Protected activities of nonunion employees

The vast majority of American workers are nonunion and therefore unprotected by many of the mechanisms established through collective bargaining. They are protected to some degree, however, by a number of statutes and evolving legal doctrines that limit the employer's right to hire, fire, or otherwise discipline its nonunion people. The most elemental of these limitations is embodies in the National Labor Relations Act: section 7 protects the concerted activities of nonunion employees, section 8(a)(1) makes it an unfair labor practice for an employer to interfere with the section 7 rights of its employees; and section 10(c) grants the National Labor Relations Board broad remedial powers to correct violations, including the power to reinstate workers with or without back pay. The following article will examine this basic protection of nonunion employees and will point out those areas in which the Board has attempted to expand the scope of section 7's protection.