The Price of Labor Peace: Popular Unrest and the National Labor Relations Act

• Main Author: Brooks, Andrew
• Format: Others
• Published: ScholarWorks@UNO 2012
• Subjects: National Labor Relations Act; National Labor Relations Board; organized labor; communism; racial politics of the Great Depression
• Online Access: http://scholarworks.uno.edu/honors_theses/10; http://scholarworks.uno.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1008&context=honors_theses

The National Labor Relations Act stands as one of the most influential pieces of labor legislation in the history of the United States. The Act defines the rights and responsibilities of both employers and employees. Furthermore, the National Labor Relations Act makes the State into the chief judicial body regarding labor disputes through the National Labor Relations Board. Chiefly concerned with the circumstances that led to the passage and affected the shaping of the Act, factors such as Communist organizing, racial politics of the Deep South, and internal division within the labor movement in the 1920s are examined. Specific case studies include the Auto-Lite Strike in Toledo, Ohio (1934), the Minneapolis Teamster Strike (1934), and the West Coast Longshoremen Strike (1934).