Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
12-31-1990
Degree Name
Master of Science in Management - (M.S.)
Department
School of Industrial Management
First Advisor
Anthony Kahng
Abstract
On labor-management dispute, each party to the negotiation seeks to protect its economic interests by extracting concession from the other. Both union and management back up their demands with the threat of pressure tactics which would inflict economic harm upon the other party. If the negotiations reach an impasse, a labor union's most powerful weapon at the bargaining table is the credible threat of a strike, a protected right under the National Labor Relations Act. On the other hand, the management may use lockouts or hire new employees to replace those striking workers to force concessions.
Hiring permanent replacements has been legal since a 1938 Supreme Court ruling. Yet most employers shied away from the practice. Many wanted to avoid an all-or-nothing battle with employees. Others feared that it will end up with less-skilled workers and creating tension between new hires and returning strikers. Former President Ronald Reagan broke the ice in 1981, when he replaced striking air-traffic controllers. Several private employers soon followed suit. In the past year or so, some companies have taken the strategy a step further. Instead of waiting for a strike, they began advertising and even hiring permanent replacement workers during contract talks. The bus drivers' strike at Greyhound is an example of how replacement workers are becoming a popular strategy of managements. Moreover, this also caught the employees in a dilemma, since they knew that a decision to strike could cost them their jobs.
In the context of the adversarial system of labor-management relations that exists in the United States, the current rules on replacement and reinstatement of striking workers are defensible. Both the right of the employees to stop work to improve working conditions and the right of the employer to continue operating during a strike are protected.
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate, analysis and evaluate the legal status of strikers and replacement workers.
Recommended Citation
Su, Chun-Shu, "The legal status of strikers and replacement workers" (1990). Theses. 2630.
https://digitalcommons.njit.edu/theses/2630
