Law Review Article on Joy Silk Bargaining Orders

Download my paper on SSRN!

Good morning, all. I finished a draft of my paper on the potential revival of Joy Silk bargaining orders and the good-faith doubt test which powers them. You can view and download the paper over on SSRN.

The upshot of the paper is available in the abstract:

“This Article addresses the primary objections to the NLRB’s use of the good-faith doubt test in the realm of union requests for recognition that were raised in its heyday and elucidates their lack of historical, legal, and practical foundations. The NLRB’s inquiry into motive in the pre-recognition context was statutorily permissible, logically consistent, and effectively deterrent. Reviving the good-faith doubt test of Joy Silk and enforcing Section 8(a)(5) of the NLRA as written would better encapsulate the bargaining orders envisioned in past Supreme Court precedent and equip the NLRB with a tool historically proven to prevent misconduct in elections. Few initiatives in General Counsel Abruzzo’s agenda could prove more effective in carrying forth the Board’s statutory mission.”

I wrote and finished the draft before I accepted my job offer, but as I disclaim in the author’s footnote, the article “represents the opinions and views of the author alone, and does not constitute, nor should it be construed as, representing the views of the National Labor Relations Board, its General Counsel, or any of its Regional offices.”

This will probably be my last post for the foreseeable future, as I’m starting my new job soon and this paper was the last thing I’d been working on in recent months. I hope anyone interested in the material will read it, enjoy it, and add it to the discourse. It is certainly an interesting time to be a labor lawyer.

In Solidarity,

Brandon