TOP COURT STRIPS UNIONS OF ANTITRUST WEAPON.Byline: Aaron Epstein Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire With only one dissent, the Supreme Court on Thursday took a legal weapon out of the hands of more than 2 million unionized workers who negotiate with employers acting in unison. The decision, in a case that involved a labor dispute in the National Football League, affects other professional sports The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. and the entertainment, construction, transportation and retail industries, among others. Unions may not file antitrust suits against employers who agree among themselves to impose wages, hours or working conditions on employees after bargaining collapses, the court said. Federal labor laws labor law, legislation dealing with human beings in their capacity as workers or wage earners. The Industrial Revolution, by introducing the machine and factory production, greatly expanded the class of workers dependent on wages as their source of income. shield such employer agreements from antitrust attacks, said Stephen Breyer Stephen Gerald Breyer (born August 15, 1938) is an American attorney, political figure, and jurist. Since 1994, he has served as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. , the newest justice and author of the majority opinion. More than 40 percent of all major collective-bargaining agreements in private industry are products of multi-employer negotiations, Breyer said. Employers were elated by their victory. ``It puts collective-bargaining disputes right where they should be - at the bargaining table and not in the courts,'' said Zachary Fasman, a lawyer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest not-for-profit federation of businesses, representing more than 3 million businesses and organizations in the United States. As of 2003, the chamber was comprised of 3000 state and local chambers and 830 business associations. and National Association of Manufacturers. But Stephen Bradbury, who represented the NFL NFL abbr. National Football League NFL (US) n abbr (= National Football League) → Fußball-Nationalliga Players Association, said the decision gave employers bargaining together a license to dampen competition for employees, especially in the sports and entertainment fields. ``In those markets, employers now have an incentive to propose a salary cap across the board and, when it's rejected, impose it once an impasse is reached,'' he said. The case resolved by the Supreme Court arose from a 1989 proposal of National Football League team owners to pay rookie players on developmental squads $1,000 a week. The players union rejected the offer, but the owners declared an impasse in negotiations and imposed the salary cap. Led by Antony Brown of the Buffalo Bills But the owners' argument - that they are exempt from antitrust law antitrust law Any law restricting business practices that are considered unfair or monopolistic. Among U.S. laws, the best known is the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, which declared illegal “every contract, combination…or conspiracy in restraint of trade or - ultimately triumphed, and the award was overturned. |
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