Overview

"This provocative book by the leading historian of the National Labor Relations Board offers a reexamination of the NLRB and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by applying internationally accepted human rights principles as standards for judgment. These new standards challenge every orthodoxy in U.S. labor law and labor relations. James A. Gross argues that the NLRA was and remains at its core a workers' rights statute. Gross shows how value clashes and choices between those who interpret the NLRA as a workers' rights statute and those who contend that the NLRA seeks only a ""balance"" between the economic interests of labor and management have been major influences in the evolution of the board and the law. Gross contends, contrary to many who would write its obituary, that the NLRA is not dead. Instead he concludes with a call for visionary thinking, which would include, for example, considering the U.S. Constitution as a source of workers' rights. Rights, Not Interests will appeal to labor activists and those who are trying to reform our labor laws as well as scholars and students of management, human resources, and industrial relations."

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9781501714252

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Reviews

Gross's clearly structured account provides a good overview and persuasive interpretation for experts and undergraduates alike. * Choice * This is an obviously solid scholarly work.... Because it is so well organized and written, his book should be widely adopted in graduate and undergraduate courses on the evolving labour law and rights in the American workplace. It should also be studied carefully by the international cadre of labour law designers. * British Journal of Industrial Relations *

Rights, Not Interests will appeal to professors and students of labor law, labor studies, labor history, and administrative law, trade union leaders and staff, and readers interested in the history of the Obama administration. -- Brishen Rogers, Beasley School of Law, Temple University An extremely thoughtful review of NLRA policies from the enactment of the highly progressive and human rights oriented Wagner Act in 1935 to the more restrictive Taft-Hartley Act amendments in 1947. It explores in detail many Labor Board decisions to demonstrate the impact of more progressive Democratic Boards and more conservative Republican Boards. A great read for anyone interested in the NLRA. -- Charles B. Craver, George Washington University Law School

Author Information

James A. Gross is Professor of Labor Relations, Law, and History at the ILR School, Cornell University. He is the author of A Shameful Business and editor of Workers’ Rights as Human Rights, both from Cornell.

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