National Labor Relations Board

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency in the executive branch of the U.S. government. Created in 1934, it has the power to regulate labor unions and to investigate and resolve charges of unfair labor practices by both employers and unions.

Labor unions formed in the United States during the Industrial Revolution after the American Civil War (1861–65). It was a period during which workers faced long hours, poor wages, and unsafe conditions in factories across the country. Workers organized into unions to have greater power in negotiating with their employers for better working conditions.

Businesses opposed unions from the start. They considered unions to be criminal conspiracies under state laws and illegal under federal antitrust laws. The result was decades of violence between union members, employers, and law enforcement.

The federal government eventually decided to pass laws to regulate labor unions. The Railway Labor Act of 1926 created rules for unions in the railroad industry . The National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of 1933 created rules for unions in industries that affected interstate commerce.

U.S. senator Robert F. Wagner (1877–1953) of New York did not think the NIRA did enough to empower unions under federal laws. In March 1934, Wagner introduced a bill in Congress to strengthen the NIRA. The bill would prevent unfair labor practices by employers against unions and their members.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's (1882–1945; served 1933–45) administration opposed Wagner's bill. The country was in the middle of the Great Depression (1929–41), and the administration believed that helping businesses recover was the nation's top priority. Some people in the administration, including Hugh S. Johnson (1882–1942) of the National Recovery Administration, believed that union strikes and similar tactics were forms of treason.

To encourage defeat of Wagner's bill, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order number 6763 in June 1934. The order created the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Roosevelt used the NIRA to empower the NLRB to hold elections for unions, to regulate collective bargaining between unions and employers, and to investigate labor disputes upon request.

By the end of 1934, it was apparent that the NLRB was not going to be effective without further political action. In February 1935, Wagner resubmitted his bill to Congress. It passed as the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in May. The act made the NLRB an independent agency and gave employees the right to hold secret ballots for selecting unions by industry. The NLRB would regulate such elections, and employers had to recognize unions chosen in such elections. Under the act, the NLRB received greater power to investigate and prevent unfair labor practices by employers and unions.

Businesses opposed the NLRA as being too favorable to unions and employees. The Communist Party of America also opposed it as being too restrictive of the rights of employees to form unions as they saw fit. Roosevelt ultimately supported the act.

The NLRA is widely considered to be the most prounion legislation passed by Congress in the nation's history. Subsequent laws restricted any gains that labor made under the act. Americans still debate whether federal labor laws and the NLRB are too favorable to unions by interfering with business property rights, or whether they are too favorable to business by restricting the organizing power of unions and workers.