Labor Law and Labor Relations

The employment of construction workers is governed by federal and state labor laws.  The requirements vary by state, but tend to be more onerous in the rust-belt and in "pro-union states" than in the South an West.  The following surveys key points of labor laws and relations.

History: Employment law in the U.S. has traditionally been governed by the common law rule of "at-will employment," meaning that an employment relationship could be terminated by either party at any time without a reason. This is still true today in most states. However, starting in 1941, a series of laws prohibited certain discriminatory firings. That is, in most states, absent an express contractual provision to the contrary, an employer can still fire an employee for no or any reason, as long as it isn't an illegal reason (which includes a violation of public policy).

Fair Employment Act: In 1941, the Fair Employment Act became the first law to prohibit racial discrimination, although it only applied to the national defense industry. 

Fair Labor Standards Act: Regulates minimum wages and overtime pay for certain employees who work more than 40 hours in a work week. While working an employee must work a minimum of two hours in a day.

National Labor Relations Act: The "Wagner Act" gives private sector workers the right to choose whether they wish to be represented by a union and establishes the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold elections for that purpose. As originally enacted in 1935, the NLRA makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against workers because of their union membership or retaliate against them for engaging in organizing campaigns or other "concerted activities", to form "company unions", or to refuse to engage in collective bargaining with the union that represents their employees.

Taft-Hartley Act: The "Labor-Management Relations Act"), passed in 1947, loosened some of the restrictions on employers, changed NLRB election procedures, and added a number of new limitations on unions. The Act, among other things, prohibits jurisdictional strikes and secondary boycotts by unions, and authorizes individual states to pass "right-to-work laws", regulates pension and other benefit plans established by unions and provides that federal courts have jurisdiction to enforce collective bargaining agreements.

Norris-LaGuardia Act: Passed in 1932 this law outlawed the issuance of injunctions in labor disputes by federal courts. While the Act does not prevent state courts from issuing injunctions, it ended what some observers called "government by injunction," in which the federal courts used injunctions to prevent unions from striking, organizing and, in some cases, even talking to workers or entering certain parts of a state. Roughly half the states have enacted their own version of the Norris-LaGuardia Act.