75th Anniversary of National Labor Relations Act: Unions the Answer Then and Now

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/07/07/75th-anniversary-of-national-labor-relations-act-unions-the-answer-then-and-now/

by James Parks, Jul 7, 2010

In this crosspost from Huffington Post, U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis reaffirms the importance of the National Labor Relations Act, which gave workers freedom to form unions.


Labor Secretary Hilda Solis addressed the AFL-CIO Executive Council in March.


July 5 marked the 75th anniversary of the National Labor Relations Act—also known as the Wagner Act—one of the lesser known, but key components of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. In addition to Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, a federal minimum wage and laws regulating child labor—all controversial concepts at the time that we now take for granted as basic elements of fairness—the New Deal included the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) which protected workers’ rights to join or form unions and engage in collective bargaining.

The NLRA was signed into law when our nation was in the grip of the Great Depression. At a time when the economy was spinning out of control, some critics were hesitant about a law that empowered workers. Sound familiar?

But President Roosevelt and his Labor Secretary, Frances Perkins, understood the importance of giving workers bargaining power and saw the NLRA as central to his strategy to rebuild the economy. The famous economist John Maynard Keynes would later write a letter to FDR praising his efforts to restore the American economy and emphasizing the expansion of collective bargaining as an essential effort to the economic recovery.

Collective bargaining helped create our middle class. Working people were able to share in the gains of their productivity and labor and management together forged creative solutions to create the powerful engine of the American economy we all are proud of.

FULL story at link.