Should the Police, Military, Doctors and Other Special Service Personnel Engage In Strikes?

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Labor strike or strike action is a mass go slow carried out by employees of a certain company or industry. A strike ordinarily takes place as a response to employee complaints. During the industrial revolution, strikes became common as mass labor became vital in the mines and factories. During this time strikes were immediately made illegal by the factory owners as they had greater political power than the workers. Strikes were legalized in most western countries in early 20th century and late 19th century (Cihon & Castagnera, 2011). The paper focuses on whether the police, military, doctors and other special personnel have a right to strike.

Most times strikes are used as a pressure strategy by workers to pressure the government to change policies. Strikes are a fragment of a wider social movement that takes form of a crusade of civil opposition. This is because in most occasions, strikes subvert the rule of the supreme power. Section 7 of The National Labor Relations Act states that all employees have the right to engage in resolute activities aimed at collective bargaining or any other form of mutual aid or protection. Strikes are encompassed among the resolute actions protected for employees in section 7.

Section 13 of the National Labor Relations Act also covers the right to strike. This section states that nothing in the National Labor Relations Act except that which is stated in the act will be used to either interfere or diminish the right to strike or affect the limitations and qualifications on the right. According to this section, all special personnel have the right to strike. The two sections make it clear that all employees have a right to strike but then places limitations and qualifications of exercising this right. The limitations and qualifications are placed for employees whose strike action might lead to a national emergency. For instance, healthcare professions have to give a 10 day notice to the involved employers or the government before they strike (National Labor Relations Act, 2013). All employees have a right to be in a labor union that fights for their rights. The police and military are in the labor union thus have the right to strike.

Employees that strike for a lawful object are classified into two main categories that are, the economic strikers and the unfair labor practice strikers. Employees that fall under the unfair labor practice strikers have greater rights of reinstatement to their jobs as compared to the economic strikers (Cihon & Castagnera, 2011). Economic strikers retain their employee status and cannot be discharged but they can be replaced by their employer. These strikers are not entitled to being reinstated if they unconditionally decide to go back to work and the employer had already hired bona fide permanent replacements. If the board finds that economic strikers and unfair labor practice strikers that have been an unconditional request to be reinstated and have been unlawfully denied reinstatement by their employer the board can award the strikers back pay as from the time they should have been reinstated.

Conclusively, military, police, doctors and other specialized personnel have a right to strike. They are employees like any other employees. Since special personnel striking might cause a national emergency, there are limitations and qualifications that are put for their strikes. Doctors and other healthcare professionals have to give 10 days’ notice before they strike.

References

Cihon, P. J., & Castagnera, J. (2011). Employment & labor law. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

National Labor Relations Board. (2013). National Labor Relations Act. Retrieved from < http://www.nlrb.gov/resources/national-labor-relations-act>