Employee Free Choice Act & Labor Law History

The Employee Free Choice Act, supported by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, would enable working people to bargain for better benefits, wages and working conditions by restoring workers’ freedom to choose for themselves whether to join a union.

Click here to read more about the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)

The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 was the first measure passed by the U.S. Congress to prohibit abusive monopolies, and in some ways it remains the most important.

Read about it here: http://www.stolaf.edu/people/becker/antitrust/statutes/sherman.html.
Read the Act here: http://www.linfo.org/sherman.html.

Clayton Anti-Trust Act

The Clayton Anti-Trust Act, approved in 1914, expanded the government’s role in regulating business and helped to set the foundation for most of the regulation of business competition with which we’re familiar today.

Read Brian Gongol’s description here: http://www.gongol.com/research/economics/claytonact/.
Read the law here:
http://www.stolaf.edu/people/becker/antitrust/statutes/clayton.html.

The Railway Labor Act

The Railway Labor Act became federal law in 1926 with the active support of labor and management in the railway industry.

Read about it here: http://railwaylaboract.com/.

The Davis-Bacon Act

The Davis–Bacon Act of 1931 is a United States federal law which established the requirement for paying prevailing wages on public works projects.

Read the Wikipedia entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis-Bacon_Act.

The 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.

Read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norris-La_Guardia_Act.

The National Industry Recovery Act

The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) was enacted by Congress in June 1933 and was one of the measures by which President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought to assist the nation’s economic recovery during the Great Depression.

Read about it here: http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=old&doc=66.

The National Labor Relations Act (The Wagner Act)

Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) in 1935 to protect the rights of employees and employers, to encourage collective bargaining, and to curtail certain private sector labor and management practices, which can harm the general welfare of workers, businesses and the U.S. economy.

Read about it here: http://home.earthlink.net/~local1613/nlra.html.
Read the Act here: http://www.nlrb.gov/about_us/overview/national_labor_relations_act.aspx.

The Byrnes Act (1936)

The Byrnes Act of 1936, named for Senator James Byrne (D-SC) 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.

The Walsh-Healy Act (1936)

For goods manufactured under government contracts worth at least $10,000, it required an 8-hour day and 40-hour week, it prescribed that the work be done under safe and healthful conditions, and it authorized the Secretary to set minimum wages based on locally prevailing rates.

Read about it here: http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/751/769950/Documents_Library/walsh.htm.
Read the Act here: http://www.osha.gov/pls/epub/wageindex.download?p_file=F15772/wh1001.pdf.

The Fair Labor Standards Act

Fair Labor Standards Act or Wages and Hours Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1938 to establish minimum living standards for workers engaged directly or indirectly in interstate commerce, including those involved in production of goods bound for such commerce.

Read the law and compliance requirements here: http://www.dol.gov/whd/flsa/index.htm.

The Taft-Hartley Act

The Taft-Hartley Act passed by the U.S. Congress, officially known as the Labor-Management Relations Act. Sponsored by Senator Robert Alphonso Taft and Representative Fred Allan Hartley, the act qualified or amended much of the National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act of 1935, the federal law regulating labor relations of enterprises engaged in interstate commerce, and it nullified parts of the Federal Anti-Injunction (Norris-LaGuardia) Act of 1932.

Read about the Act here: http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/bus/A0847620.html.
Read the Act here: http://vi.uh.edu/pages/buzzmat/tafthartley.html.

The Landrum-Griffin Act

The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA) provides standards for the reporting and disclosure of certain financial transactions and administrative practices of labor organizations and employers; the protection of union funds and assets; the administration of trusteeships by labor organizations; and the election of officers of labor organizations. The Act also guarantees certain rights to all union members.

Read about the law and its implementation here: http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-lmrda.htm.

US and Canada: A Labor Comparison

Click here to read more.

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