Union Organizers' Access to Hotels' Private Property

Abstract

Over the past 40 years the property rights of business owners with regard to access by union organizers have been in flux. A 1956 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court established the principle that union organizers who are not also employees need not be granted access to an employer's property unless there is no reasonable alternative means for the organizers to reach those employees. In the same ruling the court was careful to reiterate the right of employees to organize themselves and the duty of the employer not to restrict that effort unless it interferes with the operation of the business or worker discipline. In several cases following that ruling, the National Labor Relations Board and appellate courts reinterpreted the Supreme Court ruling to broaden the organizers' right to reach employees, particularly on such quasi-public property as shopping malls and, by inference, the entrances to hotels. The current standard is a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that reiterates the concept that property owners cannot be compelled to grant access to nonemployee organizers if those organizers have other reasonable means to communicate with workers.