The U.S. economy is being fueled by mergers and acquisitions that continueto grow in size and complexity. When the target company has unionizedemployees, the purchaser must cope with a legal framework that was draftedfor the business world of the 1930s, but that must be interpreted in lightof business practices of the 1990s.

There are two main issues in considering how the National Labor RelationsBoard and the courts apply the National Labor Relations Act in the contextof corporate mergers.