Although
people in the United States had the right to be members of trade
unions and to withdraw their labour during industrial disputes,
employers also had the right to dismiss employees
because they had joined unions or had gone on strike. During the economic
depression it was easier for an employer to find another employee
than it was for an employee to find another job. People therefore
became reluctant to join trade unions and by 1933 only 10% of America's
workforce were members.
In 1933, Robert F. Wagner, chairman of
the National Recovery Administration, introduced
a bill to Congress to help protect trade unionists from their employers.
With the support of Frances Perkins,
the US Secretary of Labor, Wagner's proposals became the National
Labor Relations Act. It established a three man National Labor Relations
Board empowered to administer the regulation of labour relations in
industries engaged in or affecting interstate commerce.
The National Labor Relations Act also established the rights of workers
to join trade unions and to bargain collectively
with their employers through representatives of their own choosing.
Workers were now protected from their employers and as a result union
membership grew rapidly.
Daniel Fitzpatrick, St Louis
Post (1936)
(1)
Bob Stinson was interviewed
by Studs Terkel in Hard Times (1970)
I started working at Fisher Body in 1917 and retired in 1962. Until
1933, no unions, no rules: you were at the mercy of your foreman.
I could go to work at seven o'clock in the morning, and at seven fifteen
the boss would come around and say: you could come back at three o'clock.
If he preferred somebody else over you, that person would be called
back earlier, though you were there longer. It was lousy. Degraded.
You might call yourself a man if you were on the street, but as soon
as you went through the door and punched your card, you was nothing
more than a robot.
(2)
Robert
F. Wagner,
speech in the Senate (31st March, 1937)
The
uprising of the common people has come, as always, only because of
a breakdown in the ability of the law and
our economic system to protect their rights. The sitdown has been
provoked by the long-standing and ruthless tactics of a few great
corporations who have hamstrung the National Labor Relations Board
by invoking court actions, which they have a perfect legal right to
do; who have openly banded together to defy this law of Congress quite
independently of any court action, which they have neither the legal
nor the moral right to do; and who have systematically used spies
and discharges and violence and terrorism to shatter the workers'
liberties as decided by Congress, which they have neither the legal
nor the moral right to do. The organized and calculated and cold-blooded
sitdown against Federal law has come not from the common people, but
from a few great vested interests. Make
men free, and they will be
able to negotiate without fighting.
(3)
Frances Perkins was secretary for labor
in Franklin D. Roosevelt's first cabinet. She wrote about this period
in her book, The Roosevelt I Knew (1946)
It ought to be on the record that the President did not take part
in developing the National Labor Relations Act and, in fact, was hardly
consulted about it. It was not a part of the President's program.
It did not particularly appeal to him when it was described to him.
All the credit for it belongs to Wagner.
The proposed bill, it must be remembered, was remedial. Certain unfair
practices which employers had used against workers to prevent unionization
and to cripple their economic strength had been uncovered by Wagner.
The bill sought to correct these specific, known abuses, and did not
attempt to draw up a comprehensive code of ethical behaviour in labor
relations. Such a comprehensive code, however, was needed. Roosevelt
supported my suggestion that labor leaders who wanted to distinguish
themselves should draw up such a code and let us take a look at it.
(4)
Rexford Tugwell was an assistant secretary
in the Agricultural Department in 1933. He wrote about his experiences
in The Democratic Roosevelt (1957)
Senator Wagner had been chairman of the National Labor Board during
the first half of NRA. During that service he had seen how little
could be accomplished without powers to enforce the principles that
were supposed to be those of all New Dealers. Such intractable employer
corporations as Weirton Steel, Budd Manufacturing, and Ford Motor
were either refusing compliance or were making use of company unions
to evade collective bargaining.
In February 1934, Senator Wagner induced Franklin to issue two executive
orders authorizing the Board to hold elections for determining bargaining
agents and to prevent violations to the Department of Justice for
prosecution. But Wagner was convinced that more was necessary and
on 1st March he introduced a Labor Disputes Bill.
Senator Wagner's bill enumerated several "unfair practices"
to be prohibited, such as the sponsoring by employers of company unions,
interfering with employees' choice of bargaining representatives,
and refusal to bargain with elected agents. Under the bill a new labor
board would be set up, fully equipped with staff to investigate and
powers to enforce the provisions of the act.
Herbert Johnson, Saturday
Evening Post (1935)
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