Collective bargaining has been increasingly in the news in the last year, and has even made its way back into popular consciousness. As I've written elsewhere, a number of states are trying to put limitations on public sector collective bargaining, in response to budgetary difficulties Additionally, there has been a renewed push to pass the federal Employee Free Choice Act, which would permit certification without a secret ballot election over the employer's objection, among other things, and the NLRB has taken several controversial actions of late that have been reported widely. They have proposed new rules to expedite elections and to require the posting of notice of labor rights, and also filed a charge against Boeing for its attempt to open a plant in right-to-work state South Carolina (the latter issue has now been settled).
Despite this present heightened public awareness of collective bargaining issues, however, many people do not know that 2010 marked the National Labor Relations Act's (NLRA) 75th anniversary. In honor of this significant milestone, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and George Washington University had co-sponsored a seminar in October 2010 on the Act and "Its Legacy and Its Future," to which the Winter 2011 issue of the ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law, Vol. 26, No. 2, was largely dedicated.
In light of this milestone, and the level of popular attention garnered to collective bargaining in the last year or so, it seems to me it is a good time to review what collective bargaining scholars, professionals and advocates have to say about the Act.
