II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 654

To strengthen the rights of workers to associate, organize and strike, and

for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MARCH 17, 1999

Mr. WELLSTONE introduced the following bill; which was read twice and

referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

A BILL

To strengthen the rights of workers to associate, organize

and strike, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Right to Organize Act

5 of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. EMPLOYER AND LABOR ORGANIZATIONS PRESEN7 TATIONS.

8 Section 8(c) of the National Labor Relations Act (29

9 U.S.C. 158(c)) is amended—
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1 (1) by inserting ‘‘(1)’’ after the subsection des2 ignation; and

3 (2) by adding at the end the following new

4 paragraphs:

5 ‘‘(2) If an employer or employer representative ad6 dresses the employees on the employer’s premises or dur7 ing work hours on issues relating to representation by a

8 labor organization, the employees shall be assured, without

9 loss of time or pay, an equal opportunity to obtain, in an

10 equivalent manner, information concerning such issues

11 from such labor organization.

12 ‘‘(3) Subject to reasonable regulation by the Board,

13 labor organizations shall have—

14 ‘‘(A) access to areas in which employees work;

15 ‘‘(B) the right to use the employer’s bulletin

16 boards, mailboxes, and other communication media;

17 and

18 ‘‘(C) the right to use the employer’s facilities

19 for the purpose of meetings with respect to the exer20 cise of the rights guaranteed by this Act.’’.

21 SEC. 3. LABOR RELATIONS REMEDIES.

22 (a) BOARD REMEDIES.—Section 10(c) of the Na23 tional Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. 160(c)) is amended

24 by inserting after the fourth sentence the following new

25 sentence: ‘‘If the Board finds that an employee was dis-
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1 charged as a result of an unfair labor practice, the Board

2 in such order shall (1) award back pay in an amount equal

3 to 3 times the employee’s wage rate at the time of the

4 unfair labor practice and (2) notify such employee of such

5 employee’s right to sue for punitive damages and damages

6 with respect to a wrongful discharge under section 303

7 of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947 (29 U.S.C.

8 187), as amended by the Fair Labor Organizing Act.’’.

9 (b) COURT REMEDIES.—Section 303 of the Labor

10 Management Relations Act, 1947 (29 U.S.C. 187) is

11 amended by adding at the end the following new sub12 sections:

13 ‘‘(c) It shall be unlawful, for purposes of this section,

14 for any employer to discharge an employee for exercising

15 rights protected under the National Labor Relations Act.

16 ‘‘(d) An employee whose discharge is determined by

17 the National Labor Relations Board under section 10(c)

18 of the National Labor Relations Act to be as a result of

19 an unfair labor practice under section 8 of such Act may

20 file a civil action in any district court of the United States,

21 without respect to the amount in controversy, to recover

22 punitive damages or if actionable, in any State court to

23 recover damages based on a wrongful discharge.’’.
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1 SEC. 4. INITIAL CONTRACT DISPUTES.

2 Section 8 of the National Labor Relations Act (29

3 U.S.C. 158) is amended by adding at the end the following

4 new subsection:

5 ‘‘(h)(1) If, not later than 60 days after the certifi6 cation of a new representative of employees for the pur7 pose of collective bargaining, the employer of the employ8 ees and the representative have not reached a collective

9 bargaining agreement with respect to the terms and condi10 tions of employment, the employer and the representative

11 shall jointly select a mediator to mediate those issues on

12 which the employer and the representative cannot agree.

13 ‘‘(2) If the employer and the representative are un14 able to agree upon a mediator, either party may request

15 the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to select

16 a mediator and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation

17 Service shall upon the request select a person to serve as

18 mediator.

19 ‘‘(3) If, not later than 30 days after the date of the

20 selection of a mediator under paragraph (1) or (2), the

21 employer and the representative have not reached an

22 agreement, the employer or the representative may trans23 fer the matters remaining in controversy to the Federal

24 Mediation and Conciliation Service for binding arbitra25 tion.’’.

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