Norris-La Guardia Act of 1932
The Norris-La Guardia Act of 1932 is a significant piece of labor legislation in the United States that aimed to protect the rights of workers to engage in union activities without fear of legal repercussions. It specifically prohibited federal courts from issuing injunctions against nine designated peaceful union actions, such as striking, joining a union, and publicizing labor disputes. Additionally, the act rendered yellow-dog contracts—agreements that forced workers to renounce union membership—unenforceable. The act marked a shift in legal perspectives towards labor rights, particularly during the difficult economic conditions of the Great Depression.
Despite its importance, the Norris-La Guardia Act was later overshadowed by more comprehensive labor laws, such as the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 and the Wagner Act of 1935, which further supported workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively. The constitutionality of the act was upheld in several key court cases, highlighting its role in legitimizing union activities. Although the act's influence diminished over time, it played a crucial role in shaping the labor movement and improving conditions for workers during a transformative period in U.S. history.
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Norris-La Guardia Act of 1932
The Law Federal law that effectively reduced the use of court injunctions to restrict labor union activities
Date March 23, 1932
Since the passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890, labor unions had been vulnerable to prosecution for actions in restraint of trade. The Clayton Act of 1914 contained passages limiting the scope for such prosecutions, but court decisions during the 1920’s continued to allow firms to obtain injunctions against strikes, picketing, or boycotts.
The Norris-La Guardia Act enumerated nine specific, peaceable union activities against which federal courts might not issue injunctions. These included ceasing or refusing to work, joining a union, paying strike benefits, publicizing facts in a labor dispute, and advising or persuading others regarding the listed items. So-called yellow-dog contracts, in which a worker, as a condition of employment, agreed not to join a union, were explicitly held to be unenforceable. The law also severely restricted applying the concepts of conspiracy or shared liability for engaging in the enumerated actions.
The constitutionality of the Norris-La Guardia Act was upheld in the case of Lauf v. E. G. Shinner & Co. (1938). Significant cases in which injunctive relief was refused were Apex Hosiery Co. v. Leader (1939) and United States v. Hutcheson (1941). However, the law was largely superseded by other major federal labor legislation. The National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 and the National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act) of 1935 established a national policy that workers had the right to organize unions and bargain collectively. The Wagner Act prohibited various unfair labor practices by employers and created the National Labor Relations Board to protect these.
Impact
Norris-La Guardia contributed to the general climate of opinion legitimizing the formation and activities of labor unions, reacting to worker distress from the Depression. While emphasis shifted to other policies, under which union membership increased rapidly, both the Apex and Hutcheson cases involved union activities with strongly antisocial elements such as secondary boycotts. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 restricted these and other harmful union activities.
Bibliography
Daugherty, Carroll R. Labor Problems in American Industry. 5th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1941.
Gregory, Charles O. Labor and the Law. New York: W. W. Norton, 1949.
Lehman, Jeffrey, and Shirelle Phelps, eds. West’s Encyclopedia of American Law. Detroit: Thompson/Gale, 2005.
Norris, George W. Fighting Liberal. New York: Collier Books, 1961.