Compa — Volume 57, Issue 3

Labor organizer and scholar Lance Compa reviews Jim Atleson's Values and Assumptions in labor law, discussing how the book illuminates fundamental tensions between capital and labor within legal frameworks. Compa draws on his experience as trade union organizer in factories across America to connect Atleson's theoretical analysis with practical union struggles. The article explores labor law's treatment of the right to strike, employer control over property and workers, status assumptions underlying employment relations, managerial prerogatives, and scope of mandatory bargaining. Compa recounts experiences organizing at Westinghouse, Plymouth wire factories, and other plants, showing how labor law doctrine fails to protect workers' organizing rights when employers claim property rights and managerial prerogatives. The article demonstrates that despite the Wagner Act's affirmation of workers' organizing rights, labor law system perpetuates subordination of workers through doctrines favoring capital mobility and employer discretion. Compa argues Atleson's analysis reveals how abstract assumptions about capital and management undermine workers' substantive rights. The article positions labor scholarship's importance for understanding law's role in worker subordination and capital dominance.

Topics: Labor & Employment · Legal Theory

Keywords: labor law · union organizing · strikes · workers' rights · employer prerogatives · Wagner Act · collective bargaining