An Introduction To Labor Law

An Introduction to Labor Law is a useful primer that explains the basic principles of the federal law regulating the relationship of employers to labor unions. In this updated third edition, which features a new introduction, Michael Evan Gold discusses the law that applies to union organizing and representation elections, the duty to bargain in good faith, economic weapons such as strikes and lockouts, and the enforcement of collective bargaining agreements. Gold describes the structure and functions of the National Labor Relations Board and of the federal courts in regard to labor cases and also presents a number of legal issues presently in contention between labor and management.

Whether you are a supervisor, a business owner, or an HR professional, it is essential that you understand the laws and rules governing how one treats employees and interacts with unions. In a comprehensive and accessible format, Labor Law: A Basic Guide to the National Labor Relations Act provides a practice-oriented foundation on labor law. The book sheds light on one of America's most important laws and one which is also, perhaps, the most misunderstood. This book presents an overview of labor and employment laws such that managers may understand their rights as employers as well and their employees' rights. It covers an introduction to the topic of labor and employment law as well as a brief history within the United States. Other chapters deal with unions and union relations, collective bargaining agreements, grievances, labor arbitration, unfair labor practice proceedings, and strikes and lockouts. The author does not focus on complex regulations and convoluted case law, but distills them to reveal the essence of the NLRA and how it works. As important as it is, at times labor law can seem counter-intuitive. Written by a highly experienced labor lawyer, this book contains concise explanations in an easy-to-use format. Clearly delineating a process that can be fraught with traps for the unwary, it supplies a quick reference that can be used in a crisis situation to understand the parameters of what you can and cannot do.

Labour law has traditionally aimed to protect the employee under a hierarchy built on constitutional provisions, statutory law, collective agreements at various levels, and the employment contract, in that order. However, in employment regulation in recent years, ‘flexibility’ has come to dominate the world of work – a set of policies that reshuffle the relationship among the fundamental pillars of labour law and inevitably lead to degrading the protection of employees. This book, the first-ever to consider the sources of labour law from a comparative perspective, details the ways in which the traditional hierarchy of sources has been altered, presenting an international view on major cross-cutting issues followed by fifteen country reports. The authors’ analysis of the changing hierarchy of labour law sources in the light of recent trends includes such elements as the following: the constitutional dimension of labour rights; the normative intervention by the State; the regulatory function of collective bargaining and agreements; the hierarchical organization of labour law sources and the ‘principle of favour’; the role played by case law in both common law and civil law countries; the impact of the European Economic Governance; decentralization of collective bargaining; employment conditions as key components of global competitive strategies; statutory schemes that allow employees to sign away their rights. National reports – Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States – describe the structure of labour law regulations in each legal system with emphasis on the current state of affairs. The authors, all distinguished labour law scholars in their countries, thus collectively provide a thorough and comprehensive commentary on labour law regulation and recent tendencies in national labour laws in various corners of the globe. With its definitive analysis of such crucial matters as the decentralization of collective bargaining and how individual employment contracts can deviate from collective agreements and statutory law, and its comparison of representative national labour law systems, this highly informative book will prove of inestimable value to all professionals concerned with employment relations, labour disputes, or labour market policy, especially in the context of multinational workforces.

This new edition of An Introduction to the Law of Employment Discrimination summarizes the federal laws that prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, age, and disability. Several major statutes, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Equal Pay Act, protect American workers from discrimination. In this handy reference guide, Michael Evan Gold discusses complex legislation in lucid, understandable terms. In his discussion of each statute, the author provides such information as: who is protected by the statute; who must obey the statute; principal definitions of discrimination together with numerous examples; ways of proving discrimination; reasonable accommodation; defenses to discrimination; retaliation; remedies; and procedures for bringing a claim.

Over the last fifty years in the United States, unions have been in deep decline, while income and wealth inequality have grown. In this timely work, editors Richard Bales and Charlotte Garden - with a roster of thirty-five leading labor scholars - analyze these trends and show how they are linked. Designed to appeal to those being introduced to the field as well as experts seeking new insights, this book demonstrates how federal labor law is failing today's workers and disempowering unions; how union jobs pay better than nonunion jobs and help to increase the wages of even nonunion workers; and how, when union jobs vanish, the wage premium also vanishes. At the same time, the book offers a range of solutions, from the radical, such as a complete overhaul of federal labor law, to the incremental, including reforms that could be undertaken by federal agencies on their own.

"An Introduction to Labor and Employment Discrimination Law is not an attempt to teach law to undergraduates, but rather to introduce them to legal reasoning. The principal means to this end are cases that present competing arguments (e.g., in majority and dissenting opinions) on major issues. Each case is preceded by the author's introduction and followed by the author's comments and questions. Chapter 1 focuses on labor law in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, i.e., before the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. Chapter 2 surveys modern labor law under the Labor Act, covering such topics as representation and unfair labor practices. Chapter 3 is a brief introduction to the law of employment discrimination under the Equal Pay Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Americans With Disabilities Act. The book is accompanied by an appendix that contains a glossary of legal terms plus excerpts from the Constitution and relevant federal statutes"--Textbook Web page.

Have you ever felt your blood boil at work but lacked the tools to fight back and win? Or have you acted together with your co-workers, made progress, but wondered what to do next? If you are in a union, do you find that it operates top-down just like the boss and ignores the will of its members? Labor Law for the Rank and Filer: Building Solidarity While Staying Clear of the Law is a guerrilla legal handbook for workers in a precarious global economy. It demonstrates how a powerful model of organizing called “solidarity unionism” can help workers avoid the pitfalls of the legal system and use direct action to win. Blending cutting-edge legal strategies for winning justice at work with a theory of dramatic social change from below, Staughton Lynd and Daniel Gross deliver a practical guide for making work better while reinvigorating the labor movement. The book examines specific cases concerning fundamental labor rights and includes a section on tactics and principles of practicing solidarity unionism. Illustrative stories of workers’ struggles make the legal principles come alive. The New York Times has reported on the book’s importance in recent and ongoing labor organizing in the tech industry—for example among employees of Google, Kickstarter, and Uber, whose union campaigns were influenced by ideas gleaned from Labor Law for the Rank and Filer. Meredith Whittaker, a former Google research scientist who was one of the organizers of the 2018 Google employee walkout, said that the book has been “incredibly helpful in thinking through options for action, ways of building collective power, and giving workers who often aren’t familiar with labor law some working knowledge that can guide decision making.”