Pre-Wagner Act labor relations The struggle of workers in 18th
and 19th Century America to improve their working conditions led
to the beginnings of a national labor policy. When the United
States entered World War I in 1917, the labor movement had grown
to 3 million members. President Woodrow Wilson took steps to
promote labor peace by creating a tri-partite War Labor Board in
1918. Although the War Labor Board did not have enforcement
powers, labor and management agreed to refrain from strikes or
lockouts as a result of its mediating efforts. The War Labor
Board recognized the "right to organize in trade unions and to
bargain collectively through chosen representatives." The Labor-
Management truce during World War I evaporated after the
armistice in 1918. The following year, unions lost major strikes
in the steel, coal, and rail industries. Union membership
dropped from more than five million members in 1920 to three
million members in 1933—just 300,000 more than in 1914.
Hostility between labor and managem