National Labor Relations Act

1
National Labor Relations Act

• Octavia Colson
• Diara Watkins

2
National Labor Relations Act

• Known as the Wagner Act
• Enacted in 1935
• Recognized the right of workers to organize and
  bargain collectively
• Prohibited certain actions by employers that were
  thought to deter union organizing and bargaining.

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National Labor Relations Board

• The board consists of five members and a general
  counsel
• The board was established to administer the act.
• Conduct elections for employees to decide whether
  to be represented by a union
• Hear charges of unfair labor practices

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National Labor Relations Board Process

• Petition filed with the NLRB by
• employees
• a labor union
• employer
• Board determines what group of employees will be
  allowed to vote
• Bargaining unit is established
• Election

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Basic Rights of an Employee

• To self-organization.
• To form, join, or assist labor organizations.
• To bargain collectively for wages and working
  conditions through representatives of their own
  choosing.
• To engage in other protected concerted activities
  with or without a union, which are usually group
  activities (two or more employees acting
  together) attempting to improve working
  conditions, such as wages and benefits.
• To refrain from any of these activities. (However
  a union and employer may, in a State where such
  agreements are permitted, enter into a lawful
  union-security clause).

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Workers not covered by the NLRA

• employed as agricultural laborers
• employed in the domestic service of any person or
  family in a home
• employed by a parent or spouse
• employed as an independent contractor
• employed as a supervisor
• employed by an employer subject to the Railway
  Labor Act, such as railroads and airlines
• employed by Federal, state, or local government
• employed by any other person who is not an
  employer as defined in the NLRA

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Employer Conduct that violates the NLRA

• Threatening employees with loss of jobs or
  benefits if they join or vote for a union or
  engage in protected concerted activity.
• Threatening to close the plant if employees
  select a union to represent them.
• Questioning employees about their union
  sympathies or activities in circumstances that
  tend to interfere with, restrain or coerce
  employees in the exercise of their rights under
  the Act.
• Promising benefits to employees to discourage
  their union support.
• Transferring, laying off, terminating, assigning
  employees more difficult work tasks, or otherwise
  punishing employees because they engaged in union
  or protected concerted activity.
• Transferring, laying off, terminating, assigning
  employees more difficult work tasks, or otherwise
  punishing employees because they filed unfair
  labor practice charges or participated in an
  investigation conducted by NLRB.

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Rxtra Inc. Case Study

• Euclid Union has learned that the company has
  decided to make some changes to the employee
  benefits. The company will no longer make any
  payments to the company pension plan, and will be
  switching from a conventional medical insurance
  plan to an H.M.O. The company was not planning
  to release this information for several months.
  It was waiting until a threat of union organizing
  had passed. In order to alert the other
  employees about this, Euclid posted the
  information on his blog. When the company
  learned about the blog, Euclid was terminated.

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Our Conclusion

• Euclid has a right to post a blog with the
  information about the company pension plan.
• The company has no right to terminate Euclid.
• Euclid and his co-workers have a right under the
  National Labor Relations Act to form a union

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Rxtra Inc. Violations

• Under the National Labor Relations Act, Rxtra
  Inc. can not withhold information pertaining to
  the employees company pension plan because of the
  threat of a union forming.

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Our Blog

• www.nlra3.wordpress.com

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Relevant Court Cases

• NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD v. PHOENIX MUT.
  LIFE INS. CO.
• UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS, SEVENTH
  CIRCUIT