Labor Relations
Legal framework
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), administered by the NLRB, protects Section 7 rights to organize, bargain collectively, and engage in concerted activity for mutual aid or protection. Section 8(a) lists employer unfair labor practices, including interference, discrimination, and refusal to bargain.
Representation and bargaining
A union may be certified after an election or voluntary recognition. Employers and unions must bargain in good faith over mandatory subjects: wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment. Safety is often a mandatory subject when it affects working conditions. Grievance and arbitration procedures enforce the contract. Weingarten rights give a unionized employee the right to request union representation in an investigatory interview that the employee reasonably believes may lead to discipline.
Worked example
A unionized maintenance worker is called into an interview about a near miss that may result in discipline. The worker requests a steward. The employer may stop the interview, continue without questioning, or allow the steward. It may not retaliate. Safety committees are not a substitute for the bargaining unit, and employees retain protected rights to raise safety concerns.
Traps
Treating safety complaints as disloyalty; interrogating employees about union sympathies; bypassing the union on mandatory subjects; assuming Weingarten applies identically in non-union settings; and confusing right-to-work laws (which concern union security) with occupational safety rights.