FDR, New Deals, and the Limits of Power 205labor protests included workers from just about every type of political group.
Roosevelt, unlike his cousin or other predecessors, maintained real neutrality
during the strikes—he did not send in troops to crush the labor protests and
sometimes sent in mediators to negotiate and try to help workers. Wagner and
pro-union Congressmen were continuing their efforts and on June 19th, 1934,
created one of the more important institutions in labor history, the National
Labor Relations Board [NLRB]. The NLRB could investigate industrial dis-
putes, require representative elections, and make employers bargain with a
union chosen by the workers. For labor, the NLRB seemed like a huge
change in luck, and workers began to demand union elections in various
industries.
Employers, however, continued to ignore the law and Hugh Johnson and
FDR did little to support the NLRB or workers. Corporations believed that
Roosevelt’s policies for the auto and steel industry associations had established
the practice of individual bargaining and company unions, and the Justice
Department would not bring suit against companies ignoring the NLRB
[most notably in the Houde case]. FDR, after originally seeming to support
the new Board, said in January 1935 that it could not have priority over code
authorities where the NRA had jurisdiction, including in the auto, steel, tex-
tiles, newspapers, petroleum, and shipping industries—virtually the entire
essential industrial base of America involving millions of workers. Making
matters more difficult for labor, in February 1935 the courts upheld the rights
of steel corporations to refuse union elections because manufacturing was not
a form of interstate commerce [which the federal government could consti-
tutionally regulate] so the NLRB could not make rules on relations between
workers and bosses. NLRB supporters could only lament that employers had
successfully defeated union elections “in every case.”
Once again, Wagner entered the fray. In February 1935, he introduced new
legislation to guarantee the rights of workers as free men; let them choose
representatives at work without coercion by bosses; and abide by majority
rule. Wagner wanted to eliminate the problems that caused strikes, not pro-
voke them. His law was a conventional, liberal approach, not radical... Even
so, FDR and Perkins remained reluctant, and they wanted the NLRB under
the control of the Department of Labor—and more traditional liberals—rath-
er than have it independent and staffed by mostly young lawyers who were
far more “militant” than the typical New Deal bureaucrat. Even though cor-