Francis/Monahan Law Project

The Act stated that "the labor of a human being is not commodity or article of commerce," and provided further that nothing contained in the Federal antitrust laws.

Congress passed the Davis-Bacon Act, requiring that contracts for construction entered into by the Federal Government specify the minimum wages to be paid to persons employed under those contracts.

Requiring employers to bargain collectively and prohibiting discrimination against unions. It applied originally to interstate railroads and their related undertakings. In 1936, it was amended to include.
airlines engaged in interstate commerce.

During the last year of the Hoover Administration, was the first in a series of laws passed by Congress in the 1930s which gave Federal sanction to the right of labor unions to organize and strike, and to use other forms of economic leverage in dealings with management.

Title I of the Act, providing that all codes of fair competition
approved under the Act should guarantee the right of employees to collective bargaining without interference or coercion of employees, was held unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1935.

Employers were forbidden by the Act from engaging in any of the five categories of unfair labor practices. Violation of this
prohibition could result in the filing of a complaint with the NLRB by a union or employees. After investigation, the NLRB could order the
cessation of such practices, reinstatement of a person fired for union
activities, the provision of back pay, restoration of seniority,
benefits, etc. An NLRB order issued in response to an unfair labor practice complaint was made enforceable by the Federal courts.

The Byrnes Act of 1936, named for Sen. James Byrnes and amended in 1938, made it a felony to transport any person in interstate commerce who was employed for the purpose of using force of threats against non-violent picketing in a labor dispute or against organizing or bargaining efforts.

Passed in 1936, the Walsh-Healy Act stated that workers must be paid not less than the "prevailing minimum wage" normally paid in a locality; restricted regular work ing hours to eight hours a day and 40 hours a week, with time-and-a-half pay for additional hours; prohibited the employment of convicts and children under 18; and established sanitation and safety standards.

Known as the wage-hour law, this 1938 Act established minimum wages and maximum hours for all workers engaged in covered "interstate commerce."

It was not until two years after the close of World War II that
the first major modification of the National Labor Relations Act was
enacted. In 1947, the Labor-Management Relations Act -- also known as
the Taft-Hartley Act, after its two sponsors, Sen. Robert A. Taft
(OH-R) and Rep. Fred A. Hartley, Jr. (NJ-R) -- was passed by
Congress, Vetoed by President Truman (on the basis that it was anti-Labor), and then reapproved over his veto. This comprehensive measure.