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.
Employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act have the right to join together to improve their wages and working conditions, with or without a union. When an employer or union interfere with these rights, it is an unfair labor practice, and it violates the National Labor Relations Act.
The National Labor Relations Act imposes obligations on both employers and unions to ensure that employees can freely exercise their rights relating to organizing, forming, joining or assisting a labor organization for collective bargaining purposes, working together to improve their terms and conditions of employment, or refraining from any such activity.
Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA or the Act), employees have the right to communicate with other employees at their workplace about their wages. Wages are a vital term and condition of employment, and discussions of wages are often preliminary to organizing or other actions for mutual aid or protection.
Among the rights protected by Section 7 is the right of union-represented employees, upon request, to have their representative present during an interview that the employee reasonably believes could lead to discipline.
The Right to Strike. Section 7 of the Act states in part, “Employees shall have the right. . . to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” Strikes are included among the concerted activities protected for employees by this section. Section 13 also concerns the right to strike.
Employees are protected in seeking enforcement of labor and employment laws. U.S. laws prohibit employers from retaliating against workers for exercising their workplace rights, regardless of the workers’ immigration status (resources for immigrant workers are available here). The worker.gov website has resources for workers on retaliation and how to report it. Employers can also learn about best practices to prevent retaliation here.