Section 39 Picketing for Recognition Under the National Labor Relations Act

• Library: Employer-Employee Law 2008

The only section of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA),
29 U.S.C. §§ 151 et seq., that specifically proscribes picketing is NLRA § 8(b)(7), 29 U.S.C. § 158(b)(7), which provides that it is an unfair labor practice:

[T]o picket or cause to be picketed, or threaten to picket or cause to be picketed, any employer where an object thereof is forcing or requiring an employer to recognize or bargain with a labor organization as the representative of his employees, or forcing or requiring the employees of an employer to accept or select such labor organization as their collective bargaining representative, unless such labor organization is currently certified as the representative of such employees:

(A) where the employer has lawfully recognized in accordance with [the NLRA] any other labor organization and a question concerning representation may not appropriately be raised under section 159(c) of [the NLRA],

(B) where within the preceding twelve months a valid election under section 159(c) of [the NLRA] has been conducted, or

(C) where such picketing has been conducted without a petition under section 159(c) . . . being filed within a reasonable period of time not to exceed thirty days...