"Concerted action" is protected under the NLRA even without a union. Of course it's sort of hard to have an enforceable contract without a union.
There's a lot of simple business, employment, contract, and consumer law that could and should be taught in high school, nothing esoteric about it, that everyone should know but most people don't. (For example that normally a contract doesn't have to be written.) Some better High Schools do have classes in stuff like this. I didn't learn a lot of it until I went to law school.
--- "B." <docile_body at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Yes, the "at will" doctrine is also something I
> found
> a big number of people to be blissfully unaware of.
>
> They'll teach you business management and some types
> of economics in high school (electives), but as far
> as
> I know they don't teach you simple things about
> labor
> law. Things people really ought to know. Bread and
> butter stuff about overtime laws, etc.
>
> "At will" -- your employer can fire you at any time,
> for any or no reason -- is one simple thing that I
> don't ever remember hearing about in school. (Or
> that
> you can quit at any time for any or no reason -- and
> your boss can sure make you look like hell in a
> reference if you do, but not vice versa in any
> meaningful way.) I had to do a lot of extensive
> research even into just finding out how to
> officially
> do a union certification in the workplace. For NLRB
> recognition. It was like researching ancient
> alchemy.
> The knowledge can be esoteric. And complicated. By
> esoteric, I really do mean hidden knowledge -- yet
> it
> ought to be taught before kids get out of school.
>
> The radical union thing is to ignore NLRB stuff and
> "have the union anyway," and screw legal
> recognition.
> But there are problems with that. Pretty complex.
>
> -B.
>
>
>
>
>
> Steven L. Robinson wrote:
>
> "I am surprized that a lot of people don't know
> about
> employment "at will" - that an individual can be
> fired
> for any or no reason. Unless you are self employed,
> work in a union shop or work for the government, you
> can be fired at a moment's notice. It is in
> virtually
> every employee handbook and on many employment
> applications, altho not usually emphasized at the
> outset of the employment relationship. Once you
> know
> about it, though, it is scary. You can lose your
> means
> of sustenance at a moment's notice, on the whim of a
> boss."
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