The Wagner Act and its historical significance on the labor movement

The Wagner Act

Prior to the enactment of the Wagner Act , the United States already had several labors . The Railway Labor Act , which was passed in 1926 required employers to enter into collective bargaining agreements with unions . It also prohibited discrimination on the part of the company against the unions . The RLA however , only applied to railroads and was subsequently amended in for airlines to be included . Thus during this period , while it was legal to form unions , companies were not prohibited from firing employees for being union members

In 1993

, at the behest of then President Franklin Roosevelt , the National Industry Recovery Act was passed . Among the provisions specifically Section 7 (a , employees were not only given the right to form unions but that joining or non-joining of a union would not be used as a requirement for employment . That particular section also required companies to abide by conditions of employment such as the number of work hours and minimum wage as set by the President . However , the Act came under fire due to concerns of its effectiveness as was eventually overturned by the Supreme Court in May 1935

In to address the issue of employers and unions , the Wagner Act or the National Labor Relations Act was passed in 1935 . Named after its proponent , Sen . Robert F . Wagner , the Act incorporated Section 7 (a ) of the former NIRA . This particular section became the pillar of the Wagner Act . Aside from giving employees the right to form unions , the Wagner Act also defined what it considered as unfair labor practice by an employer . Under Section 8 , an employer is said to have committed unfair labor practice if it

1 . interferes , restraints or coerces an employee from joining

2 . dominates or interferes in the formation of a union

3 . discriminates an employee for being part of a union

4 . seeks reprisal against an employees for filing unfair labor practice charges , and

5 . refuses to enter into a collective bargaining agreement with the unions

With the passing of the Wagner Act , two important things happened First , membership in unions began to increase dramatically . From a mere 10 prior to the act , more than 30 of the union members by the 1950s . The second was the formation of the National Labor Relations Board . The NLRB is the agency that is tasked with overseeing the implementation of the Act . By approving the Wagner Act it was seen that the government was ready to go against the private sector by giving employees the right to form unions and enter into collective bargaining agreements

All these however changed after World War II . As a result of the war certain groups raised the issue of balancing the power enjoyed by both the labor sector and the companies . Thus in 1947 , the Labor-Management Relations Act or Taft-Hartley Act was passed . The Taft-Hartley Act is considered as an amended to the Wagner Act

Although the Taft-Hartley Act retained some of the provisions of the Wagner Act...