Findings and declaration of policy

29 U.S.C. § 151

• Title: 29 — Labor
• Chapter: SUBCHAPTER II—NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS

Text

The denial by some employers of the right of employees to organize and the refusal by some employers to accept the procedure of collective bargaining lead to strikes and other forms of industrial strife or unrest, which have the intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing commerce by (a) impairing the efficiency, safety, or operation of the instrumentalities of commerce; (b) occurring in the current of commerce; (c) materially affecting, restraining, or controlling the flow of raw materials or manufactured or processed goods from or into the channels of commerce, or the prices of such materials or goods in commerce; or (d) causing diminution of employment and wages in such volume as substantially to impair or disrupt the market for goods flowing from or into the channels of commerce.
The inequality of bargaining power between employees who do not possess full freedom of association or actual liberty of contract, and employers who are organized in the corporate or other forms of ownership association substantially burdens and affects the flow of commerce, and tends to aggravate recurrent business depressions, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners in industry and by preventing the stabilization of competitive wage rates and working conditions within and between industries.
Experience has proved that protection by law of the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively safeguards commerce from injury, impairment, or interruption, and promotes the flow of commerce by removing certain recognized sources of industrial strife and unrest, by encouraging practices fundamental to the friendly adjustment of industrial disputes arising out of differences as to wages, hours, or other working conditions, and by restoring equality of bargaining power between employers and employees.
Experience has further demonstrated that certain practices by some labor organizations, their officers, and members have the intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing commerce by preventing the free flow of goods in such commerce through strikes and other forms of industrial unrest or through concerted activities which impair the interest of the public in the free flow of such commerce. The elimination of such practices is a necessary condition to the assurance of the rights herein guaranteed.
It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States to eliminate the causes of certain substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce and to mitigate and eliminate these obstructions when they have occurred by encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and by protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection.

History

(July 5, 1935, ch. 372, §1, 49 Stat. 449; June 23, 1947, ch. 120, title I, §101, 61 Stat. 136.)

Editorial Notes

Editorial Notes

Amendments
1947—Act June 23, 1947, amended section generally to restate the declaration of policy and to make the finding and policy of this subchapter "two-sided".

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date of 1947 Amendment
Act June 23, 1947, ch. 120, title I, §104, 61 Stat. 152, provided that: "The amendments made by this title [amending this subchapter] shall take effect sixty days after the date of the enactment of this Act [June 23, 1947], except that the authority of the President to appoint certain officers conferred upon him by section 3 of the National Labor Relations Act as amended by this title [section 153 of this title] may be exercised forthwith."