Michael Anderson's ABA Labor Section Paper

March 3, 2009

The American Bar Association's Labor and Employment Section invited Michael Anderson to speak at its March 3, 2009 Midwinter Conference in San Diego. Michael's paper, "The Top Ten Contradictions of American Labor Law," argues that the labor movement must not limit its legal agenda to reversing the decisions of the Bush era. He argues that union advocates must attack anomalies in the law that have existed since the 1930s. He argues, for example:

* that management should not have standing in representation cases

* that management has no constitutional right to worktime propaganda, and

* that management has no right to keep privileges like the power to implement its final offer on impasse, once it wins the equal right to preempt strikes with lockouts.