ULPs Ensure Company Complies With NLRA

Don't Confuse the Grievance With the Unfair Labor Practice

Things went well for Goldilocks because she understood what the NLRB does and was able to make the proper request.

What would have happened if Goldilocks had simply told the NLRB that the company was violating the contract by not giving her a just-right bed? In that case, the NLRB would have said they couldn't help her and deferred the case (sent it back to the company and the union for resolution).

Too often, an inexperienced steward or union rep. will have good cause for a ULP, but will make the wrong argument to the NLRB. When the case is deferred, they go away grumbling that the NLRB is useless. In truth, they have simply not yet learned how to use ULPs to get what they want.

Just because what the company is doing seems unfair doesn't make it an unfair labor practice. Only violations of the NLRA are grounds for a complaint.

In general, the NLRB files complaints for refusal to provide information, interference with employees' Weingarten rights, company retaliation for union activity, refusing arbitration, or creating barriers so the grievance/arbitration process cannot go forward. Nearly everything else gets deferred.

When the NLRB defers a case, we say it has been "Collyerized," after a 1971 case involving Collyer Insulated Wire Company, in which the NLRB established the criteria for handling cases.