How Did The Wagner Act Influence The Labor Movement?

In the early 1900s employers hire people to spy on workers in unions and report back to them with information on what was going on. The Wagner act of 1935, also known as the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), was created by Senator Robert R. Wagner and signed into action by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in July of 1935. President Roosevelt and the Wagner Act had an immense influence on the labor movement and the American work force we know today. Before the NLRH employers had monarch like power over their employees. These employers used any tactic they could think of to keep their workers under their control and to make sure they are the ones making the money. The executives of the companies could discipline workers without anyone overseeing this or anyone checking its legality. Another tactic they would use is that they had the freedom to interrogate their workers and try to pry information out of them about what was going on in union meetings or if anyone was stirring up trouble. Employees could even put union members on a blacklist, which …show more content…
The first thing this act did was allow workers to join, create, or assist labor unions. Next, the act allowed these unions to bargain, by using representatives of their choosing, with the businesses. Being able to bargain for better benefits for the employees is what makes being involved in a union so attractive to the average worker. This is the main job of unions today. Businesses now could not interfere with the formation of labor unions and they could not encourage or discourage membership or put restraints on the unions self-organizing rights. The Wagner act was also a steppingstone for two more bills that would be passed in the next 12 years which would further expand workers rights. This act brought forth the idea that people are the key to industry and they must be recognized and respected if business wants to