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The Wagner Act of 1935

The Wagner Act of 1935. Nathan Dent Justin King. Goal of Labor Laws. The goal of labor laws according to the Cornell Legal Information Institute is to equalize the bargaining power between employers and employees.

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The Wagner Act of 1935

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  1. The Wagner Act of 1935 Nathan Dent Justin King

  2. Goal of Labor Laws • The goal of labor laws according to the Cornell Legal Information Institute is to equalize the bargaining power between employers and employees. • Labor laws primarily deal with the relationship between employers and unions. • Labor laws grant employees the right to unionize. • Depending on the circumstances, labor laws prohibit or allow employers and employees to engage in activities such as strikes, picketing, seeking injunctions, and lockouts in regards to having their demands met. • Labor laws are governed by both federal and state statutes, laws, and judicial decisions.

  3. Three main labor laws • National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act of 1935) • The Wagner Act was amended by the Labor Management Relations (“Taft-Hartley) Act • The Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959

  4. The National Labor Relations Board: The Wagner Act of 1935 • Created by Congress to protect workers’ right to unionization. • Guarantees the right of non-supervisory employees to self-organize, choose their own representatives, and bargain collectively for these rights or choose not to participate in them.

  5. Wagner Act continued • These rights apply to all employers engaged in interstate commerce expect for airlines, railroads, agriculture, and government agencies. • The Wagner Act enforces the national labor policy, which assures free choice and encourages collective bargaining to maintain industrial peace. • Act makes it illegal for employers and labor unions to interfere with any of these rights, and established the National Labor Relations Board to hear cases involving unfair labor practices.

  6. The National Labor Relations Board • Independent agency created by the Wagner Act • Purpose is to oversee the laws, investigate and hold hearings on unfair labor practice complaints, take action against employers found guilty of unfair labor practices, determine the make-up of individual employee bargaining units, and oversee union certifications. • Must also make sure that employers do not discriminate against union workers.

  7. Taft-Hartley Labor Act • Enacted in 1947 • Officially passed by Congress as the Labor-Management Relations Act. • Sponsored by Senator Robert Alphonso Taft and Representative Fred Allan Hartley. • Act qualified or amended much of the Wagner Act.

  8. Taft-Hartley continued • Established control of labor disputes by enlarging the National Labor Relations Board. • Stated that before terminating a collective-bargaining agreement, a union or employer must serve notice on the other party and on a government mediation service. • The government was allowed to obtain an 80-day injunction against any strike that it deemed a peril to national health or safety.

  9. Taft-Hartley continued • Included a provision that a union before using the facilities of the NLRB must file with the U.S. Dept. of Labor financial reports and affidavits stating that union officers were not communists. • Act forbade unions to contribute to political campaigns. • President Truman vetoed the act, but it was passed over his veto.

  10. Landrum-Griffin Act • Enacted in 1959 • Officially known as the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. • Created as a result of Senate committee hearings on improper activities in the field of labor and management, the use of violence by segments of labor leadership, and the misuse of labor union funds by high-ranking officials.

  11. Act provided for the regulation of internal union affairs, such as the regulation and control of union funds. • Union members are protected against abuses by a bill of rights that guarantees freedom of speech and periodic secret elections.

  12. Court Case Involving the NLRB • Brewers and Maltsters, Local Union No. 6, v. National Labor Relations Board. • Anheuser-Busch installed hidden surveillance equipment to monitor an employee break area. • Because of misconduct caught by the video equipment, five employees were discharged from the company.

  13. The union asked for information about the equipment and received it the day after the video equipment was taken down. • The NLRB ruled that Anheuser-Busch violated the National Labor Relations Act by failing to bargain with the union over the installation and use of the video equipment. • Anheuser-Busch stated that they kept the information private because it was a matter of corporate security.

  14. The judge ruled that the use of such video equipment is a mandatory subject of bargaining. • Anheuser-Busch refused to give the discharged employees full relief, on the basis that it was bad public policy to reward employees who participated in these acts.

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