Section 8(a)(3) of the national labor relations act (nlra) prohibits employers from

After the National Industrial Recovery Act was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, organized labor was again looking for relief from employers who had been free to spy on, interrogate, discipline, discharge, and blacklist union members. In the 1930s, workers had begun to organize militantly, and in 1933 and 1934, a great wave of strikes occurred across the nation in the form of citywide general strikes and factory takeovers. Violent confrontations occurred between workers trying to form unions and the police and private security forces defending the interests of anti-union employers.

In a Congress sympathetic to labor unions, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was passed in July of 1935. The broad intention of the act, commonly known as the Wagner Act after Senator Robert R. Wagner of New York, was to guarantee employees “the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid and protection.” The NLRA applied to all employers involved in interstate commerce except airlines, railroads, agriculture, and government.

In order to enforce and maintain those rights, the act included provisions for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to arbitrate deadlocked labor-management disputes, guarantee democratic union elections, and penalize unfair labor practices by employers. To this day, the board of five members, appointed by the President, is assisted by 33 regional directors. The NLRB further determines proper bargaining units, conducts elections for union representation, and investigates charges of unfair labor practices by employers. Unfair practices, by law, include such things as interference, coercion, or restraint in labor’s self-organizing rights; interference with the formation of labor unions; encouragement or discouragement of union membership; and the refusal to bargain collectively with a duly chosen employee representatives.

The constitutionality of the NLRA was upheld by the United States Supreme Court in National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. in 1937. The act contributed to a dramatic surge in union membership and made labor a force to be reckoned with both politically and economically. Women benefited from this shift to unionization as well. By the end of the 1930s, over 800,000 women belonged to unions, a threefold increase from 1929. The provisions of the NLRA were later expanded under the Taft-Hartley Labor Act of 1947 and the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959.

journal article

Section 8(a) (3) of the NLRA and the Effort to Insulate Free Employee Choice

The University of Chicago Law Review

Vol. 32, No. 4 (Summer, 1965)

, pp. 735-766 (32 pages)

Published By: The University of Chicago Law Review

https://doi.org/10.2307/1598793

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1598793

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Unfair Labor Practices: an overview

Under the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA"), there are three broad categories of Unfair Labor Practices ("ULPs").  The three categories of ULPs consist of those under Section 8 of the NLRA.  Section 8(a) lists the ULPs of employers, Section 8(b) lists the ULPs of labor organizations, and 8(c) lists the ULPs that are the result of combined activity of employers and labor organizations.

Unfair Labor Practices of Employers

When an employer interferes with employee rights to organize, form, join, or assist a labor organization, the employer has violated the NLRA.  Section 8(a)(1) prohibits an employer from interfering with employees as they engage in concerted activity.  Section 8(a)(2) prohibits an employer from dominating or assisting a labor union.  Section 8(a)(3) prohibits an employer from discriminating against any worker because of union activity.  Section 8(a)(4) prohibits an employer from punishing a work for filing charges with the Labor Board.  Section 8(a)(5) requires the employer to bargain collectivity in good faith with the union.

When an employer hinders employees from bargaining collectively, engaging in other concerted activities for mutual aid or protection, or keeps the employee from exercising the right not to participate in any of these activities, the employer has violated the NLRA. By the same token, if an employer threatens to take away an employee's job or benefits if that person should join or vote for a union, the employer will be found in violation of the NLRA as well.

Unfair Labor Practices of Labor Organizations

Section 8(b)(1) prohibits a union from restraining or coercing employees as they exercise their Section 7 rights, such as the right to refrain from concerted activity.  Section 8(b)(2) makes it illegal for a union to cause an employer to discriminate in violation of Section 8(a)(3).  Section 8(b)(3) requires a union to bargain in good faith with the employer. 

Labor unions are prohibited from restraining and coercing employers when the employee is exercising his or her rights.  This prohibition does not impair the rights of a labor organization to prescribe its own rules concerning membership in the labor organization.  Making or enforcing illegal union security agreements or hiring agreements which make as a condition of employment membership in a union violates the NLRA.  Even conduct that does not actually restrain or coerce employees but is reasonably calculated to do so is prohibited.

Remedies for Unfair Labor Practices

If an employer or a union commits an ULP, the Board must order the guilty party to cease and desist from the illegal behavior.  If an individual employee is injured by an ULP, the Board may order an employer to compensate the employee.  Compensation can come in the form of reinstatement, pay of lost wages and benefits, and seniority credits.  Remedies do not include losses which may result from the loss of wages, such as the inability to make payments on a car or home.  The Board also regularly orders parties guilty of ULPs to post a notice informing workers of the Board's decision.