“Kenneth Lopatka’s new work, NLRA Rights in the Nonunion Workplace, is a fine reference for workers in the field and also would make a good supplemental textbook in any labor relations class. In fact, in the hands of a competent instructor it could easily stand as the sole or principal text. This is not a book for the law student but will function very well as instruction for the practitioner who doesn’t wish to spend his life on the phone asking questions of counsel.

The book builds a good bridge between case law and the circumstances generally encountered in organizing situations. Mr. Lopatka has written a book for the field organizer and union staffer who wants to know the perils and possibilities down on the ground, in the nonunion workplace. This book will be a real gem for HR and management-side folks looking to understand how events will shape the firm’s responses—the chapter Screening to identify union “salts” is a virtual textbook on the subject, worth its weight in gold to anyone who has faced that sort of situation (or brought it about).” 

 -Michael McGrorty
Instructor, Labor Relations, California State University Dominguez Hills and
Labor Analyst/Technical Writer, Piping Industry Progress & Education Trust, Los Angeles, CA 

A resource devoted to exploring the NLRA’s application in the nonunion workplace and the varying decisions of the NLRB regarding private sector employment issues.

Most treatises on the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) concentrate primarily on union-related activity. But the NLRA is applicable in some respects in the nonunion workplace as well. Since so many private-sector employees in the United States are nonunion, a huge vacuum exists for a resource that addresses the NLRA’s potential reach in the nonunion workplace. BNA Books’ new publication NLRA Rights in the Nonunion Workplace expertly fills this gap, concentrating exclusively on the NLRA’s broad application outside the union workplace in order to prepare attorneys representing employees or employers, as well as human resources professionals, to spot potential NLRA issues, help them understand the options and associated risks, and provide them with a head start in rendering sound advice to their clients.

With the prospect of a full five-member board and possible revisiting of the issue of Weingarten rights and other employee protections on the horizon, the release of this resource is truly fortuitous. The book’s issue-by-issue examination of the Board’s changing position on various issues will enable lawyers to analyze any new decisions or initiatives by the NLRB in order to pinpoint potential new areas of liability and formulate effective strategies. Because the protection against retaliation the NLRA affords employees is more extensive than that of any other anti-retaliation statute, the exploration of critical issues in NLRA Rights in the Nonunion Workplace is equally expansive, and includes discussion of:

• NLRA threshold requirements for employees to be protected against employer reprisals, the broad contours of that protection once it attaches, and the conditions under which it may be lost
• The vulnerability of seemingly benign rules in employee handbooks, and the various ways in which a rule or its application can beget liability
• Employee participation committees and the NLRA’s prohibition against them, as well as the narrow—and easy to violate—exceptions
• Issues surrounding union organizers applying for jobs in nonunion companies for the purpose of organizing (salting)
• Potential liability in conducting investigations of employee misconduct, denying an interviewee’s request for coworker assistance, and suspensions pending investigation

With the contours of NLRA protections subject to reexamination under a new Board, NLRA Rights in the Nonunion Workplace is sure to be a helpful resource both for attorneys less familiar with labor law and for traditional labor lawyers and labor professionals alike. This is the only treatise that is completely focused on this highly prevalent, and timely, topic, and it is one every employment law attorney should have on a nearby bookshelf.

• Summary Table of Contents
• Detailed Table of Contents
• Preface
• Press Release

Errata 

Pre-Publication Reviews