By blocking the confirmation of new board members, Republicans have rendered the NLRB dysfunctional. It will soon lack the quorum necessary to issue decisions. This is an unprecedented attack on the NLRB, which has long been an area of bipartisan agreement. As Senate Republicans block these nominees, it is worth considering the history of the NLRB and the crucial role in our country it has played over the past three-quarters of a century. On July 5, 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the National Labor Relations Act establishing the National Labor Relations Board to protect the “right of self-organization of employees in industry for the purpose of collective bargaining” and to ensure their right to choose their representatives through free and fair elections. In signing the law, soon dubbed the “Wagner Act” after its chief Senate sponsor, Roosevelt proclaimed it “to be necessary as an act of both common justice and economic advance,” a law that would protect workers’ civic rights and independence while also maintaining wages, purchasing power and employment.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 15:15:19 +0000
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