National Labor Relations Act of 1935

National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)

Long title	An act to diminish the causes of labor disputes burdening or obstructing interstate and foreign commerce, to create a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), and for other purposes.
Nicknames	Wagner Act
Enacted by	the 74th United States Congress
Effective	July 6, 1935
Citations
Public law	74-198
Statutes at Large	49 Stat. 449
Codification
Titles amended	29 U.S.C: Labor
U.S.C. sections amended	29 U.S.C. § 151–169
Legislative history
Signed into law by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on July 5, 1935
Major amendments
Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959
United States Supreme Court cases
List NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1 (1937) NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co., 304 U.S. 333 (1938) NLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp., 306 U.S. 240 (1939) NLRB v. Sands Manufacturing Co., 306 U.S. 332 (1939) Allen-Bradley Local v. Labor Board, 315 U.S. 740 (1942) NLRB v. Hearst Publications, 322 U.S. 111 (1944) Republic Aviation Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board, 324 U.S. 793 (1945) NLRB v. E. C. Atkins & Co., 331 U.S. 398 (1947) NLRB v. Truck Drivers Local 449 (1957) San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon, 359 U.S. 236 (1959) Plumbers' Union v. Borden, 373 U.S. 690 (1963) NLRB v. Nash-Finch Co., 404 U.S. 138 (1971) NLRB v. Scrivener, 405 U.S. 117 (1972) NLRB v. J. Weingarten, Inc., 420 U.S. 251 (1975) Machinists v. Wisconsin Employment Rel. Comm'n, 427 U.S. 132 (1976) NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago, 440 U.S. 490 (1979) Bill Johnson's Restaurants, Inc. v. NLRB, 461 U.S. 731 (1983) NLRB v. Transportation Management Corp., 462 U.S. 393 (1983) NLRB v. Bildisco & Bildisco, 465 U.S. 513 (1984) Sure-Tan, Inc. v. NLRB, 467 U.S. 883 (1984) Pattern Makers v. NLRB, 473 U.S. 95 (1985) Wisconsin Dept. of Industry v. Gould Inc., 475 U.S. 282 (1986) Golden State Transit Corp. v. Los Angeles, 475 U.S. 608 (1986) Longshoremen v. Davis, 476 U.S. 380 (1986) NLRB v. Food & Commercial Workers, 484 U.S. 112 (1987) Communications Workers v. Beck, 487 U.S. 735 (1988) Livadas v. Bradshaw, 512 U.S. 107 (1994) Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB, 535 U.S. 137 (2002) BE&K Constr. Co. v. NLRB, 536 U.S. 516 (2002) Chamber of Commerce v. Brown, 554 U.S. 60 (2008) 14 Penn Plaza LLC v. Pyett, 556 U.S. 247 (2009) New Process Steel, L.P. v. NLRB, 560 U.S. 674 (2010) Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, No. 16-285, 584 U.S. ___ (2018) Glacier Northwest, Inc. v. Teamsters, No. 21-1449, 598 U.S. ___ (2023) Starbucks Corporation v. McKinney, No. 23-367, 602 U.S. ___ (2024)

The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, is a foundational statute of United States labor law that guarantees the right of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and take collective action such as strikes. Central to the act was a ban on company unions.^[1] The act was written by Senator Robert F. Wagner, passed by the 74th United States Congress, and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The National Labor Relations Act seeks to correct the "inequality of bargaining power" between employers and employees by promoting collective bargaining between trade unions and employers. The law established the National Labor Relations Board to prosecute violations of labor law and to oversee the process by which employees decide whether to be represented by a labor organization. It also established various rules concerning collective bargaining and defined a series of banned unfair labor practices, including interference with the formation or organization of labor unions by employers. The act does not apply to certain workers, including supervisors, agricultural employees, domestic workers, government employees, and independent contractors.

The NLRA was strongly opposed by conservatives and members of the Republican Party, but it was upheld in the Supreme Court case of NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., decided April 12, 1937. The 1947 Taft–Hartley Act amended the NLRA, establishing a series of labor practices for unions and granting states the power to pass right-to-work laws.