Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

In the past decade, state courts have restricted an employer's right to discharge employees hired to work at the will of their employers by fashioning a common-law cause of action for wrongful discharge. In recent years, several jurisdictions, including the state of Illinois, have extended the common-law cause of action to union employees whose remedies for wrongful discharge have traditionally been governed by the collective bargaining agreement and federal law.

Focusing on the law of Illinois and the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Allis-Chalmers Corp. v. Lueck, the author considers whether the doctrine of federal preemption under Section 301 of the LMRA restricts union employees to the collective bargaining agreement as the exclusive remedy for claims of wrongful discharge.