US Organizing National
Labor Relations Act, 1935 Also cited NLRA or the Act; 29 U.S.C.
Sec. Sec. 151-169
[Title 29, Chapter 7, Subchapter II, United States Code]
Findings and Policies Section 1. [Sec. 151.] The denial by some employers of
the right of employees to organize and the refusal by some employers
to accept the procedure of collective bargaining lead to strikes
and other forms of industrial strife or unrest, which have the
intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing commerce
by
impairing the efficiency, safety, or operation of the instrumentalities
of commerce;
occurring in the current of commerce;
materially affecting, restraining, or controlling the flow
of raw materials or manufactured or processed goods from or
into the channels of commerce, or the prices of such materials
or goods in commerce; or
causing diminution of employment and wages in such volume
as substantially to impair or disrupt the market for goods flowing
from or into the channels of commerce.
The inequality of bargaining power between employees who do not
possess full freedom of association or actual liberty of contract
and employers who are organized in the corporate or other forms
of ownership association substantially burdens and affects the
flow of commerce, and tends to aggravate recurrent business depressions,
by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners
in industry and by preventing the stabilization of competitive
wage rates and working conditions within and between industries.
Experience has proved that protection by law of the right of
employees to organize and bargain collectively safeguards commerce
from injury, impairment, or interruption, and promotes the flow
of commerce by removing certain recognized sources of industrial
strife and unrest, by encouraging practices fundamental to the
friendly adjustment of industrial disputes arising out of differences
as to wages, hours, or other working conditions, and by restoring
equality of bargaining power between employers and employees.
Experience has further demonstrated that certain practices by
some labor organizations, their officers, and members have the
intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing commerce
by preventing the free flow of goods in such commerce through
strikes and other forms of industrial unrest or through concerted
activities which impair the interest of the public in the free
flow of such commerce. The elimination of such practices is a
necessary condition to the assurance of the rights herein guaranteed.
It is declared to be the policy of the United States to eliminate
the causes of certain substantial obstructions to the free flow
of commerce and to mitigate and eliminate these obstructions when
they have occurred by encouraging the practice and procedure of
collective bargaining and by protecting the exercise by workers
of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation
of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating
the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid
or protection.
Rights of employees Sec. 7. [Sec. 157.] Employees shall have the right to self-organization,
to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively
through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in
other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining
or other mutual aid or protection, and shall also have the right
to refrain from any or all of such activities except to the extent
that such right many be affected by an agreement requiring membership
in a labor organization as a condition of employment as authorized
in section 8(a)(3).
