Faculty & Research
Neutrality Agreements
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Vol 42 No 5
By: Arch Stokes , Robert L. Murphy , Paul Wagner and David Sherwyn J.D.
Executive Summary: Getting employers to sign neutrality agreements is standard operating procedure for the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union (H.E.R.E.) and has been described as their primary method of adding members. A neutrality agreement that includes a card-check provision represents a cheaper and much more effective organizing technique than the secret-ballot method designated by Congress when it enacted the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in 1935. A chief problem with H.E.R.E.'s preferred approach is that it violates at least two federal statutes. Similarly, many of the labor-peace and living-wage ordinances designed to force employers into these neutrality agreements are also illegal. This article traces the evolution and use of neutrality agreements by organized labor and its political allies, and concludes that neutrality agreements and similar techniques designed to circumvent the secret-ballot election procedures established under the NLRA violate Sections 7 and 8(a)(2) of the NLRA and Section 302 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 29 USC 186 (LMRA).
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