Talk:National Labor Relations Act

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very good

[edit] Suggestion

The article seems a little heavy on the legal framework and history of the legislation. It provides little detail on how the act actually works in practice. I recommend adding this component to it.

Duly noted--we have added satellite articles on procedural issues. At some later point I'll try to give a rough outline of the practical impact of the law relating to unfair labor practices, to the extent that they are not covered under particular headings such as secondary boycott, but any summary will have to be once over lightly, given the complexity of the law in this area. -- Italo Svevo 22:08, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Reverting the addition of Flint Michigan

Two problems: the Flint Sit-Down Strike was not a general strike and, more importantly, it took place more than a year after passage of the Act. The laws of physics prevent it from having any causative effect on something that happened a year earlier. -- Italo Svevo 22:08, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

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You would be absolutely correct if we were to assume that the reference you use was the same one that I used,

However......

The reason for inclusion was .. Attempts had been made to fight the auto moguls early in the depression. In July 1930 a communist-led union struck Fisher Body No. 1 and marched into downtown Flint with banners flying: "In 1776 we fought for Liberty. Today we fight for bread." The workers at Fisher Body in Flint struck and closed their plant for a week.

In 1933, the Trade Union Unity League (TUUL), a left-led organizing group, created the Auto Workers Union along industrial lines. It conducted strikes which eventually involved tens of thousands and which were met with ferocious brutality, especially at the Briggs Auto Works in Flint.

In 1934, President Roosevelt ignored GM’s refusal to negotiate-a violation of the NRA collective bargaining Section 7a, He proposed a compromise: proportional representation of all union groups in a plant, including the company unions! chance0

Thanks for the clarification. I still don't think that justifies including Flint in the list. The 1930 strike, for all its daring, fizzled, and organizing in Flint was pretty dead in 1934; the real action was in Toledo and Cleveland and slowly but surely Detroit. The Briggs strike was centered in Highland Park and Detroit, if I'm not mistaken; Briggs produced mostly for Ford, not GM. And the FDR/GM anecdote doesn't say anything about Flint per se or serve as evidence of the upsurge in strikes,

All of this could go into the United Auto Workers article, however, which could use a lot more depth of detail. I've been meaning to do that for the last year and a half; maybe you'll ge there first.

[edit] Principles of Wagnerism

I think the following would be helpful (off the top of my head) to have in the article, among other details of what the Wagner Act (and its Canadian equivalent, PC1003?) implies.

Wagnerism seems to consider the following to be unfair labour practices:

• Interfering with an employee's right to join a union
• Dominating a labour union, by setting up a fake employer union as a facade of union representation for example
• Discriminating against employees who engage in union activities
• Disciplining employees who seek protection under the Wagner Act
• Refusing to bargin with a union

The principles of Wagnerism include:

• There can be only one certified union (principle of exclusivity; no segregation of worker classes for separate bargaining)
• Employers have a duty to bargain with the union
• There can be no legal strikes or lockouts when there is a collective agreement in operation (strikes under a CA are called wildcat strikes)