Wagner Act

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• Cornell Law School - Legal Information Institute - National Labor Relations Act
• United States History - National Labor Relations Act

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• Cornell Law School - Legal Information Institute - National Labor Relations Act
• United States History - National Labor Relations Act

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The Wagner Act was named for Democratic U.S. Senator Robert F. Wagner, who sponsored the act. Wagner was a leading architect of the modern welfare state and also sponsored the Social Security Act.

The purpose of the Wagner Act was to establish the legal right of most workers to join labour unions and to bargain collectively with their employers. It also prohibited employers from engaging in unfair labour practices.

The Wagner Act excluded agricultural workers, domestic service workers, independent contractors, and those employed by a parent or spouse from the legal right to participate in labour unions and to bargain collectively with employers.

The National Labor Relations Board is a permanent board, established by the Wagner Act, with the power to hear and resolve labour disputes. It is empowered to decide if an appropriate unit of employees exists for collective bargaining, to conduct elections in which employees can decide whether to be represented by a union, and to prevent or correct unfair labour practices.

The Wagner Act was significantly weakened by the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 and of “right to work” laws, which together prohibited the closed shop, narrowed the definition of unfair labour practices, and forbade various union-security measures. Subsequent legislation and court decisions continued to reduce the scope of the Wagner Act.

Wagner Act, the most important piece of labour legislation enacted in the United States in the 20th century. Its main purpose was to establish the legal right of most workers (notably excepting agricultural and domestic workers) to organize or join labour unions and to bargain collectively with their employers.

Sponsored by Democratic Sen. Robert F. Wagner of New York, the Wagner Act established the federal government as the regulator and ultimate arbiter of labour relations. It set up a permanent three-member (later five-member) National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with the power to hear and resolve labour disputes through quasi-judicial proceedings. Specifically, the NLRB was empowered to decide, when petitioned by employees, if an appropriate bargaining unit of employees existed for collective bargaining; to conduct secret-ballot elections in which the employees in a business or industry could decide whether to be represented by labour unions; and to prevent or correct unfair labour practices by employers (later also by unions). The act prohibited employers from engaging in such unfair labour practices as setting up a company union and firing or otherwise discriminating against workers who organized or joined unions. The act also barred employers from refusing to bargain with any such union that had been certified by the NLRB as being the choice of a majority of employees. Fiercely opposed by Republicans and big business, the Wagner Act was challenged in court as a violation of the “freedom of contract” of employers and employees and as an unconstitutional intrusion by the federal government in industries that were not directly engaged in interstate commerce, which Congress was empowered to regulate under the commerce clause (Article I, section 8). The U.S. Supreme Court eventually upheld (5–4) the constitutionality of the Wagner Act in National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. (1937).

The Wagner Act was significantly weakened by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, passed by a Republican-controlled Congress over the veto of Democratic Pres. Harry S. Truman. The Taft-Hartley Act prohibited the closed shop (an arrangement that makes union membership a condition of employment), allowed states to prohibit the agency shop (an arrangement that requires employees who are not union members to pay fees to a union to cover the costs of its bargaining on their behalf), narrowed the definition of unfair labour practices, and specified unfair union practices, among other provisions. Following adoption of the Taft-Hartley Act, a number of states enacted so-called “ right to work” laws, which banned both closed and agency shops. The Wagner Act was further amended by the Landrum-Griffin Act (1959), which banned secondary boycotts and limited the right to picket. In Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (2018), the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the agency shop for all public-sector employees.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Brian Duignan.