Unfair labor practice (ULP)?
ULP’s is a wrong-doing conduct or illegal activities done by an employer or unions. This deals with the National Labor Relations Act(NLRA). Employees have rights from employers and unions, and those rights are gone over in section 7. There are two main outcomes to why all of these rules/laws were put in place for employers and unions. The first one was put in place to protect all employees from unfair treatment from their employer or their union. The other rules/laws that you will find under the NLRA deal with illegal interactions that take place between the employer and the union. This act was initially put in place because the government wanted to give employees more rights. Sections 8 (a)(1) and 8(b)(1) go over employer and union violations.
Take Action
If you’re an employee, employer, or union, and you’re dealing with a ULP, then you need to take action and file a claim with the National Labors Relations Board(NLRB). The NLRA can only be enforced from the situations that the NLRB approves for them, so the NLRB must be contacted first. The rule that comes into play here and gets some cases thrown out, is that you must file your charge within six months of the incident occurring.
Unfair Labor Practices from Employers or Unions
- “Interfering with an employee’s right to organize, join, or assist a union; engage in collective bargaining; or engage in protected, concerted activities.”
- Employers can’t start their own union because NLRB looks at all factors, such as “who started the group, whether the employer played a role in organizing the group and deciding how it would function, whether management attends meetings or otherwise sets the group’s agenda, the group’s purpose, and how the group makes decisions.”
- Retaliation when someone files a claim with the NLRB
- Not acting in good faith during collective bargaining for all parties
- Discriminating against employees for wanting to have or not to have a union or a union trying to cause an employer to do this
- Hiring new workers to replace the ones on strike
- “Restraining or coercing employees in the free exercise of their right not to support a union “
- Union refusing to bargain with the representative at hand
- “Engaging in strikes, boycotts, or other coercive action for an illegal purpose.”
- Unions can’t charge absurd or discriminatory membership fees.
- Featherbedding, which is the act of getting paid for services not preformed yet, or when the act won’t be performed
Examples
- Sally an employee at Austin’s Furniture Co. attempts to organize a union in the workplace, while this is something that her employer did not want at all, and has said that to many workers, so he fired her and he said that he fired her because she was trying to organize a union during working hours, so she wasn’t being productive. Sally would be protected by the NLRA because that’s an unfair labor practice because employees can attempt to organize unions.
- Carley an employee at Harry’s Insurance, had gone through a situation where her employer stated “If any of the mother******s want to join a union, then just get the f*** out now and don’t come back.” Carley knew this was an ULP and was planning to file a claim. Her employer had heard about her going to make a claim and stated “If you follow through on that claim then just know that your career won’t go much further with our company.” This is a ULP clearly, because the employer is threatening them based off them making a claim just like you can’t fire somebody based off the claim being made.
- Miles an employee at Lucky’s Co. made a claim on his employer for a ULP, after his employer received notice on his ULP, he moved Miles from his department, and moved him to the janitorial department which was a big downgrade and not something Miles wanted. This is a ULP, you can’t transfer an employee based on them filing a claim, just like you can’t cut an employee’s hours for making a claim as well.
- For this example, we have a union, and this union is deciding not to negotiate with the representative that Austin’s Furniture Co. came up with, because they don’t like the representative. This is an ULP, because the union has to negotiate with the representative, it’s not who the union chooses.
- For my last example, we have a union again, and they are encouraging the workers (behind the scenes) at Harry’s insurance to slow down the work they do, or to start a strike demanding them wanting to be unionized. This is a ULP because a union cannot participate in or encourage workers to strike, slow down at work, or do a work stoppage.
Questions for tutor to answer. Responses must be minimum 200 words per question. Please use references and in-text citations.
- Is there a point during the negotiation process where an employer can be legally done and over with the negotiation process when dealing with unreasonable expectations(or good faith)?
- Is it unreasonable for an employer to expect the employee to reach a compromise on the issue?
- Could an employer just say to a trans gender person who wants their own bathroom “sorry we have only male and female bathrooms, so take your pick”? or is this a ULP.