527 Committee
A nonprofit, tax-exempt group that engages in political activities, often through unlimited “soft money” contributions. Most 527 Committees work to influence elections, or the appointment of individuals to non-elective office.
Agency Fee
A fee collected from nonunion employees as a condition of their employment. The fee, usually the same amount of money as union dues, is used for collective bargaining purposes. Each year, agency-fee employees can ask for a refund of the portion that is used for other purposes (such as union political expenditures). Also known as a “Representation” or “Fair Share” fee.
Agency Shop
An arrangement that requires an employee, as a condition of employment, either to join the recognized employee organization, or to pay the organization a service fee (see Agency Fee) covering the cost of representation to the employee organization.
Appropriate Unit
A group of employees sharing common interests who are eligible to vote together to decide if they want a union to represent them. Certain types of employees, such as management officials and supervisors, cannot be considered part of an Appropriate Unit. Also known as a “Bargaining Unit.”
Arbitration
A method of deciding a dispute in which all parties involved agree that an outside person or group should “arbitrate,” or decide upon, a binding resolution to the disagreement.
Beck Rights
The Supreme Court decision Communication Workers of America v. Beck [487 U.S. 735] (1988) held that an employee cannot be forced to join a union even if there is a “union shop” clause in the contract. Since an employee cannot be required to join a union, an employee also cannot be terminated for refusing to join a union, even if a contract says otherwise. The most an employee can be required to do is to pay his or her portion of a union's costs for collective bargaining, contract administration, and grievance adjustment (the agency fee). Also, a union may not restrict the right of its members to resign from the union at any time, even during a strike.
Boycott
A combined effort by employees and their union to pressure an employer in the marketplace so they can win concessions. A “primary” boycott is the refusal to patronize an employer directly involved in a dispute. In a “secondary” boycott, workers and their union exert pressure on employers who are not directly involved in a dispute, in the hope that they will influence the primary employer to settle. Boycotts are employed most frequently in private-sector labor disputes. The Labor-Management Relations Act outlawed certain types of secondary boycotts, and the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure (Landrum-Griffin) Act placed additional restrictions on these activities.
Card Check
A process of bypassing secret ballot union elections by getting an employer to accept signed “authorization cards” from a majority of employees as evidence that the majority wants union representation. The actual “card check” is the process of comparing signatures on the authorization cards against an employer's payroll records.
Closed Shop
An arrangement that requires an employer to hire only union members. In a closed shop, union membership is a condition of continued employment. Closed shops are illegal under federal labor law and state public employment relations acts.
Compulsory Unionism
An arrangement that requires employees to join a union in order to keep their jobs. Examples include the closed shop, union shop, maintenance of membership, or preferential hiring.
Corporate Campaign
A union campaign designed to apply pressure to an employer by exploiting its perceived weaknesses. Usually an alternative to a strike, corporate campaigns sometimes involve consumer boycotts, shareholder resolutions, and aggressive media campaigns. The objective is to hassle an employer in a comprehensive manner that takes into account its financial resources, relationships with other institutions, and customer and supplier base. Although corporate campaigns often involve research and public-relations expenses, they are considered more cost-effective for unions than having to pay strike benefits. The AFL-CIO has a Strategic Approaches Committee, and the Teamsters have an Office of Strategic Campaigns, both of which contemplate and manage the details of corporate campaigns. Also known as a “Comprehensive Campaign.”
Decertification
The withdrawal of a union's status as the only organization authorized to bargain on behalf of a group of employees. Decertification is usually a result of a decertification election.
Decertification Election
An election held by the National Labor Relations Board to determine whether union employees no longer want to be represented by their union.
Decertification Petition
A petition filed by employees, asking that an election be held to give them an opportunity to end their union's status as their exclusive bargaining representative. Decertification petitions generally must be accompanied by evidence that at least 30 percent of a unit's members want such an election.
Decertification Poll
A poll to determine if a majority of employees still want to be represented by their union.
Enmons Decision
The Supreme Court ruled that unions are exempt from federal prosecution for extortion (including acts of violence) as long as these crimes are committed in pursuit of “legitimate union objectives.”
Industrial Democracy
An economic arrangement that involves workers making decisions and sharing responsibility and authority in the workplace. The term usually refers to workplaces that are run directly by the people who work in them. “Representative” industrial democracy includes decision-making structures like committees and other consultative bodies to facilitate communication between management, unions, and staff.
National Labor Relations Act
A federal law passed in 1935 that guaranteed employees the right to organize and join unions, to bargain collectively, and to act as a group to pursue their goals. It also created the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), provided for secret ballot certification elections, and gave unions the right to be the exclusive bargaining representative for all workers in a particular bargaining unit. The NLRA also outlawed “unfair” labor practices including employer support of company-dominated unions, firing or disciplining employees for their union activities, discriminating against employees for filing complaints with the NLRB, refusing to bargain with employee representatives, and interfering with the rights of employees to act together for mutual aid or protection. The NLRA was later amended by the Labor-Management Relations (Taft-Hartley) Act and the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure (Landrum-Griffin) Act. Also known as the Wagner Act or the NLRA.
National Labor Relations Board
The federal government agency that regulates the relations between management, employees, and unions. The NLRB's authority is limited to private-sector employers and the United States Postal Service.
Neutrality Agreement
A contract between a union and an employer under which companies, including their managers and supervisors, are prohibited from saying anything negative about unions or unionization during an organizing drive. In the absence of a Neutrality Agreement, the National Labor Relations Act gives an employer the right to resist a union organizing effort through its speech and other conduct. Most Neutrality Agreements also guarantee union organizers access to company facilities during work hours for the purpose of promoting the union to potential members.
Open Shop
A unionized company that does not require employees to become a union member as a condition of their continued employment.
Organizer
A person who solicits workers to join a union.
Organizing Drive
A campaign by a union to collect employee “Card Check“ signatures on authorization cards.
Paycheck Protection
Labor reform efforts (usually proposed at the state level) that require unions to obtain written approval in advance from individual union members before spending their dues money on political or other non-workplace-related activities.
Pension Benefit Plan
A fund or program (sometimes maintained by an employer and sometimes by an employee organization) that provides retirement income to employees or defers employees' income to (or past) the date of employment termination.
Political Action Committee
A committee formed by business, labor, or other special-interest groups to raise money and make contributions to the campaigns of political candidates whom they support. Also known as a PAC.
Private Sector Union
A union representing private-sector employees (i.e., those working in for-profit businesses).
Public Sector Union
A union representing public-sector employees (i.e., those working in government jobs).
Representation Election
A secret ballot election held by the National Labor Relations Board to determine whether a majority of employees in a group want a union to represent them.
Right to Work Principle
The idea that every American should be entitled to work for a living without being compelled to join a union.
Right to Work Laws
Laws in 22 states that prohibit collective bargaining agreements, which require employees to join a union in order to be hired or keep their jobs.
Salting
A practice that involves a union secretly inserting its organizers (called “salts”) into an employer's workforce in the hope that they will be able to organize other (nonunion) workers around them. In most salting cases, the union provides its salts with a wage subsidy.
Union Security Clause
A provision in a collective bargaining agreement making the payment of union dues mandatory for all or some of the employees in a bargaining unit. Union Security Clauses are designed to protect the union by guaranteeing an uninterrupted flow of funds. In light of the Supreme Court's decision in Communication Workers of America v. Beck, most security clauses are unenforceable.
Unfair Labor Practice
The term used to describe labor practices forbidden by the National Labor Relations Act.
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