The NLRA At 70: A Promise Not Kept The NLRA At 70: A Promise Not
Kept This year marks the 70th anniversary of National Labor
Relations Act, the Depression-era law that was and still is
essential to the well-being of working Americans. But hold the
applause, please. It¹s not celebration that¹s wanted. It¹s
reform. The NLRA granted the right of unionization to workers
who until then had very few rights. That allowed them to bargain
collectively and thus on a more-or-less equal basis with
employers a right the workers of 1935 had to have if they were
to improve the miserable pay and working conditions inflicted on
them and escape blatant exploitation. Union membership grew
rapidly after passage of the law, and wages and working
conditions improved markedly. As President Franklin Roosevelt
and Congress had anticipated, the living standards of ordinary
people rose to the point that the country at last developed a
true middle class. But though the Labor Relations Act worked
well then, it is barely working now. Amen