Hot Cargo

An agreement in which the employer guarantees not to handle or use the products of other employers whom the union determines are unfair or anti-union. For example, the union workers that are working at a neutral site such as a warehouse could refuse to handle goods from a struck employer. The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act outlawed hot cargo agreements in 1959. Federal labor law generally declares such agreements to be void and unenforceable on the basis that it puts too much pressure on the struck employers to settle strikes on terms favorable to the workers.

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