News Notes: Can Union Contracts Bar Discrimination Lawsuits?

Mandatory arbitration of employment disputes continues to be controversial. One unresolved issue has been whether union contracts can require workers to arbitrate all employment disputes. The U.S. Supreme Court has now agreed to rule on this question.11 Although arbitration clauses for various workplace disputes have been used for years in union contracts, courts have disagreed about whether unionized employees can be forced to arbitrate federal discrimination claims such as those under the ADA because the union—rather than the individual employee—negotiated the agreement.