Labor Law

Basic Principles of the NLRA

The collective bargaining system established by the NLRA has five basic principles: (a) employee choice, (b) majority rule, (c) exclusive representation, (d) appropriate bargaining unit, and (e) labor and management determination of terms and conditions of employment. The principle of employee choice means that employees in an appropriate bargaining unit choose whether they wish to have a union represent them for collective bargaining purposes and, if so, which union. The principle of majority rule means that the employees' choice of representation is made by a majority of the employees in the bargaining unit. If a majority of the employees in the bargaining unit do not select representation, the employees in that unit cannot be represented by a union.

If a majority of the employees in the bargaining unit choose union representation, the principle of exclusive representation comes into play. Under this principle, the union selected by the majority of the employees in the bargaining unit represents all the employees in the unit, regardless of whether the employees support unionization. The employer, in turn, has a legal obligation to bargain with the union in good faith regarding the terms and conditions of employment for the represented employees.

The fourth principle is the appropriate bargaining unit. The selection process for unionization takes place among the employees in an appropriate bargaining unit. An appropriate bargaining unit is a grouping of employees who work for a single employer and have common employment interests. They may be employees who work in a company facility, an occupational group, a department, or a craft. Employees who have a community of interest have similar supervision, pay structures, tasks, hours of work responsibilities, and work location.

The fifth principle is union and management determination of terms and conditions of employment. The employer has an obligation to bargain in good faith with the union representing its employees, and the union has an obligation to bargain in good faith with the employer. Neither party has an obligation to agree, however. The terms and conditions of employment are determined by the parties' negotiations, which are influenced by the bargaining power of the parties, manifested in their use of economic weapons such as a strike, lockout, or employer replacement of strikers. The purpose of these economic weapons is to move the parties toward agreement, even if one party concedes. The law does require that the parties reduce an agreement to writing. An agreement in writing is generally enforced through a grievance procedure that ends in binding arbitration.

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