The Long Argument: Capital vs. Labor · Episode 7 of 12 · 25 min
The Deal: Wagner, Flint, and Taft-Hartley
After sixty years of industrial war, the United States wrote workers' right to organize into federal law and watched union membership triple. The story runs from the Depression through the 1934 strikes to Flint's sit-down and the Memorial Day Massacre, then to Taft-Hartley's counter-swing. Whether this was labor's Magna Carta or the taming of a movement is left open.
Who's who
- Franklin D. Roosevelt+28 more episodesPresident who signed the Wagner Act
- Robert F. WagnerNew York senator and architect of the National Labor Relations Act
- John L. LewisUnited Mine Workers president who founded the CIO
- Frances Perkins+3 more episodesSecretary of Labor and first woman in the cabinet
- Frank Murphy+1 more episodeMichigan governor who refused to evict the Flint sit-down strikers
- Tom GirdlerRepublic Steel president who led Little Steel's refusal to sign
- Robert A. TaftSenator who co-sponsored the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act
- Harry S. Truman+14 more episodesPresident who vetoed Taft-Hartley, overridden within days
Where it happens
- Flint, Michigan+3 more episodesSite of the 1936-37 General Motors sit-down strike
- Chicago, Illinois+15 more episodesSite of the Memorial Day Massacre outside Republic Steel
Timeline
- March 23, 1932Norris-LaGuardia Act strips federal courts of power to issue most labor injunctions
- July 5, 1935Wagner Act signed, creating the NLRB and majority-rule elections
- December 30, 1936-February 11, 1937Flint sit-down strike ends with GM signing with the UAW
- April 12, 1937Supreme Court upholds the Wagner Act 5-4
- May 30, 1937Memorial Day Massacre: Chicago police fire on Republic Steel marchers, killing 10
- 1947Taft-Hartley Act passes over Truman's veto
Still debated
The New Deal settlement is read as labor's Magna Carta, as a containment of a radical movement, or a view that without state protection the upsurge could have been broken. Why Flint's strikers were tolerated, whether the Act's exclusions were about race, and whether the Court shifted under pressure are also argued.
← PreviousThe Company Town: Scrip, Ludlow, and Blair MountainNext →The Accord: The Treaty of Detroit and Who Was Left Out
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