Question

dentify several laws that significantly influenced labor-management relations. Discuss the major provisions of each law.

Answer 1

1. Yellow dog contract: allows workers to consent not to join a union as a condition of employment.

2.Collective bargaining: process through which representatives of the union and management negotiate a contract for workers.

3.Norris-LaGuardia Act, 1932: prohibited courts for granting injections against unlawful labor activities; prohibited contracts banning union activities; prohibited workers from using yellow dog contracts.

4. 1935 National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act): grant to workers the right to join and leave labor organizations (or refuse to form or join); the right to bargain jointly with employers through elected representatives of the union; and the right to participate in labor movements such as marches, picketing or boycotting. The employer and the union abolished such unfair labor practices and set up the National Labor Relations Board to administer campaigns for union elections and investigate labor practices. This act gave the union movement a great boost.

5. Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938: Set minimum wage and total standard hours in international trade sectors for workers. With the exception of farm and retail workers, the first minimum wage was 25 cents an hour.

6. Labor-Management Relations Act (Taft-Hartley Act), 1947: amended the Wagner Act; allowed states to pass laws prohibiting compulsory union membership (right-to-work laws); developed procedures for dealing with strikes affecting national health and safety; outlawed secondary boycotts, closed-shop negotiations and featherbedding (requiring wage compensation for work not carried out) by unions. This act gave management more power.