LABOR 101

Wagner Act (NLRA)

Who/What: Passed in 1935 during the New Deal era, the ___ __ established federal protections for workers to organize and engage in collective bargaining. Drafted by Senator Robert Wagner, it prohibited employer interference with union activities, outlined unfair labor practices such as blacklisting and intimidation, and created the National Labor Relations Board to conduct elections and hear complaints. The law guaranteed employees the right to select their own union, strike, boycott, and picket while ensuring that employers negotiate with the chosen representatives.

When/Where: Enforced nationwide across industries in the United States, the act set a legal framework for union recognition and workers’ rights during a period of economic recovery and labor mobilization.

Significance/Legacy: By formalizing the rights of workers and codifying employer obligations, the dramatically strengthened organized labor, enabling unions to grow and effectively negotiate over wages, hours, and working conditions. It laid the groundwork for industrial union expansion and reshaped labor-management relations for decades.

CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations)

Who/What: Emerging in 1935 as the ___ and formally becoming the in 1937, this movement represented a shift from craft-based unions to industrywide industrial unionism. Led by John L. Lewis and Sidney Hillman, it organized all workers, regardless of skill, race, or ethnicity, and was notable for mobilizing grassroots activists, radicals, immigrants, and first-generation Americans. The __ coordinated mass organizing drives, supported strikes, and pushed for widespread union recognition in large industrial firms.

When/Where: Centered in the industrial cities of the urban North and Midwest, including Detroit, Flint, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland, it operated nationally during the mid-1930s, gaining particular strength in the auto, steel, and rubber industries.

Significance/Legacy: The ___ played a pivotal role in expanding union membership during the Great Depression, orchestrating sit-down strikes that secured recognition for workers, pressuring corporations like General Motors and U.S. Steel to negotiate, and integrating working-class voters into the Democratic coalition. Its efforts demonstrated the potential of industrial unionism as both an economic and democratic movement.

Taft-Hartley Act

Who/What: Passed in 1947 amid Cold War anticommunist sentiment, the ___ ___ curtailed many of the powers previously granted to unions under the Wagner Act. It restricted union certification processes, permitted employers free speech during organizing campaigns, outlawed closed shops, enabled decertification elections, and limited collective action by prohibiting sympathy strikes and secondary boycotts. The law also required union leaders to sign anticommunist loyalty oaths and granted the president authority to intervene in strikes through mandatory “cooling-off” periods.

When/Where: Enacted nationwide in the United States in the postwar era, it reshaped labor relations by legally constraining union activity and providing employers with mechanisms to resist organizing and collective bargaining.

Significance/Legacy: The __ weakened union stability, particularly in the private sector, and facilitated the rise of bureaucratic business unionism focused on negotiated benefits rather than mass mobilization. It created pathways for right-to-work laws and curtailed unions’ capacity for large-scale collective action, permanently altering the balance of power between labor and management in the United States.

Business Unionism 

Who/What: ___  refers to a postwar form of American labor unionism characterized by hierarchical organization, pragmatism, and a focus on servicing members rather than mobilizing them for broad social or militant action. Leaders of unions such as the United Automobile Workers, Teamsters, and building-trades organizations prioritized deal-making, grievance handling, and institutional security over class-based activism, emphasizing cooperation with employers and avoidance of radical confrontation.

When/Where: This model developed in the United States from roughly 1945 to 1970 within the AFL-CIO and other major industrial unions, in a context shaped by rapid economic expansion, anti-communist sentiment, and the de-radicalization of labor during the postwar period.

Significance/Legacy: ___ __ reshaped labor relations by formalizing bureaucratic structures and codifying procedures that minimized rank-and-file initiative. While it provided stable mechanisms for negotiation and benefits, it also reduced public visibility and militancy within the labor movement, leaving unions less capable of resisting employer offensives and setting the stage for later reform efforts, such as the 1995 AFL-CIO leadership contest.

Luisa Moreno

Who/What: _ __ was a Guatemalan-born labor and civil rights activist who played a crucial role in organizing Mexican and immigrant workers in California during the 1930s. She helped lead strikes in cannery and garment industries and collaborated with the Congress of Spanish-Speaking Peoples (El Congreso) to advocate for labor rights, social justice, and political representation for Hispanic workers, particularly women.

When/Where: __ was primarily active in Los Angeles and California’s agricultural and industrial sectors during the 1930s, organizing workers in factories, canneries, and community labor initiatives.

Significance/Legacy: _’s leadership mobilized immigrant workers into unions affiliated with the Los Angeles CIO and connected labor organizing to broader civil rights and community efforts. Her work laid the foundation for later labor and social justice movements, exemplifying the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and labor activism in shaping the Southern California labor movement.

Concession Bargaining

Who/What: __ _ refers to a strategy in which unions agree to reduce wages, benefits, or work protections in response to employer pressure, economic downturns, or threats of plant closures. The goal is often to preserve employment or prevent business shutdowns, even at the cost of previous gains, and in practice, it occurred in industries like trucking, steel, construction, and janitorial services during periods of deregulation, automation, and increased competition from immigrant labor.

When/Where: Particularly prevalent in Southern California during the 1970s and 1980s, these negotiations unfolded as union density declined and employers gained leverage amid broader economic restructuring and globalization pressures.

Significance/Legacy: __ illustrates the structural vulnerability of unions under business unionism, showing how rank-and-file control weakened and long-term membership eroded. While it sometimes preserved jobs and facilitated negotiated compromises, these concessions contributed to the overall decline of union power and prompted later reform efforts linking unions with immigrant and community organizations, revitalizing the Southern California labor movement in the 1990s.

Strike Breaking in the 70s & 80s

Who/What: ___in this period describes systematic efforts by employers to defeat union actions, especially in the private sector, through tactics such as hiring permanent replacement workers, provoking strikes through rigid bargaining, and exploiting legal mechanisms like decertification elections. Notable instances include President Reagan’s firing of over 11,000 PATCO air traffic controllers in 1981, which served as a precedent signaling private-sector employers to aggressively counter union power.

When/Where: Occurring across the United States during the late 1970s and 1980s, ___ strategies affected industries ranging from airlines and manufacturing to mining and food processing, taking place on both regional and national levels.

Significance/Legacy: These actions dramatically weakened union density and bargaining power, contributing to a long-term decline in private-sector union membership. The aggressive use of legal tools, strikebreakers, and relocation to nonunion states shifted wealth upward, eroded labor power, and revealed the limitations of postwar business

___Leadership : John L. Lewis & Sidney Hillman

Who/What: , president of the United Mine Workers, was an autocratic yet strategic leader who broke with the AFL in 1935 to champion industrial unionism as essential for defending American democracy from concentrated corporate power. __of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers focused on uniting industrial workers and aligning unions with the social-democratic potential of the New Deal. Both provided leadership, coordination, and resources for mass organizing campaigns, supporting strikes and the mobilization of industrial workers.

When/Where: Their leadership was most prominent during the mid-to-late 1930s across industrial centers in the U.S., particularly in the auto, steel, and garment sectors.

Significance/Legacy: Together, ___ and ___ transformed the labor movement, elevating unions from narrow craft organizations into mass movements capable of reshaping workplace relations, influencing national politics, and securing significant worker victories such as sit-down strikes and union recognition agreements.