Returning Members-Only Collective Bargaining to the American Workplace

Abstract

This paper challenges the conventional wisdom that a union majority is required for collective bargaining under the NLRA. The paper demonstrates that in workplaces where no majority representative has been designated, an employer has a duty to bargain with a minority union for members only. Statutory language and legislative history support the paper’s thesis, and existing case law points in that direction. Both before and immediately following passage of the Wagner Act, members-only bargaining was a common phenomenon. In fact, most early Steel Worker and UAW contracts were members-only agreements. The author urges the labor movement to return to its roots by organizing and bargaining on a membersonly basis.