Research labor laws and legal cases on union organization in parking lots using online law libraries or other Internet sources of your choice. Using the IRAC method (Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion

Union Organizing Case Study

World Tea & Coffee, Inc. (World Tea & Coffee), owned and operated a retail store in the Westtown Shopping Plaza in Westtown, New York. Eleven other stores were located between the World Tea & Coffee store and the parking lot, which was owned by World Tea & Coffee, Inc.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union, AFL-CIO (Union), attempted to organize World Tea & Coffee’s 230 employees, all who were non-union. When a full-page advertisement in the local newspaper failed to attract the employees to unionize, nonemployee union organizers entered World Tea & Coffee’s parking lot and began putting handbills on car windshields parked in the employee parking lot area.

World Tea & Coffee’s manager informed the union organizers that World Tea & Coffee prohibited their unionizing efforts of solicitation and placing handbills of any kind on the property and directed them to get off the property. After they left, World Tea & Coffee personnel removed the handbills. Union organizers repeated their handbill efforts in the parking lot on several following occasions. On each event, nonemployee union organizers were directed to get off the property, and the handbills were collected and removed.

The union filed a grievance with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). What should the result be in this case? Should the NLRB rule in favor of the union or in favor of the employer?