Trade Unionism Under the Recovery Program

Report Outline
The Trade Unions and the Recovery Program
New Machinery for Adjustment of Labor Disputes
The Status of Labor Organization
Outlook for a New Type of Trade Unionism
Special Focus

The Trade Unions and the Recovery Program

Recovery Act Provisions on Collective Bargaining

Written and passed “to induce and maintain united action of labor and management under adequate governmental sanction and supervision,” the National Recovery Act is considered by many to be essentially a labor act. It had its beginnings in the plight of millions of workers out of jobs, it was sponsored by labor's representatives and friends, it was built on the philosophy originating in the labor movement that prosperity can be restored only through the restoration of mass purchasing power, and it guarantees to labor the right to organize and bargain collectively. “As a matter of fact,” T. E. Burke, American fraternal delegate, told the British Trades Union Congress, September 5, “the whole governmental program now in operation in the United States is largely in response to the demands of organized labor.”

Criticism of the Recovery Act by employers has been directed principally to the labor provisions of Section 7a. This section, now a prescribed part of every industrial code, provides:

1. That employees shall have the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and shall be free from the interference, restraint, or coercion of employers of labor, or their agents, in the designation of such representatives or in self-organization or in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection;