Reorganizing Labor



On this day in nineteen hundred and forty-seven

The Senate overturned a veto by Harry Truman

Which the House of Representatives had, already

As Checks and Balances came into their own, steady



The National Labor Relations Act, passed in thirty-five

Provided rules to keep interstate commerce alive

But also gave significant advantages to union labor

Allowing employees collective bargaining to gain favor



The Wagner Act, named after the NY Senator, as it was known then

Was a protection designed to keep federal powers out of the hem

And, effectively, gave equal footing to both employers and employees

Which had been so missing in the years when the steel mills seized



Amended in nineteen forty-seven by Taft and Hartley

The new version provided other rulings ... partly ...

It was stipulated non-union employees couldn't be

Discriminated against ... for choosing to work free



... Of the limits placed on them by rigid-ruled unions

And thus, they could continue to work in unison

... Side-by-side with union-membered employees

And did not have to abide by the same agrees



This principle was hotly contested by all the unions

Who felt it would eventually destroy their communion

Something that has not happened to this very day

Which just goes to show - allowing fairness - pays ...



- Tristram



© Christopher W. Thomas

1:15pm Wednesday, June 23rd, 1999



Wagner Act - passed by Congress in 1935

Taft-Hartley Act - passed by Congress in 1947



Amendments passed since:

1951 - gave employees the right to petition

the NLRB for a secret-ballot election in order

to rescind union's power to institute a union-shop

agreement ...

1959 - a provision was added banning the 

secondary boycott, which had allowed unions

the right to prohibit dealings with non-union shops.