Overview of the Labor Exemption Labor law and policy is, in some ways, inherently in conflict with antitrust law and policy. The primary purpose of antitrust legislation is to promote freedom of competition in the marketplace.
Unions are, however, by their nature and purpose anticompetitive.
As the Supreme Court has recognized,2 a central purpose of the labor movement is to reduce competition among employees regarding wages and conditions of employment. Competition among individual workers for wages and other employment terms are eliminated when individual employees join a union and relinquish their prior right to individually pursue employment contracts. The union becomes the exclusive representative of all employees in a collective bargaining unit on the assumption that, through the pooling of negotiating strength and the threat of strikes or other concerted activity, greater benefits for the employees as a group will be exacted. Usually, this process produces standardization of employment terms for particular classes of employees. Unions and employers enter into contracts that establish uniform terms and consequently limit the opportunity of any individual employee freely to sell his services.