Introduction to Labor Law

This course will focus on contemporary labor law issues under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the federal labor law governing relations between employers and employees in the private sector. In recent years, there has been an upsurge in organizing for union representation in workplaces that have historically been non-union, such as in media and technology, as well as increased militancy among unionized workers. In 2018 and 2019, for example, unionized teachers, hotel workers, and retail workers engaged in successful strikes that resulted in significant workplace gains. Non-unionized workers have engaged in concerted activity to improve their working conditions, from the “me too” protests to the refusal to work on products for use in prisons that hold migrants at the border. Union and non-unionized workers have utilized social media, walk-outs, picketing and other vehicles to organize and publicize their campaigns for workplace justice. We will examine the extent to which the NLRA protects the rights of workers to engage in these and other activities. We will also study the process for obtaining union representation and the anti-union campaigns that employers conduct to discourage workers from unionizing. Finally, we will examine current workplace arrangements such as misclassifying workers as independent contractors and outsourcing work, which employers use to deny workers their legal rights.

Fall, Spring