Relax ... Guild’s Job Actions are Perfectly Legal
by Tina M. Destro
ABC Vice Chairperson
"Employees shall have the right to self-organize, to form, join or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection..."
This is an excerpt from Section 7 of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA), passed by Congress originally in 1935 as the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The Section 7 rights stated above are the core of the law that allows employees to form unions and to bargain contracts to guarantee fair treatment, fair wages and other contractual protections.
Your Section 7 rights are the shield that protects you when you engage in actions during negotiations to further the collective bargaining process. Organized job actions, such as those many of us have already engaged in, like leafleting, picketing, wearing buttons and publishing bargaining bulletins, are all protected actions under the law. Other organized action, like primary boycotts and strikes, while they may seem extreme actions to some, are guaranteed protection under the LMRA. Leafleting is also considered an exercise in free speech, and as such, has the additional protection of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The NLRA and subsequent legislation were designed by Congress to provide guidelines for the bargaining process. Congress also recognized that organized workers should have the right to take action to gain leverage during negotiations and to apply pressure to an employer in order to recognize and deal with union bargaining requests.
Participation in concerted activities, as voted upon and sanctioned by the general union membership, is your right as a union member. It is considered an unfair labor practice, and therefore unlawful, for an employer to threaten or coerce an employee in any manner to preclude that employee from supporting his or her union.
Your support of Guild activities, especially during bargaining, only strengthens your union's position. Your involvement is essential to your fellow workers in obtaining a contract that is fair and equitable for everyone.
Ask your Guild representative how you can help. Do as the law allows.