History of labor law in the United States

History of labor law in the United States refers to the development of US labor law, or legal relations between workers, their employers and trade unions in the United States of America.

Contents 1 Pre-independence 2 Nineteenth century 3 Antitrust and the Lochner era 4 Modern labour law 5 Post-war regulation 6 Civil rights movement 7 Legislation in the 1970s 8 Post 1970s 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References

Pre-independence

• History of UK labour law

Nineteenth century

• Thirteenth Amendment

• Commonwealth v. Pullis (1806) or the Philadelphia Cordwainers case, holding unions were criminal conspiracies
• Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842), holding that workers have the right to organize and strike.
• Vegelahn v. Guntner, 167 Mass. 92 (1896) Holmes J dissenting in the Massachusetts Supreme Court, argued that organisation on the worker side is necessary to counter combination on the side of capital, if the market is to work fairly.

• Horace Gray Wood, Master and Servant (1877)

Antitrust and the Lochner era

• Sherman Act of 1890
• Loewe v. Lawlor 208 U.S. 274 (1908) or The Danbury Hatters' case
• Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905)
• Clayton Act of 1914
• Duplex Printing Press Co. v. Deering, 41 S. Ct. 172 (1921)

Modern labour law

• Railway Labor Act of 1926
• Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932
• Apex Hosiery Co. v. Leader, 310 U.S. 469 (1940)
• United States v. Hutcheson, 312 US 219 (1941)
• National Labor Relations Act of 1935
• NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp
• Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, minimum wage and overtime
• Employment Act of 1946

Post-war regulation

• Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 or the Taft-Hartley Act, no secondary action, closed shop, enforceable collective agreements
• Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 or the Landrum-Griffin Act, union elections, fiduciary duties of leaders

Civil rights movement

• Equal Pay Act of 1963
• Civil Rights Act of 1964

Legislation in the 1970s

• Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, health and safety and whistleblowing

• Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, private pension minimum standards and fiduciary duties
• Federal Labor Relations Act of 1978, allowing public sector unions
• Humphrey–Hawkins Full Employment Act of 1978

Post 1970s

• Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, 12 weeks unpaid parental leave after 12 months work over 50 employees
• Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (WARN Act)
• Employee Free Choice Act

See also

• US labor law
• History of labour law in the United Kingdom

Notes

References

Articles

• JM Feinman, 'The Development of the Employment at Will Rule' (1976) 20(2) The American Journal of Legal History 118

Books