Section 18 Picketing Directed at Primary and Neutral Employers

• Library: Employer-Employee Law 2008

The most far-reaching provision of the National Labor Relations
Act (NLRA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 151 et seq., regulating labor picketing is NLRA § 8(b)(4)(B), 29 U.S.C. § 158(b)(4)(B). Commonly described as the “secondary boycott section,” it seeks to balance the dual Congressional objectives of:

• preserving the right of labor organizations to bring pressure to bear on offending employers in primary labor disputes; and

• shielding neutral employers and others from pressures and controversies not their own

NLRB v. Denver Bldg. & Const. Trades Council, 341 U.S. 675 (1951). But NLRA § 8(b)(4)(B) does not define unlawful secondary activity as opposed to lawful primary activity. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the courts have interpreted this provision less on the basis of the text itself than on a case-by-case approach, resulting in a convoluted set of rules covering the myriad types of...