Win-Win Labor Law Reform
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Description
Legislative stalemate is likely to occur after the Dunlop Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations issues its recommendations this fall. Although I favor a comprehensive reform of the labor laws to make the system work better in a world of competitive product markets, there may well not be sufficient public support or sufficient basis for a trade-off between labor and management objectives to yield legislative change in the near future. What the contestants want is clear enough. Representing under 12 percent of private-sector workers, organized labor would like to see a major overhaul of the labor laws to lower the costs of organizing workers and bolster its bargaining power. Labor's wish-list includes representational authority on the basis of authorization cards in lieu of elections, fines for retaliatory discharge of union supporters, interest arbitration in first-time bargaining situations, restrictions on the hiring of replacements for economic strikers, and the like. Management, on the other hand, is generally content with the status quo, although it would like some greater latitude to form worker-employee committees that would address productivity and quality improvements. Many of these reform proposals from both sides share a zero-sum feature: New rules that strengthen labor's hand would do so at the expense of managerial flexibility, and any greater freedom for management to pursue employee involvement initiatives would be viewed as simply providing additional fuel for deunionization forces. I am writing in the hope that in the sturm und drang of the debates over U.S. labor law reform, policymakers will not lose sight of the potential for "win-win" improvements of the legal regime for worker representation. Such proposals would ease certain restrictions in existing law, expanding opportunities for unions and employers to reach agreements and to adjust to changing realities in competitive markets, without diminishing (or enlarging) the existing bundle of rights of either side.
Source Publication
Contemporary Issues in Labor and Employment Law: Proceedings of the New York University 47th Annual National Conference on Labor
Source Editors/Authors
Bruno Stein
Publication Date
1995
Recommended Citation
Estreicher, Samuel, "Win-Win Labor Law Reform" (1995). Faculty Chapters. 475.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/475
