The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is an act to protect the rights of both employees and employers, including the right to strikes. However, in case a strike is considered unlawful, it will not be protected. Whether a strike is lawful or not depends on its purpose, the presence of a no-strike contract, or strikers’ behavior. In particular, NLRA will not protect a strike that supports an unfair labor practice or is an attempt to blackmail an employer, for example, force him off doing business with a particular partner. Neither are strikers who threaten other employees or block people from entering or leaving the building under the protection of NLRA (National Labor Research Board, n.d.). The reason for that is the need for protecting non-striking employees who must not suffer during a strike.
The significant advantage of interest arbitration lies in the possibility of using it if all other methods prove ineffective. Besides, it increases the chance for a non-biased arbitrator to allocate negotiations on contracts to a third party represented by government officials. On the contrary, this shift also contributes to the risk of misunderstandings and undesirable deals since those officials are not necessarily reliable. Furthermore, once an arbitrator decides on a contract, neither employers nor units are allowed to appeal. The impossibility to cancel the arbitrator’s solution is probably the reason why interest arbitration is extremely rare in the private sector. Business owners do not want any exterior interventions to their operations since independence is a crucial asset of private entrepreneurship as such. The public sector uses interest arbitration, although predominantly as a last resort in case the parties have failed to agree in other ways.
Reference
NLRA and the right to strike | National Labor Relations Board. (n.d.).