Nature of Union Unfair Labor Practice
Unfair labor practice by a labor organization is a statutory wrong committed by a union, labor association, or its officers, agents, or representatives when their conduct restrains employee self-organization, distorts free collective bargaining, compels employer discrimination, extracts improper payments, or grossly violates a collective bargaining agreement.
It is not every unfair, harsh, mistaken, or internally irregular union act. The conduct must fall within the Labor Code enumeration or must be legally equivalent to one of the enumerated acts. The protected interest is both individual and collective: each employee has freedom of association, while the bargaining unit is entitled to representation untainted by coercion, collusion, discrimination, or bad faith.
Union unfair labor practice is treated as both a violation of civil labor rights and an offense against the State. The administrative case determines labor-relations liability and remedies; the criminal case requires the separate conditions and proof demanded by penal law.
Persons Covered
The statutory actor is the labor organization itself, but liability may attach through the acts of officers, members of governing boards, agents, representatives, or members who actually participate in, authorize, or ratify the unlawful conduct.
A local union, federation, national union, or workers' association may commit unfair labor practice if it deals with employees or employers in a manner covered by the Labor Code. The duty to bargain collectively, however, attaches only when the labor organization is the certified or duly recognized exclusive bargaining representative of the employees in the appropriate bargaining unit.
Union members are not automatically liable for the union's unlawful act. Individual responsibility depends on personal participation, authorization, or ratification, especially in the criminal aspect of unfair labor practice.
Restraint or Coercion of Employees
A labor organization commits unfair labor practice when it restrains or coerces employees in the exercise of their right to self-organization. The right protected includes the freedom to form, join, assist, support, refrain from supporting, or change a labor organization, subject to valid union-security arrangements allowed by law.
Restraint or coercion may be physical, economic, organizational, or procedural. It includes violence, intimidation, threats of job loss, reprisals against dissenters, obstruction of employees who choose another union, punitive use of union machinery to suppress protected choices, and coercive picketing that prevents employees from working or exercising their own labor rights.
A union may prescribe reasonable rules on the acquisition or retention of membership. That statutory privilege protects legitimate membership qualifications, dues rules, discipline, and internal order, but it does not protect arbitrary, discriminatory, retaliatory, or bad-faith rules that operate as coercion of employee choice.
Internal union discipline is generally valid when it is based on the union constitution and by-laws, imposed for a lawful union purpose, and preceded by fair proceedings. It becomes legally suspect when it punishes protected activity, silences opposition in representation matters, denies membership on unequal terms, or is used to cause loss of employment without lawful basis.
Picketing, persuasion, and campaign activity are protected forms of concerted action when they remain peaceful and truthful. They lose protection when they are used to blockade premises, threaten nonstrikers, impose force on employees who choose to work, or compel allegiance to the union through fear rather than free choice.
Causing Employer Discrimination
A labor organization commits unfair labor practice when it causes or attempts to cause an employer to discriminate against an employee. The attempt is itself punishable because the law protects employees from union pressure directed at the employer, even if the employer ultimately refuses to carry out the discrimination.
The discrimination may involve hiring, tenure, dismissal, promotion, transfer, work assignments, seniority, pay, benefits, or any term or condition of employment. The union act is unlawful when the requested employer action is based on membership status, factional loyalty, protected activity, or the employee's refusal to submit to unlawful union demands.
A union-security clause is not by itself unlawful. Closed-shop, union-shop, and maintenance-of-membership clauses may validly require membership as a condition for continued employment when they are contained in a lawful collective bargaining agreement and enforced consistently with law, due process, and recognized exemptions.
Enforcement of a union-security clause becomes unfair labor practice when the union demands dismissal despite arbitrary denial or termination of membership, noncompliance with uniform membership conditions, lack of fair hearing, bad faith, factional retaliation, or a legally protected reason for nonmembership. The employer remains responsible for verifying the lawful basis for dismissal and for observing procedural due process.
A labor organization may require compliance with regular membership obligations, including lawful dues and assessments. It may not use employer discipline to collect unlawful exactions, punish political dissent inside the union, or expel employees on grounds not equally applied to similarly situated members.
Refusal to Bargain Collectively
The exclusive bargaining representative has a statutory duty to bargain collectively with the employer. A labor organization commits unfair labor practice when it violates that duty or refuses to bargain in good faith.
Good-faith bargaining requires meeting at reasonable times, making sincere efforts to reach agreement, considering proposals, explaining counterproposals when appropriate, and reducing agreed terms into a written collective bargaining agreement. The law does not compel either side to accept a proposal, but it requires a genuine process of negotiation.
Bad-faith bargaining by a union may appear as outright refusal to meet, repeated cancellation without sufficient reason, insistence on clearly unlawful demands as a condition for any agreement, surface bargaining, repudiation of authorized negotiators, refusal to sign an agreement already reached, or use of bargaining power for objectives unrelated to the bargaining unit's legitimate interests.
The exclusive representative owes fair representation to all employees in the bargaining unit, whether members or nonmembers of the union. It may not bargain only for members, exclude dissenters from CBA benefits, sacrifice a subgroup for hostile or arbitrary reasons, or convert bargaining authority into a tool for internal factional control.
A good-faith dispute over bargaining position, economic capacity, management prerogative, or interpretation of law does not automatically become unfair labor practice. The decisive inquiry is whether the union's conduct shows refusal, evasion, discrimination, coercion, or bad faith in the collective bargaining process.
Exactions for Unperformed Services
A labor organization commits unfair labor practice when it causes or attempts to cause an employer to pay, deliver, or agree to pay or deliver money or other things of value in the nature of an exaction for services not performed or not to be performed.
This rule condemns coercive union demands that require payment without lawful consideration. The classic form is a demand that the employer pay for unnecessary, fictitious, or unused services as the price of labor peace, access to labor, or avoidance of union pressure.
The wrong lies in the union's attempt to convert bargaining strength into a private levy unrelated to actual work, legitimate representation, or a lawful benefit for employees. It differs from negotiated wages, benefits, union dues, agency fees, and other lawful economic items because those are tied to employment, representation, or a valid agreement.
A demand may be unlawful even if framed as a fee, contribution, reimbursement, facilitation charge, or settlement item. Substance controls: if the employer is pressured to pay for services not rendered and not to be rendered, the demand falls within the prohibited exaction.
Negotiation or Attorney's Fees from Employers
A labor organization commits unfair labor practice when it asks for or accepts negotiation fees or attorney's fees from the employer as part of the settlement of an issue in collective bargaining or any other labor dispute.
The rule protects the independence of employee representation. A union representative who receives fees from the employer in connection with bargaining or dispute settlement risks divided loyalty, collusion, and compromise of the employees' interests.
Attorney's fees or negotiation expenses may be dealt with under lawful internal union rules and applicable statutory requirements, but they may not be extracted from the employer as a consideration for settling bargaining issues or disputes. Agreements contrary to this policy are treated as void because they impair the integrity of collective bargaining.
The prohibition covers both asking and accepting. A completed payment is not required when the union demand itself is made as part of settlement pressure or bargaining leverage.
Gross Violation of a Collective Bargaining Agreement
A labor organization may commit unfair labor practice by violating a collective bargaining agreement, but ordinary CBA breaches are generally handled through the grievance machinery and voluntary arbitration. Labor law reserves unfair labor practice treatment for gross violations of the CBA.
A gross CBA violation is a flagrant or malicious refusal to comply with economic provisions of the agreement. The requirement of flagrancy or malice separates unfair labor practice from mere error, ambiguity, inability, isolated noncompliance, or good-faith disagreement over contract interpretation.
Economic provisions include terms affecting wages, benefits, monetary entitlements, and other material employment advantages negotiated in the CBA. Non-economic disputes, procedural disagreements, and ordinary interpretive issues normally proceed through the contractually agreed grievance process unless accompanied by conduct independently constituting unfair labor practice.
The union may be liable when it deliberately repudiates binding CBA obligations, obstructs implementation of economic terms, or uses the agreement in a malicious manner inconsistent with its role as exclusive representative. Conversely, a good-faith resort to grievance machinery, voluntary arbitration, or lawful concerted activity does not become unfair labor practice merely because the employer disagrees with the union's interpretation.
Useful Distinctions
| Conduct | Labor-Law Characterization |
|---|---|
| Peaceful persuasion to join or support a union | Protected organizing activity unless accompanied by threats, force, deception, or unlawful pressure. |
| Reasonable membership rules applied uniformly | Valid internal union governance under the union's statutory right to prescribe membership rules. |
| Arbitrary expulsion followed by a demand for dismissal | Potential unfair labor practice for coercion and for causing employer discrimination. |
| Valid union-security enforcement after fair proceedings | Generally lawful if the clause is valid, the ground is lawful, and employer due process is observed. |
| Agency fee assessed against nonmembers who accept CBA benefits | Generally lawful when imposed under labor law to prevent free riding and not to compel union membership. |
| Fee demanded from the employer for settling a bargaining dispute | Unfair labor practice because it compromises independent representation. |
| Ordinary disagreement over CBA interpretation | Grievance or voluntary arbitration matter unless the conduct is gross, malicious, or independently unlawful. |
Procedure, Proof, and Consequences
Unfair labor practice cases are within the labor-relations jurisdiction of the labor tribunals, and the administrative aspect is resolved on substantial evidence. The complainant must prove the union act, the statutory category it falls under, and the connection between the act and protected employee or bargaining rights.
Anti-union motive, bad faith, coercive purpose, or discriminatory intent may be shown by direct statements, union resolutions, demands to the employer, timing, unequal treatment, departure from established rules, or surrounding circumstances. Bare suspicion, strained inference, or ordinary union-management conflict is insufficient.
The administrative charge must be filed within the statutory prescriptive period for unfair labor practice. The running of the criminal prescriptive period is interrupted during the pendency of the administrative proceeding required before criminal prosecution.
No criminal prosecution for unfair labor practice may proceed without a final administrative judgment finding that unfair labor practice was committed. That judgment is a condition precedent to prosecution, but it is not conclusive proof of guilt in the criminal case, where penal standards and individual criminal responsibility still govern.
Appropriate administrative relief may include a cease-and-desist order, invalidation of unlawful union action, restoration of affected employee rights, reinstatement or monetary relief when discrimination caused loss of employment or benefits, refund of unlawful exactions, and other affirmative measures necessary to restore fair labor relations.
When the employer cooperates in union-caused discrimination, the employer's separate unfair labor practice or illegal dismissal liability may also arise. A union's unlawful demand does not excuse the employer from verifying the legal basis for adverse action against an employee.
Defenses and Limits
A labor organization may defend by showing that its act was authorized by law, required by a valid CBA, grounded on uniformly applied membership rules, supported by fair proceedings, or undertaken in good-faith bargaining or grievance enforcement.
Good faith is strongest when the union acts transparently, follows its constitution and by-laws, applies rules equally, respects bargaining-unit rights, and uses lawful procedures before seeking employer action. Good faith is weakest when the union targets dissenters, bypasses fair hearing, demands private payments, or pressures the employer to impose discipline for unlawful reasons.
The law protects vigorous unionism, but it does not protect coercive unionism. A labor organization may organize, bargain, strike lawfully, discipline members, collect lawful dues, enforce union security, and press economic demands; it may not convert those powers into coercion, discrimination, exaction, collusion, or malicious breach of the collective bargaining agreement.