Under the Law
Through the 1935 National Labor Relations Act employees have the legal right to form a union in their workplace, engage in collective action around work issues, and it bars employers from anti-union and anti-organizing retaliation ranging from asking what your opinion on your union is all the way to threatening, harassing, disciplining, transfering, and a wide range of other behaviors intended to curb organizing.
Employees covered under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) have the legal right to form a union in their workplace. The NLRA States:
- Section 7: “Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations to bargain collectively through representation of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining…”
- Section 8: “It shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer… to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7…”
- View the full text of the NLRA at www.nlrb.gov.
We believe that the right to engage in "concerted collective activity" (labor law jargon for workplace organizing) covers not just organizing around wages, conditions, and hours, but also the ethical use of our labor, diversity and inclusion, and so much more.
It Is Illegal For Your Employer To
- Make promises, bribe, or favor employees to convince them not to form a union;
- Ask you what your opinion about the union is;
- Threaten to fire or fire you for supporting the union;
- Harass, discipline, transfer you to another location, call center, or other worksite for supporting the union.
About Strikes
- In 98% of first contracts, your union negotiates successfully without a strike.
- In CWA, the members only go out on strike during contract negotiations if a majority of these workers vote to strike.
For More Information On What Your Boss Will say, Visit:
UnionBustingPlaybook.com
Safety Through Organizing
Despite the vast majority of workers having the federally protected right to organize, we know that labor law in the US is far from perfect and it fails to cover independent contractors and others. Yet, we know through experience that our greatest protections stem from our collective strength and solidarity when we are organized together.
Take the Voltage video game writers who won the first successful game worker strike in history: they were independent contractors, had no rights under the law, and the boss could have immediately terminated them... Yet they won!
The writers knew that their greatest power and safety came through the fact that collectively they are the most valuable aspect of their company. Withholding or threatening to withhold their labor was the ultimate bargaining chip that enabled them to win their strike with an average 78% pay increase.