NCJ Number
74579
Journal
Clearinghouse Review Volume: 14 Issue: 9 Dated: (December 1980) Pages: 836-850
Date Published
1980
Length
15 pages
Annotation
The trend toward unionization in legal services programs is discussed; policy issues, unionization in American history, and suggestions for facilitating the process are highlighted.
Abstract
Unionization has occurred to date in over 50 legal services programs, although accurate data regarding numbers of units, contracts, and categories of employees are incomplete. The framework structuring unionization generally follows the model developed during the formation of industrial unions. Most recent activity has involved the 'public sector' employment. Legal services unionization resembles private industry unionization in that the public employment exclusion of the Federal law does not apply, and programs are covered by Federal labor law. Employees of such programs have extensive involvement in the management aspects of legal services, especially among the professional staff. The process of recognizing a union requires that union and management agree upon or litigate an appropriate unit definition and that the union be recognized or certified after an election as the bargaining agent. The recognition process will define the tone of unionization in the early stages. The substantive issues of legal services collective bargaining will include the economic and job security issues common to all collective bargaining, as well as an unusual degree of concern with labor control over input in policy decisionmaking. It is suggested that in order to facilitate the unionization process, both management and union participants should have training by and advice from persons knowledgeable about both legal services and unionization. Management should be sensitive to specific matters that will offend unit employees, such threats to involve the bar. Voluntary recognition should be granted whenever program management has no reason to doubt a claim of majority status made. by a union. Management should agree to define units as broadly as possible and should support inclusion of as many employees as possible. Twenty-two footnotes are included in the article.