History

--Roots of 
the ILA

--The Dawn 
of Unionism

--First 
Longshoremen's
Union

--ILA
Beginnings

--Early Threats
To Unionism

--Realism 
and Caution

--The Haymarket
Riot

--Creation of
the ILA

--Affiliation with
AFL-CIO

--Fighting
Communism
and racism

--ILA arrives in
New York

--ILA absorbs
LUPA

--Gangland
Myths

--Wagner Act

--Pacific Coast
Split

--ILA Accused
of Gangsterism

--Teddy Gleason
Fights to Save
the ILA

Teddy Gleason

--Elected President
of the ILA

--ILA in the
Present

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT (NLRA)

In July of 1935 Senator Robert R. Wagner of New York presented the National Labor Relations Act to congress. The intent of the Act was to establish a governing body to oversee labor-management relations of firms engaged in interstate commerce. After the Act's passage, congress created the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) whose duty was to prevent unfair practices by employers and to encourage workers to form labor unions. As a result, the NLRB began to persuade companies to exclusively hire union workers. This "closed-shop hiring" was considered an unfair business practice in itself and in 1947 the Labor Management Relations Act, also known as the Taft-Hartley Act for its two sponsors Robert Taft of Ohio and Fred Hartley of New Jersey, was passed to amend the NLRA. The amendment emphasized workers rights to not join labor unions if they so chose.

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