The Sixteenth Edition makes a number of significant changes to its predecessor, reflecting the evolution of the law relating to employers, employees, and unions in a dynamic economy. This edition includes new decisions of the National Labor Relations Board appointed by President Obama, which has departed in important ways from the approach of the Board under the prior administration. Moreover, the Board is now actively confronting the role of labor law in the contemporary workplace, addressing emergent issues such as protections for employee electronic communications and social media interactions, accountability for employers in "fissured" enterprises, and potential limitations on other employer restrictions on collective activity. The book also contains judicial decisions addressing these developments as well as reactions in Congress and elsewhere, evincing the growing polarization over the role of labor unions in society.

This edition supplies a comprehensive revision in light of major legal shifts occurring from 2013 through 2015, notably


the new NLRB representation election rules
Purple Communications, adopting new rules on employee use of employer email for concerted activity
Murphy Oil, reiterating D.F. Horton, holding that the waiver of the capacity to participate in a group arbitration of an employment law claim violates of the Labor Act, with more detailed consideration of the judicial treatment of that question under the Norris-LaGuardia Act as well
Fedex Home Delivery and more on the distinction between employees and independent contractors
Browning-Ferris, McDonald's and more on joint employer status and the situations of franchisors
Babcock & Wilcox, announcing new arbitration deferral rules, and the General Counsel's advisory explication of them
employer rules affecting § 7 rights – against "gossip," disclosing confidential information, or "threatening behavior" – and especially on the use of recording and photographic devices and social media

and much more.

Discussion problems and exercises throughout the text offer students the opportunity to engage with this new material, illustrating how exciting and challenging the study of labor law is today.