ABSTRACT
My colleagues in this volume have written about employee representation in the context of the U.S. debate over Section 8(a)(2) of the NLRA. The history and intricacies of that section lead me to make two preliminary observations about the difference between U.S. and Canadian labor relations law. The U.S. law has achieved a high level of complexity. One has visions of workers and employers walking around their plants with their attendant lawyers, ready to advise them at every turn, looking much like pirates with parrots perched on their shoulders. Laws can reach such a high degree of refined complexity that they cease to serve the parties they were meant to serve.
