The first legal help for unions was the –

1926 – Railway Labor Act (Watson-Parker Act)

1. Mandated collective bargaining on all interstate railroads and set up machinery for government intervention in labor disputes. Declared constitutional in 1930.

1931 – Norris-LaGuardia Anti-Injunction Act

1. Restricted employers’ uses of court orders and injunctions as weapons to combat unions’ organizing drives and gave unions immunity from private damage suits.
2. Prohibited "yellow dog" contracts (contracts in which employees agreed not to join a union as a condition of accepting employment).
3. Relieved labor organizations from liability for wrongful acts under antitrust law.

1. Defined unfair labor practices for both employers and employees. Employers are required to bargain "in good faith" with unions representing the majority of their employees, and may not interfere with employees’ right to organize. Granted labor the statutory right to organize and strike.
2. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was established to settle many labor-management disputes. The NLRB was given power to investigate alleged unfair labor practices, to order violators to cease and desist, and to have its orders enforced in courts. Given the right to conduct elections to see which unions, if any, employees want.

Also during the depression were: 1931 – Davis-Bacon Act (contractors must pay prevailing wage on federally funded projects), 1938 – Fair Labor Standards Act (authorized direct federal fixing of minimum wage rates, maximum working hours – requires premium for overtime work, and other working conditions).

After WWII the pendulum shifted in an anti-union direction –

1947. -Labor-Mgt. Relations (Taft-Hartley) Act

1. Restricted some aspects of union activity. Permits states to pass right-to work laws which prohibit the requirement that persons become (or refrain from becoming) union members as a condition of employment. (By 1980 20 states, mostly in the South, Southeast and Plains areas, passed such laws). Outlawed the closed-shop - worker had to be a member of the union to be hired by the employer (which appeared in about 1/3 of union contracts in 1946).

Right-To-Work States

1959 – Labor-Mgt. Reporting and Disclosure (Landrum-Griffin) Act

1. Designed to protect the rights of union members against arbitrary action by union officials, it increases union democracy. Stipulated "Bill of Rights" for union members. Periodic reporting of union finances and provisions that regulate union elections.

More Information (another summary in more detail)

Present Federal law regulating labor-management relations is largely

a product of the New Deal era of the 1930s.  While Congress has acted

to raise the Federal minimum wage and has considered labor law reform

affecting both private and public employees, no major new labor laws

have been passed over the past several decades.

Early Labor Laws

[*] The Clayton Act

In response to pressure to clarify labor's position under untitrust

laws, Congress, in 1914, enacted the Clayton Act, which included

several major provisions protective of organized labor.

The Act stated that "the labor of a human being is not commodity or

article of commerce," and provided further that nothing contained in

the Federal antitrust laws:

   shall be construed to forbid the existence and operation of

labor... organizations... nor shall such organizations, or the

members thereof, be held or construed to be illegal combinations or

conspiracies in restraint of trade under the anti-trust laws.

(*) Railway Labor Act

In 1926, the Railway Labor Act (RLA) was passed, requiring employers

to bargain collectively and prohibiting discrimination against

unions. It applied originally to interstate railroads and their

related undertakings. In 1936, it was amended to include airlines

engaged in interstate commerce.

(*) Davis-Bacon Act

In 1931, Congress passed the Davis-Bacon Act, requiring that

contracts for construction entered into by the Federal Government

specify the minimum wages to be paid to persons employed under those

contracts.

(*) Norris-LaGuardia Act

The Norris-LaGuardia Act, passed in 1932, during the last year of the

Hoover Administration, was the first in a series of laws passed by

Congress in the 1930s which gave Federal sanction to the right of

labor unions to organize and strike, and to use other forms of

economic leverage in dealings with management.

The law specifically prohibited Federal courts from enforcing so-

called "yellow dog" contracts or agreements (under which workers

promised not to join a union or promised to discontinue membership in

one).

In addition, it barred Federal courts from issuing restraining orders

or injunctions against activities by labor unions and individuals,

including the following:

(*) joining or organizing a union, or assembling for union purposes;

(*) striking or refusing to work, or advising others to strike or

organize;

(*) Publicizing acts of a Labor dispute; and

(*) providing lawful legal aid to persons participating in a labor

dispute;

New Deal Era Reforms

(*) National Industry Recovery Act

In 1933, Congress passed the National Industry Recovery Act (NRA) at

the request of newly inaugurated President Franklin Roosevelt. The

Act sought to provide codes of "fair competition" and to fix wages

and hours in industries subscribing to such codes.

Title I of the Act, providing that all codes of fair competition

approved under the Act should guarantee the right of employees to

collective bargaining without interference or coercion of employees,

was held unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1935.

(*) The Wagner Act

By far the most important labor legislation of the 1930s was the

National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935, more popularly known as

the Wagner Act, after its sponsor, Sen. Robert F. Wagner (NY-D). This

law included reenactment of the previously invalidated labor sections

of the NRA as well as a number of additions.

The NLRA was applicable to all firms and employees in activities

affecting interstate commerce with the exception of agricultural

laborers, government employees, and those persons subject to the

Railway Labor Act. It guaranteed covered workers the right to

organize and join labor movements, to choose representatives and

bargain collectively, and to strike.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), originally consisting of

three members appointed by the President, was established by the Act

as an independent Federal agency. The NLRB was given power to

determine whether a union should be certified to represent particular

groups of employees, using such methods as it deemed suitable to

reach such a determination, including the holding of a representation

election among workers concerned.

Employers were forbidden by the Act from engaging in any of the five

categories of unfair labor practices. Violation of this prohibition

could result in the filing of a complaint with the NLRB by a union or

employees. After investigation, the NLRB could order the cessation of

such practices, reinstatement of a person fired for union activities,

the provision of back pay, restoration of seniority, benefits, etc.

An NLRB order issued in response to an unfair labor practice

complaint was made enforceable by the Federal courts.

Among those unfair labor practices forbidden by the Act were:

  1 ) Dominating or otherwise interfering with formation of a labor

union, including the provision of any financial or other support.

  2)  Interfering with or restraining employees engaged in the

exercise of their rights to organize and bargain collectively.

  3)  Imposing any special conditions of employment which tended

either to encourage or discourage union membership. The law stated,

however, that this provision should be construed to prohibit union

contracts requiring union membership as a condition of employment in

a company -- a provision which, in effect, permitted the closed and

union shops. (In the former, only pre-existing members of the union

could be hired, in the latter. new employees were required to join

the union.)

  4) Discharging or discriminating against an employee because he had

given testimony or filed charges under the Act.

  5) Refusing to bargain collectively with unions representing a

company's employees.

The NLRA included no provisions defining or prohibiting as unfair any

labor practices by unions. The Act served to spur growth of U.S.

unionism -- from 3,584,000 union members in 1935 to 10,201,000 by

1941, the eve of World War II. The 1941 figure represented more than

2?  percent of the nonagricultural workforce in the U.S.

(*) Anti-Strikebreaker Law

The Byrnes Act of 1936, named for Sen. James Byrnes (SC-D) and

amended in 1938, made it a felony to transport any person in

interstate commerce who was employed for the purpose of using force

of threats against non-violent picketing in a labor dispute or

against organizing or bargaining efforts.

(*) Walsh-Healy Act

Passed in 1936, the Walsh-Healy Act stated that workers must be paid

not less than the "prevailing minimum wage" normally paid in a

locality; restricted regular work ing hours to eight hours a day and

40 hours a week, with time-and-a-half pay for additional hours;

prohibited the employment of convicts and children under 18; and

established sanitation and safety standards.

(*) Fair Labor Standards Act

Known as the wage-hour law, this 1938 Act established minimum wages

and maximum hours for all workers engaged in covered "interstate

commerce."

Post World War II Laws

(*) Taft-Hartley Act

It was not until two years after the close of World War II that the

first major modification of the National Labor Relations Act was

enacted. In 1947, the Labor-Management Relations Act -- also known as

the Taft-Hartley Act, after its two sponsors, Sen. Robert A. Taft

(OH-R) and Rep.  Fred A. Hartley, Jr. (NJ-R) -- was passed by

Congress, Vetoed by President Truman (on the basis that it was anti-

Labor), and then reapproved over his veto. This comprehensive

measure:

(*) established procedures for delaying or averting so-called

"national emergency" strikes;

(*) excluded supervisory employees from coverage of the Wagner Act;

(*) prohibited the "closed shop" altogether;

(*) banned closed-shop union hiring halls that discriminated against

non-union members.

Taft-Hartley retained the Wagner Act's basic guarantees of workers'

rights to join unions, bargain collectively, and strike and retained the same list of unfair labor practices

forbidden to employers. The Act also added a list of unfair labor

practices forbidden to unions. These included:

 (*) restraint or coercion of workers exercising their rights to

bargain through representatives of their choosing;

 (*) coercion of an employer in his choice of persons to represent

him in discussions with unions;

 (*) refusal of unions to bargain collectively;

 (*) barring a worker from employment because he had been denied

union membership for any reason except non-payment of dues;

 (*) striking to force an employer or self-employed person to join a

union;

 (*) secondary boycotts;

 (*) various types of strikes or boycotts involving interunion

conflict or jurisdictional agreements;

 (*) Levying of excessive union initiation fees;

 (*) certain forms of "featherbedding" (payment for work not actually

performed).

The Taft-Hartley Act included a number of other provisions. These

included:

 (*) authorization of suits against unions for violations of their

economic contracts;

 (*) authorization of damage suits for economic losses caused by

secondary boycotts and certain strikes;

 (*) relaxation of the Norris-LaGuardia Act to permit injunctions

against specified categories of unfair labor practice;

 (*) establishment of a 60-day no-strike and no-lockout notice period

for any party seeking to cancel an existing collective bargaining

agreement;

 (*) a requirement that unions desiring status under the law and

recourse to NLRB protection file specified financial reports and

documents with the U.S. Department of Labor;

 (*) the abolition of the U.S. Conciliation Service and establishment

of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service;

 (*) a prohibition against corporate or union contributions or

expenditures with respect to elections to any Federal office;

 (*) a reorganization of the NLRB and a limitation on its power;

 (*) a prohibition on strikes against the government;

 (*) the banning of various types of employer payments to union

officials.

(*) Landrum-Grifln Act

The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, also known

as the Landrum-Griffin Act, made major additions to the Taft-Hartley

Act, including:

 (*) definition of additional unfair labor practices;

 (*) a ban on organizational or recognition picketing;

 (*) provisions allowing State labor relations agencies and courts to

assume jurisdiction over labor disputes the NLRB declined to consider

at the same time prohibiting the NLRB from broadening the categories

of cases it would not handle.