view of the processes that have shaped today’s stark hierarchies

Working and Living in the Shadow of Economic Fragility

Working and Living in the Shadow of Economic Fragilit

Labor Relations Law: Cases and Materials (14th edition)

This comprehensive casebook is designed for an intensive examination of the union-management relationship throughout its major phases. Largely tracking the organization of the National Labor Relations Act, it covers the right of employees to join together for organizational purposes, the regulation of the union-organizing process including the use of economic weapons, the development of bargaining relationships, the negotiation and enforcement of collective agreements, and, more briefly, the law governing internal union affairs. The text responds generously to the most significant current developments in the field, while simultaneously providing a set of materials that will be truly manageable in the usual three- or four-hour courses. The fourteenth edition also includes over sixty new hypothetical problems designed to test students’ knowledge of existing doctrines and push them to explore issues that don’t appear to have ready answers. As with previous editions, the book will be supplemented with a comprehensive teacher’s manual and a biennial supplement to keep the book up-to-date.https://scholar.smu.edu/facbooks/1054/thumbnail.jp

Labor Relations Law: Selected Federal Statutes and Sample Bargaining Agreement

This text introduces students to all aspects of labor relations law. It explores statutory coverage, and the procedures involved in union organizing campaigns. It describes the actions employees can take to support organization efforts, and the actions employers can take to counteract such drives. It then covers the rights of employees and unions once bargaining representatives have been recognized. What are the mandatory bargaining topics, and what concerted activities can employees use to support union bargaining efforts? It also covers concerted activities that are prohibited, such as secondary endeavors. Finally, it explains how disputes arising under existing bargaining agreements may be resolved—through negotiation and, if necessary, arbitration. It is both a highly practical and theoretical book that does a wonderful job of enabling teachers to introduce students to labor relations law.https://scholar.smu.edu/facbooks/1055/thumbnail.jp

Labor Relations Law: Selected Federal Statutes and Sample Bargaining Agreement

This text introduces students to all aspects of labor relations law. It explores statutory coverage, and the procedures involved in union organizing campaigns. It describes the actions employees can take to support organization efforts, and the actions employers can take to counteract such drives. It then covers the rights of employees and unions once bargaining representatives have been recognized. What are the mandatory bargaining topics, and what concerted activities can employees use to support union bargaining efforts? It also covers concerted activities that are prohibited, such as secondary endeavors. Finally, it explains how disputes arising under existing bargaining agreements may be resolved—through negotiation and, if necessary, arbitration. It is both a highly practical and theoretical book that does a wonderful job of enabling teachers to introduce students to labor relations law.https://scholar.smu.edu/facbooks/1055/thumbnail.jp

Work Law: Cases and Materials (4th ed.)

The law of work has evolved as a patchwork of legal interventions in the labor market, sometimes by statute, and sometimes through the common law of judicial decisions. Most law school curricula divide the law of work into three topical areas—Labor Law, Employment Law, and Employment Discrimination—and offer separate courses in each area. Labor law in the United States is understood to encompass the study of the National Labor Relations Act, the law governing union organizing and collective bargaining. It is the law of collective rights at work. Employment law refers to the statutes and common law governing individual rights at work. It ranges from minimum standards legislation to judicially created doctrines based in tort and contract law. Employment discrimination law deals with the statutes and interpretative case law advancing the antidiscrimination norm in the workplace. These statutes address the problem of status discrimination at work (e.g., discrimination on the basis of race, sex, national origin, ethnicity, religion, disability, or sexual orientation). This book offers a comprehensive view of the law governing the work relationship by touching on all three topical areas. The book treats individual employment rights in depth, and is most appropriate for an Employment Law course or a broad survey course. The book also adverts to Labor Law principles at a number of points, at a policy level rather than a doctrinal level, as a way of introducing and evaluating an alternative model of employee representation; the book does not assume any knowledge of Labor Law on the part of teacher or student and makes no effort to provide a satisfactory substitute for a Labor Law text. The book offers some detail in the law of Employment Discrimination but does so primarily with an eye toward surveying the field and assessing antidiscrimination regulation as a response to an increasingly diverse workforce, rather than providing an in-depth study of Employment Discrimination principles. The fourth edition of Work Law: Cases and Materials incorporates new developments in a variety of areas: A new case, Cotter v. Lyft, on the boundaries of the employment relationship in the context of the gig economy; A new case on promissory estoppel as a limit on employment-at-will, Cocchiara v. Lithia Motors, Inc.; New cases on nonsolicitation agreements (Bankers Life & Casualty Co. v. American Senior Benefits) and the duty of loyalty (Salas v. Total Air Services); Expanded materials reflecting recent developments in the use of electronic monitoring and data analytics in the workplace; Updated coverage and a new problem on public employee speech in the internet age; Updated coverage of legal issues surrounding employee voice under the NLRA, including the social media case Triple Play Sports Bar & Grille, and treatment of the impact of the Labor Board\u27s decision in Boeing, Inc. on employer restrictions on collective action; A new disability discrimination case, Hostettler v. College of Wooster, on reasonable accommodation; Coverage of the #MeToo movement and its implications, and discussion of race-specific hiring in the context of the musical Hamilton; Streamlined and updated treatment of the Fair Labor Standards Act, including a new case on the status of interns and trainees, Benjamin v. B&H Educ. Inc., and updated materials on overtime pay eligibility; and Updated materials on arbitration of employment disputes, including Roe v. SFBSC Management, a new unconscionability case involving erotic dancers, and the Court\u27s treatment of pre-dispute waivers of class claims in Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis

The Transformation of the Professional Workforce - The 24th Annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture

Historically, professional workers have displayed an ideology of individualism. Work is not a commodity to be sold on the market but a calling that constitutes personal identity while also conferring a relatively privileged class status. Professionals have asserted their legal rights as workers primarily through individual contract and tort theories that redress the potential loss of professional identity. Market instability and management techniques threaten to undermine the autonomy, judgment and control over job content that once characterized professional status. When that status is challenged at its core, labor becomes commodified and workers\u27 receptivity to union organizing or collective action around the assertion of individual employment rights is enhanced. The annual Kenneth M. Piper Lecture is sponsored by Chicago-Kent College of Law\u27s Institute for Law and the Workplace. It is presented by the Kenneth M. Piper Endowment, which was established by a gift from Mrs. Kenneth M. Piper in memory of her husband. Mr. Piper was a distinguished executive with Motorola, Inc., and Bausch & Lomb, Inc., who made important contributions in human resources and labor relations for more than two decades. Runtime: 01:23:4