Labor Law

Labor law is the law governing workers’ collective activity, union organizing, and collective bargaining. Labor law overlaps with numerous other areas, including First Amendment freedoms of speech and association; protections against discrimination in the workplace; antitrust or competition law; immigration law; statutory employment protections; and the common law. Labor law also presents challenging questions of statutory interpretation and of the relationship among law, political economy, and social practice.

This course will survey the case law and procedures under the National Labor Relations Act, as amended. The NLRA regulates the relationship between collective bargaining units, or unions, and private-sector employers. This course may also touch on the various statutory structures of collective bargaining between government employers and their employees, or air and railway employers and their employees as points of comparison.