The National Labor Relations Act, non-paralleled competition, and market power

The National Labor Relations Act protects and, to a degree, encourages employee concerted action, such as collective bargaining and collective work stoppages. The Act has been criticized as an unwarranted intervention in a competitive, efficient market. This Article applies fundamental concepts of antitrust law, and economics to assess the claims that labor markets in the United States are competitive, that the market adequately protects individual employees, and that governmental intervention is therefore unwarranted The Article concludes that employing firms likely exercise a degree of market power-the power to set terms unconstrained by competition-that would be unacceptable if exercised by producers in consumer markets. The author argues that the National Labor Relations Act provides employees with a means to counteract the market power exercised by employing firms, but at the same time attempts to preserve residual competition that the employing firm has not eliminated from the open market.