All Bound up with No Place to Go: A Lack of Individual Alternatives to Binding Arbitration Provisions for Statutory Claims

Authors

Matthew Gierse

Abstract

For the greater part of the twentieth century, arbitration has played a large role in resolving disputes between unions representing employees and employers. However, during the past few decades, these employment contracts began to incorporate mandatory arbitration agreements for statutory discrimination claims, with at least one-fifth of all employees presently subject to mandatory arbitration. During this same period, courts began to broaden the ability of employees to waive their right to a judicial forum for statutory claims; Tewolde v. Owens & Minor Distribution is no exception. In 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the first time that a union may waive, under a collective bargaining agreement, an individual employee's right to a judicial forum for statutory claims.' The purpose of this note is to examine the unprecedented expansion of the employees' ability to waive their right to a judicial forum for statutory claims by the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

Recommended Citation

Matthew Gierse, All Bound up with No Place to Go: A Lack of Individual Alternatives to Binding Arbitration Provisions for Statutory Claims, 2010 J. Disp. Resol. (2010)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/jdr/vol2010/iss1/10