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How to Beat the Boss page 2 of 5 | |||||
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Jennifer Vogel | ||||
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That's why it's so important for workers to be aware of, and to utilize, the rights we do have--and we have quite a few. The last 20 years, in fact, have seen the blossoming of employment law, a field that has helped us win important protections in the courts. You may not know it, but it's illegal for bosses to discriminate based on race, religion, or sex, to fire us for whistle-blowing or forming unions, or to can or demote us for a whole host of other reasons.
The National Labor Relations Act has been around since the Great Depression and ensures that workers aren't penalized for organizing. The benefit of forming a union-if possible in your workplace-is that once you've got one, your job is protected and your employer has to bargain with the union over any points you deem important. The trick to (and the scary part about) making this law work for you is that you have to let your boss know what you're up to. It's hard to prove you were fired for unionizing if your employer didn't even know about it. "I think the protection of a union is the single most important protection a worker can have," says Palfsky. "It means there is someone who can bargain on equal footing with the employer and establish a grievance process." Unfortunately, most private sector workers don't belong to unions--less than 15 percent, by some counts--and aren't in any hurry to join or form them. |
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