What is the significance of the RLA and the Norris-Laguardia Act and how do they modify the NLRA?
The right of the employees in the industry of railroad (in terms of collective organization and bargain through representatives, chosen by them), was guaranteed by the Railway Labor Act of 1926 (RLA). The major limitation of the law was the fact of its application to the railway labor only. In 1964, the extension of this law has taken its place to the individuals, employed in the sector of the air transportation.
In 1932, the contacts between the employees and workers were outlawed by the Norris-LaGuardia Act. The core purpose of this act was to prevent the exercise of rights for further collective organization and bargaining. In addition, the employees’ ability for gaining the labor injunctions was sharply limited by the Norris-LaGuardia Act – as the measure of strike’s bargaining. The leaders of the employees were relived of the personal civil and criminal liability for the acts, made by the individual employees (the only exception was either direct participation of the leaders in these particular activities or their ratification).
The National Labor Relations Act NLRA (which is also referred in the scientific literature as the Wagner Act) has extended the options, set in the previous Acts to the employees of the private sector. It referred to the right for self-organization as well as for formation, assisting and establishment of the labor organizations. In addition, this law has created the new concept in law of the U.S. – as five unfair practices in labor have been defined within it – such as discrimination in relation to the employees (HRW, 2016).
Compare key provisions of the Wagner Act, Taft-Hartely Act, and Lundrum-GrifTin Act.
As the major provisions of the Wagner Act (1935) were extended to the private sector employees, in the scope of the Taft-Hartley Act (1947), the set of new directions was elaborated as the Wagner Act was considered as too pro-labor one. In the scope of the Taft-Hartley Act, some of the unfair labor practices were defined (in accordance with these practices, the new regulations to the union’s liability were set). The ‘free speech of employer’ was established in this Act. The Taft-Hartley amendments have provided the individual states with the possibility of enacting the “right to work” laws, which in turn, have excluded the voluntary agreements among the employees. The “secondary boycotts” were also prohibited by this law.
The “bill of rights” was established by the LMRDA (Landrum-Griffin Act) 1959 for the members of the individual trade union. It has covered the right for the leaders’ democratic elections. (HRW, 2016)
Explain the relationship of a local union to the national and international union affiliates, as well as to the AFL-CIO.
One of the core traits of the labor unions is their complexity; in addition, they vary in terms of their administrative processes and internal structure. The major duties of the local union refer to the union contract administration. It means that such unions assure that the entire set of contract provisions is honored by the employer at the local level. There are also the cases, when the contracts are negotiated by the local unions in such aspects as the extent to which the parent international or national union participates in the process of negotiations.
Currently the only national federation in the United States of America is AFL-CIO (which was formed in 1950) as two competing federations were merged: Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and American Federation of Labor (AFL) (referenceforbusiness.com, 2016).
What are "unfair labor practices' and are they similar for both unions and management? Explain the differences.
It is possible to define unfair labor practices as the set of the actions, which are undertaken by the unions or the particular employees and may be referred as the illegal in accordance with the set of the regulations, set in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) as well as in the set of other labor laws. Some of such rules are applied in the context of interactions among the employer and the union, while others are mainly aimed on protection of the individual employee form the unfair treatment by the union or particular employer (Guerin, 2016).
References
Guerin, L. (2016) Unfair Labor Practices. Retrieved from: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/unfair-labor-practices.html
HRW (2016) Freedom of association under U.S. labor law. Retrieved from: https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/uslabor/USLBR008-05.htm
referenceforbusiness.com (2016) Labor unions. Retrieved from:http://www. /encyclopedia/Kor-Man/Labor-Unions.html
