Collective Bargaining, Individual Voice, and Inadequate Law

Inaugural lecture for the James E. & Sarah A. Degan Professorship of Law at University of Michigan Law School. Delivered at the Law School in Spring of 1982. Collective bargaining lies at the heart of the union - management relationship. It is the end and purpose of the whole effort to protect employees against reprisals when they form an organization to represent them in dealing with their employer. It is grounded in the belief that industrial strife will be checked and the workers\u27 lot bettered, if they are given an effective voice in determining the conditions of their employment. My thesis is that federal law, even while placing the force of government behind collective bargaining, has so artificially confined its scope that the process has been seriously impeded in achieving its full potential