From Truth Out: http://truth-out.org/news/item/15664-solidarity-not-forever-how-the-supreme-court-kicked-retirees-into-the-gutter
By Ann Hodges and Ellen Dannin
Thursday, 11 April 2013
The Supreme Court’s decision in Allied Chemical Workers v. Pittsburgh Plate Glass to give employers complete control of retiree benefits undercuts the purpose of the National Labor Relations Act and leaves vulnerable, retired employees powerless to protect themselves from costly changes in benefits.
Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act to balance the power of employers – who could operate as corporations or partnerships – by giving employees the right to band together and deal with their employer as a group. A second way Congress gave employees power was by giving them the legal right to support any employee, whether or not they were employed by the same employer. In other words, the NLRA gave employees the right to make common cause with other workers, just as employers had the right to form industry groups to support one another.
The courts, however, have judicially limited employees’ rights to make common cause by deciding that certain types of employees are not actually employees under the law. In 1971, the Supreme Court decided to remove NLRA protections for retirees.
Deciding that retirees were not employees might seem reasonable, because we usually think of employees as active workers. But Congress wanted the NLRA to provide broad protections to workers. Broad protections were only possible if the definition of employee was broad. As a result, Congress defined “employee” in the NLRA to include “any employee,” and, to make it clear that Congress meant what it said, the NLRA says that “employee” is not “limited to the employees of a particular employer.”
Despite this broad definition, the US Supreme Court has decided certain categories of workers are not employees. With each exclusion, those excluded have had less power to protect themselves. In addition, the workers still protected by the NLRA also lose power. Here is how defining retirees as non-employees weakened the rights of all.
For years, unions negotiated retirement benefits to provide employees income and insurance during their retirement. These benefits are deferred compensation, like putting money into the bank to use in later years. The benefits compensated retirees for their years of dedicated work for the employer. The two most important retiree benefits were – and still are – pensions and health insurance. As inflation eroded those benefits for retired workers, unions negotiated increases or resisted decreases.
Continue reading at: http://truth-out.org/news/item/15664-solidarity-not-forever-how-the-supreme-court-kicked-retirees-into-the-gutter
