NLRA

National Labor Relations Act

Purpose of the Act

"...Experience has shown that labor disputes can be lessened if the parties involved recognize the legitimate rights of each in their relations with one another. To establish these rights under law, Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act. Its purpose is to define and protect the rights of employees and employers, to encourage collective bargaining, and to eliminate certain practices on the part of labor and management that are harmful to the general welfare."

What the Act Provides

"The National Labor Relations Act states and defines the rights of employees to organize and to bargain collectively with their employers through representatives of their own choosing or not to do so. To ensure that employees can freely choose their own representatives for the purpose of collective bargaining, or choose not to be represented, the Act establishes a procedure by which they can exercise their choice at a secret-ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. Further, to protect the rights of employees and employers, and to prevent labor disputes that would adversely affect the rights of the public, Congress has defined certain practices of employers and unions as unfair labor practices."

Section 7 Rights

"...Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, and shall also have the right to refrain from any or all of such activities..."

Examples of Section 7 rights

-Forming or attempting to form a union among the employees of a company.
-Joining a union whether the union is recognized by the employer or not.
-Assisting a union to organize the employees of an employer.

Examples of conduct the Board considers to interfere with employees free choice are:

-Threats of loss of jobs or benefits by an employer or a union to influence the votes or union activities of employees.
-A grant of benefits or promise to grant benefits to influence the votes or union activities of employees.
-An employer firing employees to discourage or encourage their union activities or a union causing an employer to take such action.
-The occurrence of extensive violence or trouble or widespread fear of job losses which prevents the holding of a fair election, whether caused by an employer or a union.

Interference with Section 7 Rights:

Section 8(a)(1) forbids an employer "to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in section 7. Any prohibited interference by an employer with the rights of employees to organize, to form, join, or assist a labor organization, to bargain collectivelly, to engage in other concerted actvities for mutual aid or protection, or to refrain from any or all of these activities, constitutes a violation of this section. This is a broad prohibition on employer interference, and an employer violates this section whenever it commits any of the other employer unfair labor practices. In consequence, whenever a violation of Section 8(a)(2,3,4,5) is committed a violation of Section (8)(a)(1) is also found. This is called a derivative violation.
Examples of violations of Section 8(a)(1). Employer conduct may, of course, independently violate Section (8)(a)(1). Examples of such independent violations are:
-Threatening employees with loss of jobs or benefits if they should join or vote for a union.
-Threatening to close down the company if a union should be organized in it.
-Questioning employees about their union activities or membership in such circumstances as will tend to restrain or coerce the employees.
-Spying on union gatherings, or pretending to spy.
-Granting wage increases deliberately timed to discourage employees from forming or joining a union.


Railway Labor Act

General Purpose

"The purposes of the chapter are: (1) To avoid any interruption to commerce or to the operation of any carrier engaged therein; (2) to forbid any limitation upon freedom of association among employees or any denial, as a condition of employment or otherwise, of the right of employees to join a labor organization; (3) to provide for the complete independence of carriers and of employees in the matter of self-organization to carry out the purposes of this chapter; (4) to provide for the prompt and orderly settlement of all disputes concerning rates of pay, rules, or working conditions; (5) to provide for the pormpt and orderly settlement of all disputes growing out of grievances or out of the interpretation or application of agreements covering rates of pay, rules, or working conditions."