By design, the NLRA encourages union bosses and their militant followers to inflict economic harm on businesses and employees who get in their way. And judges have long interpreted the NLRA to allow union bullies to avoid being prosecuted or sued for acts that are normally criminally or civilly illegal.
While any business that sought to damage a competitor by arranging to have it picketed could and very likely wouldgrants an exemption to union bosses seeking monopoly-bargaining power over the business’s employees. So far, this exemption has not shielded Big Labor from civil liability when union thugs intentionally damage personal or company property.
Unfortunately, a bold gambit by Teamster union lawyers is now dangerously close to openly or at least effectively extendingimmunity from civil liability to cases in which property is deliberately damaged or destroyed by union militants.
The Biden administration, represented at oral arguments by Justice Department attorney Vivek Suri, isn’t explicitly endorsing the Teamster lawyers’ radical expansion of.
Mark Mix is the president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation and the National Right to Work Committee.