Individual Autonomy and Collective Empowerment in Labor Law: Union Membership Resignations and Strikebreaking in the New Economy

In this Article, Doctor Abraham studies the tensions between individual rights and theories of collective action in the context of union membership resignations and strikebreaking. He argues that recent judicial and executive tendencies to value individual worker autonomy over collective union action are misguided, lacking a basis in both legal precedent and social reality. In support of his view, Abraham first explores the philosophical and historical-sociological roots of labor and labor-capital relations, focusing on the meaning of employment and the history of collective action. Next, he examines the social and legal origins of the judiciary\u27s recent tendency to increase union members\u27 resignation and strikebreaking rights at the expense of union solidarity and strength. Doctor Abraham concludes that in our system of voluntary unionism, courts must uphold labor solidarity rights in order to permit labor law to function at all and to afford otherwise powerless workers the possibility of developing as truly autonomous individuals