Weingarten Rights
In 1975, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its Weingarten decision. In Weingarten, the Supreme Court upheld the NLRB decision in NLRB v. I. Weingarten, Inc. holding that Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act was violated if the employer requires the employee to submit to an investigatory interview and denies the employee's request for union representation. The essence of your "Weingarten Rights" is to give you as an employee the opportunity to have a union representative in a situation that may lead to displinary or punitive action against you as the employee. The rationale behind this right is that you as a single employee being interviewed might be intimidated and, therefore, may not raise facts in your favor during a disciplinary interview.

When Do You Need to Use Your Weingarten Rights?

1. Your supervisor or other management official directs you to attend an investigatory interview. An employee has a right to union representation in an interview with the employer, if you as an employee reasonably believe that the investigation can lead to disciplinary action.
2. When the purpose of any meeting is to obtain information or facts which may support disciplinary action.
3. You reasonably believe that discipline might result.

• grant the request and delay questioning until the union representative arrives and has a chance to consult privately with the employee;
• deny the request and end the interview immediately; or give the employee the choice of having the interview without representation or ending the interview.

Important Factors of Weingarten Rights

• The member must request a union representative; the employer has no obligation to inform the employee of that right. Management does not have to call the representative. Instead, the employer can stop the meeting, or just issue the discipline.
• Once a union representative is called, he/she has the following rights:
  1. to know the subject of the investigatory hearing
  2. to confer with the member prior to the hearing
  3. to speak/participate in the hearing
  BUT the representative cannot argue the case - this is not a grievance hearing
  
• An employee cannot choose which union representative they would like to represent him/her. The department union representative will be called if available. If not, the nearest available union representative will be contacted. However, if the employer is responsible for the representative not being available, then the supervisor must end the meeting until the representative is available. If the union is responsible for the representative not being available, then another representative or employee can be brought in, unless the supervisor chooses to postpone the meeting.

National Labor Relations Act
Section 7 of the Labor-Management Relations Act, which is a federal law, guarantees employees the right to organize and bargain collectively with their employer. Here are the actual words from this law:

"Section 7. Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection..."

What this Means
It means that employees have the legal right to help organize, to join and to support a union of their own choosing. This includes such activities as signing a union card, getting others to sign cards, attending union meetings, wearing union buttons, passing out union literature and talking union to other employees.

It states that employees have the legal right to join together and work as a team in order to help each other.

It says that employees have the legal right to deal with their employer as a group, rather than individually.

It gives employees the legal right to take such group action as they feel necessary in order to gain their desired goals, so long as these actions violate no other laws.

It does not mean that employees have the right to carry on union activity during working hours or to allow their union activity to interfere with their jobs. (For this purpose, break time and lunch time are not considered as working hours.)

Section 8 of the Labor-Management Relations Act protects employees by making it illegal for an employer to interfere with their rights as guaranteed in Section 7. Here are the actual words from the law:

"Section 8. (a) It shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer --
  (1) to interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in section 7;
  (2) by discrimination in regard to hire or tenure of employment to encourage or discourage membership in any labor organization..."

What this Means
It means that employees are supposed to have a FREE CHOICE in deciding whether or not they want to use their right to organize. Anything that an employer does to infringe upon this free choice is against the law.

It means that employers who interfere during an organizing campaign are breaking the law. An employer is not supposed to question employees, or even try to find out, about how employees feel, who signed cards, which employees are pushing the union, who attended meetings, what went on at meetings, etc. It is none of their business!

It means that an employer is not supposed to make any promises of raises, promotions or other benefits in order to influence employees in the exercise of their rights.

It means that an employer cannot take away, or threaten to take away, any benefits which you already have because of your union activity. It means that it is illegal for an employer to penalize an employee in any manner because of his union activity or beliefs. This includes such things as cutting out over-time, transferring to a less desirable job, suspension or discharge. (If an employer does any of these things and it is proven that it was done because of union activity, he must reinstate the employee to his former position without loss of seniority and pay him for all last wages, plus 6% interest.)

Other Protections Under the Act

• Do not have to work under abnormally dangerous working conditions
• Right to strike and engage in peaceful picketing
• Right to union representation during interviews which may lead to discipline