Labor Law Final Exam?

[darrick34]

Picketing, handbilling, and demonstrating

1. May an employer lawfully fire an employee who engages in a peaceful economic strike?

2. May an employer lawfully fire an employee who engages in a peaceful unfair labor practice strike?

3. Under the MacKay decision what may an employer do if its employees go on strike?

4. Assume the Teamsters representing UPS drivers engage in an economic strike and decide to picket.
a. May they picket at a Coca Cola plant because Coca Cola uses UPS?
b. May they picket wherever UPS delivery trucks are delivering goods?

5. Assume the bakers at the Oreo plant go on strike for a new contract. They learn that Oreo has hired Chips Ahoy to make Oreo cookies.
a. May the bakers picket at the Oreo plant?
b. May the bakers picket at the Chips Ahoy plant when the plant is making Oreos?
c. May the bakers picket at Publix to demand that Publix stop doing business with Chips Ahoy?

6. The Oreo bakers then make up picket signs that read “Please don’t buy Oreos – support the Oreo Bakers Union!” They picket on a public sidewalk in front of the local Publix when it is open for business. Is that picketing protected?

7. May a state or local government ban all peaceful picketing?

8. May a federal court issue an injunction to stop peaceful picketing for a new collective bargaining agreement?

9. May a federal court issue an injunction to stop peaceful picketing in violation of a “no strike” article in a collective bargaining agreement?

10. The Carpenters’ Union pickets Bob the Builder with signs that simply say “Bob the Builder does NOT employ Carpenters’ Union members.” It’s true – Bob the Builder is non-union. Is that picketing lawful? (Bonus point – what type of picketing is this?)

11. The Carpenters’ Union then learns from a disgruntled former employee that Bob the Builder pays his workers half of what its members make when they work on a job. The Carpenters’ Union puts up signs that say “Bob the Builder does not pay area standard wages – he’s undermining the American dream!” Is that picketing lawful? (Bonus point – what type of picketing is this?)

12. The Carpenters’ Union decides that it wants to handbill instead of picketing. Where it formerly picketed, it has its members hand out handbills reading “Boycott Bob the Builder! Don’t do business with him – he hates Unions!” Larry the lumber guy and Dan the drywall man drive up, take a handbill, and immediately tell Bob they will no longer do business with him. Is the Union’s conduct lawful?

13. Then the Carpenters Union learns that Coco Condo, a local real estate developer, uses Bob the Builder for all of its developments. The Union then goes to Coco Condo with picket signs reading “Don’t do business with Coco Condo – they subsidize the destruction of the American dream!” Is that picketing lawful?

14. Instead of picketing, the Union inflates a giant balloon that looks like the Grim Reaper across the street. On public sidewalks in front of Coco Condo demonstrators dressed up in black suits follow men carrying a cardboard coffin that reads “The American Dream – Killed by Coco Condo!” Is that demonstration lawful?

Arbitration and mediation

15. What is the difference between mediation and arbitration?

16. Are unions and employers required to participate in mediation before engaging in a strike or a lockout?

17. Do the federal rules of evidence apply in arbitration hearings?

18. If the party that loses at arbitration appeals the decision to court, and if the court finds that it would interpret the contract differently than the arbitrator did, is the court free to reject the arbitrator’s decision and substitute its own?

19. If the party that loses at arbitration appeals the decision to court, claiming that the award is against public policy, may the court itself decide what the public policy is and then review the award to see if it violates that policy?

20. If an employer claims that it has the management right to do something, who first decides whether it is in fact a management right – a court or an arbitrator?