Is the Labor Act Doing Its Job

Abstract

This has been a period for re-examining the National Labor Relations Act by all segments of the industrial relations community. Academic analyses are marked by unhappiness with the current state of law. This theme is fairly new. Ten years ago, one would have found general agreement among labor, management and most academic scholars that the Act was doing its job, helping to provide free choice and free collective bargaining. The consensus which existed a short time ago no longer exists. On the right, where free market analysis has become a prominent feature, there is the claim that the NLRA is inefficient and causes interference with the benevolent working of the market. Thus, for example, at a recent symposium held by the Yale Law Journal to commemorate the New Deal, Professor Richard Epstein of the University of Chicago suggested that the entire NLRA be done away with.' In its place, he suggested that we return to the common law. He concluded on the basis of economic and political theory that a common law system based entirely on contract is more likely to promote the interests of workers, management and society in general.