Your Legal Rights are Protected

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Employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act are afforded certain rights to join together to improve their wages and working conditions, with or without a union.

Union Activity

Employees have the right to attempt to form a union where none currently exists, or to decertify a union that has lost the support of employees.

Examples of employee rights include:

• Forming, or attempting to form, a union in your workplace;
• Joining a union whether the union is recognized by your employer or not;
• Assisting a union in organizing your fellow employees;
• Refusing to do any or all of these things.
• To be fairly represented by a union

Activity Outside a Union

Employees who are not represented by a union also have rights under the NLRA.  Specifically, the National Labor Relations Board protects the rights of employees to engage in “concerted activity”,  which is when two or more employees take action for their mutual aid or protection regarding terms and conditions of employment.  A single employee may also engage in protected concerted activity if he or she is acting on the authority of other employees, bringing group complaints to the employer’s attention, trying to induce group action, or seeking to prepare for group action.

A few examples of protected concerted activities are:

• Two or more employees addressing their employer about improving their pay.
• Two or more employees discussing work-related issues beyond pay, such as safety concerns, with each other.
• An employee speaking to an employer on behalf of one or more co-workers about improving workplace conditions.

More information, including descriptions of actual concerted activity cases, is available on the protected concerted activity page.

Who is covered?

Most employees in the private sector are covered by the NLRA. However, the Act specifically excludes individuals who are:

• employed by Federal, state, or local government
• employed as agricultural laborers
• employed in the domestic service of any person or family in a home
• employed by a parent or spouse
• employed as an independent contractor
• employed as a supervisor (supervisors who have been discriminated against for refusing to violate the NLRA may be covered)
• employed by an employer subject to the Railway Labor Act, such as railroads and airlines
• employed by any other person who is not an employer as defined in the NLRAThe National Labor Relations Act Says: 

Section 7: "Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representation of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining"

What your Employer Cannot Do:

It is unlawful for Supervisors or Managers at your workplace to interfere with, restrain or coerce employees seeking to organize or join a Union. Any of the following acts constitute a violation of the federal law.

1. Attend any union meetings, park across the street from the union hall to see which  employees enter the hall or engage in any undercover activity which would indicate that the employees are being kept under surveillance to determine who is and who is not participating in the union program.
2. Tell employees that the Company will fire or punish them if they engage in union activity.
3. Lay off or discharge any employee for union activity.
4. Grant employees wage increases or special concessions in order to keep the union out.
5. Bar employee union representatives from soliciting employee memberships during non-working hours.
6. Ask employees about confidential union matters, meetings, etc. (Some employees may, of their own accord, walk up and tell of such matters.  It is not unfair for the boss to listen, but they must not ask questions to obtain additional information.)
7. Ask employees what they think about the union or a union representative.
8. Ask employees how they intend to vote.
9. Threaten employees with economic reprisal for participating in union activities.  For example, threaten to move the facility or close the business, curtail operations, reduce employee benefits.
10. Promise benefits to employees if they reject the union.
11. Give financial support or other assistance to a union or to employees, regardless of whether or not they are supporting or opposing the union.
12. Announce that they will not deal with a union.
13. Tell employees that the Company will fire or punish them if they engage in union activities.
14. Ask employees whether or not they belong to a union or have signed up for a union.
15. Ask an employee, during the interview when they are hiring him, about his affiliation with a labor organization.
16. Make anti-union statements or actions that might show their preference for a non-union supporter.
17. Discriminate between union and non-union employees when assigning overtime work or desirable work.
18. Purposely team up non-union employees and keep them apart from those they think may belong to the union.
19. Transfer workers on the basis of union affiliation or activity.
20. Choose who to be laid off on the basis of weakening the union's strength or discouraging membership in it.
21. Discriminate against union people when disciplining employees.
22. By the nature of the work assignment, indicate that they would like to get rid of an employee because of their union activity.
23. Discipline union employees for a particular action and permit non-union employees to go unpunished for the same action.
24. Deviate from Company policy for the purpose of getting rid of a union supporter.
25. Take actions that adversely affect an employee's job or any pay rate because of union activity.
26. Become involved in arguments that may lead to physical encounter with an employee over the union questions.
27. Threaten a union member through a third party.
28. Threaten workers or coerce them in an attempt to influence their vote.
29. Promise employees a reward or a future benefit if they decide "no union".
30. Tell employees overtime work (and premium pay) will be discontinued if facility is unionized.
31. Say unionization will force company to lay off employees.
32. Say unionization will take away vacations, or other benefits and privileges enjoyed.
33. Promise employees promotions, raises or other benefits if they get out of the union or refrain from joining it.
34. Start a petition or circular against the union or encourage or take part in circulating one, if it was started by employees.
35. Urge employees to try to induce others to oppose the union or keep out of it.
36. Visit the homes of employees to urge them to reject the union