1.
authorization card: A card signed by an employee that gives a union permission to act on his or her behalf in negotiations with management.
2.
closed shop: A firm that requires union membership by its workers as a condition of employment. The closed shop was made illegal by the Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947.
3.
collective bargaining: The process by which labor and management negotiate the terms and conditions of employment, including working hours and workplace conditions.
4.
employment at will: A common law doctrine under which either party may terminate an employment relationship at any time for any reason, unless a contract specifies otherwise.
5.
hot-cargo agreement: An agreement in which employers voluntarily agree with unions not to handle, use, or deal in other employers' goods that were not produced by union employees; a type of secondary boycott explicitly prohibited by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959.
6.
i-9 verification: A process that all employers in the United States must perform within three business days of hiring a new worker to verify the employment eligibility and identity of the worker by completing an I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification form.
7.
i-551 Alien Registration Receipt: A document, commonly known as a green card, that shows that a foreign-born individual has been lawfully admitted for permanent residency in the United States. Persons seeking employment can prove to prospective employers that they are legally in the United States by showing this receipt.
8.
minimum wage: The lowest wage, either by government regulation or union contract, that an employer may pay an hourly worker.
9.
right-to-work law: A state law providing that employees may not be required to join a union as a condition of retaining employment.
10.
secondary boycott: A union's refusal to work for, purchase from, or handle the products of a secondary employer, with whom the union has no dispute, in order to force that employer to stop doing business with the primary employer, with whom the union has a labor dispute.
11.
strike: An action undertaken by unionized workers when collective bargaining fails; the workers leave their jobs, refuse to work, and (typically) picket the employer's workplace.
12.
union shop: A firm that requires all workers, once employed, to become union members within a specified period of time as a condition of their continued employment.
13.
vesting: The creation of an absolute or unconditional right or power.
14.
whistleblowing: An employee's disclosure to government authorities, upper-level managers, or the media that the employer is engaged in unsafe or illegal activities.
15.
workers' compensation laws: State statutes establishing an administrative procedure for compensating workers for injuries that arise out of—or in the course of—their employment, regardless of fault.
16.
wrongful discharge: An employer's termination of an employee's employment in violation of the law.
