Basically this is a do-it-yourself (manaul). Its goal is to help you deal more effectively with the law: to protect yourself more effectively when the law is against you, and to get more accomplished when the law is on your side.
Some people, including some radical labor lawyers, think this is a crazy idea. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, they believe. According to this view, when you need to know something about a technical subject such as labor law, you should go to the relevant technician: the lawyer.
I disagree. I think going to a lawyer should be your last resort. Very few working people have the $1000 "retainer fee" required by many private lawyers, or the money to pay even the expenses (for depositions, court transcripts, etc.) of a law suit. Very few lawyers are willing to work solely for the possibility of a "contingent fee" (a percentage of the money you get if the law suit is successful). When your problem brings you into conflict with a union as well as an employer, many labor lawyers will tell you they have a "conflict of interest" because they represent unions. If the only way to know labor law is to go to a lawyer, most rank-and-file workers will do the best they can without that knowledge.
My point of view is that whenever a problem can be solved without the help of a lawyer, do it. Besides being expensive, the law takes a long time. And it is written and administered by individuals who for the most part do not understand or sympathize with the experience of working people.
Lawyers, like doctors, make their profession seem more mysterious than it really is. They use big words when short words would do just as well. They encourage workers to feel helpless unless a lawyer is representing them.
The assumption of this manual is that, with a modest orientation, anyone able to read can make a preliminary assessment of a labor law problem for him- or herself. Dr. Spock takes the same approach to medicine in his famous book on baby care. He says to the mother or father of young children: if your child shows symptom A, watch carefully to see if B or C appear as well; if they do, call a doctor; if they don't, your child will be able to become well by itself.
This manual views your problems in labor law similarly. My aim is not to teach you the law. It is to teach you how to teach yourself at least the broad outlines of the law, so that you can diagnose a labor law problem, just as you might size up what's wrong with the car engine.
Books Are Tools
For starters, instead of laying out a bundle to talk with a lawyer you may want to buy or consult a few basic books.
Paperbound collections of Federal labor laws can be purchased, for instance in the book stores of universities that have law schools. Federal labor laws may also be available in a public library, university library, or law library to which you have access.
Federal labor laws will be found in the volumes of the United States Code. A citation to the Code looks like this: 29 U.S.C. §101. Translated, that means Title 29 of the United States Code at Section 101, which happens to be the citation to the Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932.
To apply what "the law" is to a problem, however, you have to know not only the text of the relevant statute but also how that text has been interpreted by Federal agencies like the National Labor Relations Board, and by the courts.
If you work in a shop or office with a collective bargaining agreement and a grievance procedure, you have a headstart in understanding this. In using a grievance procedure, you have to know both the contract and decisions interpreting the contract.
To rely on the text of the contract alone, no matter how clear it seems to be, can get you in big trouble. Similarly, the law begins with the text of constitutions, statutes, ordinances, administrative regulations, etc. But the law is more than these texts. It is also cases interpreting the texts.
Some books published by the Bureau of National Affairs, 9401 Decoverly Hall Road, Rockville, Maryland 20850, can give you a general idea of what the law is about the most common labor law problems.
A two-volume set called The Developing Labor Law provides a comprehensive picture of the development of labor law under the National Labor Relations Act. Supplements are published every few years.
A second BNA publication is called Labor Relations Expediter. It does not make sense to purchase, because it is in looseleaf form and is constantly being updated. It is available in any law library and should be your first port of call when you go to the library to look something up.
Topics in the Expediter are arranged alphabetically. For instance, "Bargaining Units" comes before "Strikes." Use the index to try to determine what topic covers the problem you have in mind.
The Expediter is part of a larger system of labor law research materials. Here's how it works. Every topic in the Expediter has a number, known as a "key number." For example, "Bargaining Units" has been assigned the key numbers 63 and 64. The BNA periodically publishes a Cumulative Digest of cases. You can look in the Digest under the pertinent key number and find short summaries of the important cases decided about that topic since the previous Digest was published.
Each case summary in the Digest has a citation to the full text of the decision. Decisions interpreting the National Labor Relations Act are collected in a series of volumes called the Labor Relations Reference Manual, or LRRM for short. (There are also BNA series for discrimination decisions, wages and hour decisions, and arbitration decisions. The same method for locating the text of a decision works for them, too.)
A citation to LRRM first gives the volume number, then the page number on which the decision begins, and finally the year of the decision. Thus, Royal Typewriter Co., 85 LRRM 1501 (1974), tells you to get volume 85 of the Labor Relations Reference Manual and look on page 1501 for a 1974 decision involving the Royal Typewriter Company.
With a little practice you will be able to locate the most recent decisions about any topic that interests you. Believe me, when you take a labor law problem to a lawyer, the first thing the lawyer does when you leave the office is to take down The Developing Labor Law and the Labor Relations Expediter, and go through the process I have just described.
A second opinion is always a good idea, whether the problem is a stubborn cold, a car that won't start, or a legal problem. A book I often use for a second opinion is called Employee and Union Member Guide to Labor Law, by the National Labor Committee of the National Lawyers Guild. It is published by Clark Boardman Callaghan, 2 Corporate Drive (sorry about that), Cranbury, New Jersey 08512. Like The Developing Labor Law this book has two volumes. Unlike The Developing Labor Law, it has a looseleaf format and is updated by periodic batches of replacement pages. An attractive feature of the Guide is that it talks about several topics not covered by the NLRA and therefore not treated in The Developing Labor Law: these include internal union elections, protecting the right to a pension, and proceedings in bankruptcy court. As to topics that are governed by the NLRA, The Developing Labor Law tends to be more thorough.
You may want a lawyer to doublecheck your own research, of course. You should definitely consult a lawyer before finally deciding on a strategy that involves the possibility of a law suit. Be aware that the first question a lawyer will want to resolve is how much time is left to file an administrative charge or bring a law suit, or whether the time period in which to act has expired (in lawyers' language, whether the "statute of limitations" has "run").
I believe you will feel far more independent and self-sufficient if you have attempted to size up a problem for yourself, before talking to a lawyer.
Law as a Sword and Law as a Shield
There is a widespread belief, especially when one is frustrated by grievance and internal union procedures that seem to take forever, that it would go better before a judge. Don't believe it. The law takes at least as long. It is much more expensive. And lawyers will let you down as often as grievance committeepersons, if not more so.
The best way to think of the law is not as a sword, but as a shield. The law is not an especially good way to change things. But it can give you some real protection as you try to change things in other ways. That's why this book has the sub-title, "Building Solidarity While Staying Clear of the Law."
