National Labor Relations Act

The Law and Its Context

The Great Depression had settled across the country bringing with it anxiety, loss, and fear. The economic hard times produced uncertainty, resulting in a quest for security. There were more workers than jobs, and workers that had jobs sought to protect them. Strikes, lockouts, and violence marred labor relations. Employers punished, interrogated, blacklisted, and fired workers who joined unions. Workers and union leaders shut down factories and businesses. News stories regularly reported the clash of workers, intent on organizing, with employers and their private security forces, often backed by the police, equally intent on breaking the union. In 1933 and 1934, the nation was rocked by large-scale work stoppages, citywide strikes, and the occupation of factories as workers sought to organize.

Against this backdrop of deepening labor unrest and growing militant organizing, Senator Robert F. Wagner, a Democrat from New York, submitted a bill in 1933 titled the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins backed the NLRA. The NLRA became known as the Wagner Act when, on July 5, 1935, Congress enacted it. President Roosevelt signed the act, but he did not take part in its development. The NLRA was designed to diminish labor disputes by protecting the rights of employees to organize and bargain collectively with the employer. Further, the NLRA sought to safeguard “commerce from injury, impairment, or interruption, and promote the flow of commerce by removing certain recognized sources of industrial strife and unrest.”

The NLRA protects workers who seek to form and join unions through self-organizing efforts, with the goal of selecting a representative of their choice. According to the NLRA, employers must meet with the exclusive representatives of their employees to bargain in good faith over wages, benefits, and terms and conditions of employment. The NLRA, in essence, altered the unilateral decision-making power that employers enjoyed, replacing it with bilateral negotiations over issues that were subject to bargaining. Under the NLRA, workers gained the full right of freedom of association and with it the protection to seek mutual aid and protection. In addition, the NLRA prohibited management from interfering with or restraining employees from exercising their right to organize and bargain; it also prohibited management from dominating or influencing a labor union.

The NLRA created the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a quasi-judicial body, to administer its provisions. The NLRB conducts elections for exclusive representatives, determining who is in the unit through a process of evaluating which employees have a “community of interest” in their positions, and investigates charges of unfair labor practices in violation of its provisions. The NLRB can also issue “cease and desist” orders against unfair labor practices. While the NLRB has no enforcement mechanism of its own, it can seek enforcement of its orders in the U.S. Court of Appeals. Similarly, parties to disputes that come before the NLRB may seek relief through the courts. The NLRB currently consists of five members and its general counsel selected by the president of the United States subject to approval by the Senate. Thirty-three regional directors assist the board.

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