Minnesota Labor Law

Guide to
Minnesota Law

Minnesota Labor Law

Labor Law

Labor Law

The term "labor law" encompasses a myriad of workplace issues dealing with how an employer interacts with organized groups of employees, such as a union. This chapter examines the principal federal and state laws governing the relationship between management and organized labor and employee and employer rights and responsibilities during collective bargaining. The Employment Law: Individual Chapter covers the rights and obligations of employees as individuals, and discusses such issues as Social Security, Unemployment Compensation Insurance, sexual harassment, and racial discrimination. The Employee Benefits Law Chapter discusses employee benefits programs commonly used by employers to attract new employees and reward their existing employees. It is important to note that while labor law, employment law, and employee benefits law are treated separately in this Guide, the issues raised in one of these three areas of law often involve issues from the other two. For example, an employee benefits package (an employee benefits law issue) can determine whether an individual worker is an independent contractor or employee (an employment law issue), and are often the subject of union negotiations (a labor law issue). Refusal to provide maternity benefits (an employee benefits issue) may lead to allegations of sexual discrimination (an employment law issue) which are frequently handled by union committees set up to pursue employee complaints (a labor law issue).

Federal Legislation Regarding Unions

The United States has seen the struggle between labor and management played out over a long history. Relations between labor and management in this country frequently have been tense with power seeming to ebb and flow between workers and business owners. Some of the most heated battles in the struggle for workers' rights were fought right here in Minnesota as management and labor fought over the issues that mass industrialization brought to the state. In time, much of the relationship between management and labor came to be governed by federal laws enacted in response to the strife and economic disruption caused by long strikes. The history of federal labor legislation is a story of Congress reacting to the perceived imbalance of power between organized labor and management in this country, stepping in to bolster or curtail the power of the labor movement. The principal federal laws setting ground rules for how management and labor deal with each other are the Norris-LaGuardia Act, the National Labor Relations Act, the Labor-Management Relations Act, and the Landrum-Griffin Act.

Norris-LaGuardia Act

The Norris-LaGuardia Act was one of the first attempts to limit the power of federal courts in labor disputes. Prior to the adoption of the Norris-LaGuardia Act in 1932 many courts looked upon concerted actions by groups of employees, such as strikes, boycotts, and picketing as criminal conspiracies punishable by law. Industrial representatives frequently turned to courts sympathetic to management interests in order to get temporary or permanent injunctions against labor unions to prevent them from organizing workers, calling strikes, picketing, or boycotting. The primary accomplishment of the Norris-LaGuardia Act was to do away with the power of the federal judiciary to use injunctions to stifle the nascent labor movement. The Act so severely limited the use of injunctions (courts are permitted to enjoin union activity in rare instances to prevent violence) that today court-ordered injunctions are no longer a viable tool for management to use in labor disputes.

The Norris-LaGuardia Act also made illegal the theretofore common practice of requiring new employees to sign pledges not to join unions as a pre-condition of employment. So-called "yellow dog" contracts had been a common tool that management used to squash labor unions.

Even more significant than its literal impact was the policy implication of the Norris-LaGuardia Act. For the first time, Congress said that federal courts were not the proper forum for resolving labor-management disputes. Henceforth government would be more neutral in letting market forces determine the proper balance of power between workers and their employers. Perhaps naively, Congress assumed that simple government neutrality would provide the best environment for union-management negotiations.

National Labor Relations Act

The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA), frequently referred to as the Wagner Act, represented the first substantial effort by the federal government to reshape the balance of power between labor and management in this country. The NLRA explicitly guarantees employees the right to form labor organizations and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing. The NLRA made illegal a number of management practices that had been used to interfere with employee efforts to self-organize. The NLRA provides stiff penalties for employers who interfere with its provisions.

The NLRA also established an administrative agency, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and endowed it with the power to administer and enforce its provisions. The NLRB's five board members are appointed by the United States President with the advice and consent of the Senate for five-year terms. The Board's home is in Washington, D.C. Most employer-employee interaction with the NLRB is through one of over 30 regional offices throughout the country. Each regional office is headed by a regional director who reports to the general counsel in Washington.

Under the NLRA, the term "employee" includes a very broad range of workers who earn wages, salaries, or commissions. Specifically exempted from its coverage are agricultural workers, domestic servants, persons employed by their own parent or spouse, railroad employees, and independent contractors. The definition of an independent contractor is discussed in the Employment Law: Management Chapter. Employers should know that courts have generally interpreted "independent contractor" quite narrowly for purposes of deciding whether someone is protected by the NLRA. Thus, an individual who is considered an independent contractor for purposes of complying with other federal regulations might be considered an employee under the NLRA.

The NLRA remains the primary law regulating relations between labor and management in this country. Most post-NLRA legislation sought merely to refine and improve the provisions of the NLRA rather than replace it with another scheme. For instance, the NLRA contained no restrictions on the activities of unions. Later laws would impose rules on how unions operate internally and require labor organizations to submit periodic financial information to the government.

Labor-Management Relations Act

The Labor-Management Relations Act also called the Taft-Hartley Law was an attempt by Congress to limit the abuses of organized labor's power after the Second World War and to reign in the power of the NLRB. The Labor-Management Relations Act is a complex piece of legislation.The Act established the general counsel position of the NLRB, and gave the general counsel authority to issue complaints. It barred "closed shop" agreements that allow employers to hire only union members. However, "union shop" agreements, in which employers are required to join the union after a set period of time, were not prohibited. The Act's other provisions are:

Prohibiting unfair labor practices used by management to discourage union membership, such as discrimination in hiring and tenure
Prohibiting unfair labor practices by labor such as refusal to bargain or illegal strikes or boycotts
Instituting a 60-day "cooling off" period before a work stoppage at the end of a collective bargaining agreement
Creating special powers to limit strikes that could threaten the security of the nation
Forcing unions to file financial reports with the NLRB

Landrum-Griffin Act

The Landrum-Griffin Act (officially the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act) was enacted to reform the way that unionized labor and union management interact, in an attempt to protect members of labor unions from perceived abuses from corrupt labor leaders. The bill gave union members a "bill of rights" they could assert against union leadership and established procedures to help union members uncover unscrupulous practices of labor leaders. The Landrum-Griffin Act requires certain financial disclosures by unions, establishes procedures that unions must follow to elect officers, provides penalties for financial abuses committed by union officials and strictly limits secondary boycotts and picketing.

Forming a Union

An employer whose employees are considering organizing should be aware of what the law requires of all parties.

Employee Procedures

A group of employees can form a union by filing a petition at the regional office of the NLRB. The petition must show that at least 30 percent of the employees of the prospective bargaining unit support the petition to organize. An NLRB official will determine whether the petition is valid and whether any legal obstacles need to be overcome. The board will then hold hearings for company and union representatives and hold an election within the company to vote for or against the union.

An important issue at this stage is what constitutes an appropriate bargaining unit. Different employees have different interests and goals for collective bargaining. If the bargaining unit is too broad, some members of the unit may not be effectively represented, but if the unit is too small, it may lack clout to bargain with management. The following factors are typically considered when deciding upon the appropriate bargaining unit:

Amount and method of calculating pay
Similarity of benefits
Similarity of hours worked
Type of work performed
Qualifications, skill, and education required for the position
Physical proximity of workers and integration of tasks
Employer's supervisory or organizational structure
Employee preferences

Employers' Rights and Obligations during Organizational Drives

The Labor-Management Relations Act gives employers substantial freedom to present their views during union organization drives in unwritten, printed, and graphic forms, so long as such dissemination contains no threat of reprisal or promise of benefit. This right to express one's views on unions generally, to criticize a particular union, or to express a preference for one union over another can quickly lead to problems for employers who are unfamiliar with how courts have interpreted the requirement that there be no threat of reprisal.

It is important that employers realize that their actions will be closely watched during organization drives. An employer should not make unusual wage adjustments, threaten economic reprisals, try to convince employees to sign individual employment agreements, question employees about their union status or activities, or do anything else that could be construed as illegal anti-union activity.

When a union is soliciting employees to join a union, the employer is prohibited from pressuring employees against joining or discriminating against those who organize or join the union. The NLRB has heard thousands of complaints accusing employers of discriminating against organizing efforts. Although the complaints are necessarily heard on a case-by-case basis, the following are most often found to constitute illegal discrimination against efforts to organize:

Refusing to hire anyone involved in a union
Failing to recall seasonal workers who join a union
Discharging or laying off of an employee
Demoting or transferring an employee to a less desirable job or location
Mistreating employees following organizing efforts

Negotiating with a Union

Once the NLRB has certified a union to represent a group of employees, management is required to deal with that union.

The Duty to Engage in Collective Bargaining

The law imposes upon labor and management the obligation to engage in collective bargaining. While neither side is obligated to agree to any particular proposal made by the other side, both labor and management have an obligation to:

Meet at reasonable times
Confer "in good faith" with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment
Incorporate into a written contract any agreement reached in oral negotiations

If the NLRB has certified a union to represent the employees, the employer must discuss wages and employment conditions with that union. Negotiations usually begin with the union submitting a proposed contract to management, which then submits counter proposals to the union representatives. Employers and employees usually are represented by counsel when entering a collective bargaining agreement.

The Exclusivity Principle

The NLRA contains an exclusivity principle which declares that if the NLRB has recognized a union as the representative of a group of employees or if the employer has privately agreed to so recognize the union, the union has the exclusive right to represent those employees. This exclusivity provision can trip up even well-meaning employers who are not careful to avoid bargaining with other than the union's representatives. Often a problem can develop when an employer is approached by an independent group of employees, acting on their own, bringing to management a specific problem. If he or she attempts to respond to the employee-initiated contact without first going through the union, the employer can run afoul of the NLRA's exclusivity principle.

Strikes

Strikes can be classified four ways -- economic strikes, unfair labor practices strikes, wildcat strikes, and illegal strikes. The law treats each category differently.

Economic Strike

An economic strike results when employees strike after a stalemate in negotiations over a contract with management. The NLRA protects workers against unfair labor practices during an economic strike and guarantees that they retain their status as employees during the strike. After an economic strike, an employer may not refuse to re-hire a striker solely because he or she participated in an economic strike.

Unfair Labor Practice Strike

An unfair labor practice strike is a strike over an alleged unfair labor practice. Employees who take part in an unfair labor practice strike retain their status as employees. Once the NLRB determines an employer's actions to be an unfair labor practice, employees are entitled to have their old jobs back, even if their employer has hired replacement workers in the interim.

Wildcat Strike

A wildcat strike is a strike initiated by a group of employees without sanction of their union. Wildcat strikers are not protected by the provisions of the NLRA and may be permanently fired by their employers.

Illegal Strike

A number of categories of strikes are specifically made illegal by the Labor-Management Relations Act, including:

Strikes attempting to force an employer or a self-employed person to join a union
Strikes attempting to pressure an employer to stop doing business with another person
Strikes to force an employer to bargain with a minority union after the NLRB has certified a majority union to represent the employees
Strikes that begin within 60 days preceding the expiration of a labor agreement

Employees who participate in an illegal strike lose their status as employees.

Boycotts and Picketing

The Labor Reform Act makes it illegal for a union to go on strike, refuse to work or otherwise threaten an employer if the purpose of its actions is to:

Force the employer not to handle the goods of another employer
Stop any person from using, handling, selling, or transporting the products of another employer
Make another employer recognize or bargain with a union, other than a union certified by the NLRB
Force the employer to bargain with a union when a different union has already been certified by the NLRB

Resources

Gordon E. Jackson and Stephen L. Shields, How to Defend and Win Labor and Employment Law Cases (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1992).

National Labor Relations Board, Region 18 Office (responsible for Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and western Wisconsin), 110 Fourth Street South, Room 316, Minneapolis, MN 55401-2291, (612) 348-1757.

Lee Balliet, A Survey of Labor Relations (Bureau of National Affairs, BNA Books, Washington, D.C. (3d ed. 1987)).

Arthur A. Sloane and Fred Whitney, Labor Relations (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ (5th ed. 1985)).