If Elon Musk and the nebulous Department of Government Efficiency have anything to say about it, the labor relations regime that has been in place for ninety years could come to an abrupt end during Donald Trump’s second presidency.
Passed in 1935, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) codified union representation and collective bargaining rights for workers. Union membership boomed in the 1930s and 1940s, and it continued to grow even after the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act, which amended the NLRA to make it harder for unions to organize new members.
In the postwar period, unions became complacent, partly as a result of new legal restrictions and partly out of an acceptance of managerial capitalism. They were thus unprepared for the assault of the business class and the Republican Party during the Ronald Reagan years, which was generally met by the Democratic Party with indifference. Union density has been in decline for decades, and it has continued to drop even among a recent surge in new interest in and approval for unions.
Under President Joe Biden, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the administrative body tasked with carrying out the NLRA, took many actions favorable to unions. It created new rules for the swift processing of union elections and stricter penalties for employer misconduct. It ruled that Amazon was a “joint employer” of its subcontracted delivery drivers. And most recently it banned so-called “captive audience” meetings, where employers use work time to bring employees together and let them know their opinions on unions.
These were all beneficial rule changes for organized labor, and in all likelihood, they will all be reversed by a Trump-appointed board. But we should not be lulled into thinking that all of labor’s problems have an R next to their name.
We should not be lulled into thinking that all of labor’s problems have an R next to their name.
Every year for the last four years, union density…
Auteur: Benjamin Y. Fong
