§ 151. — Findings and declaration of policy.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 29USC151]
TITLE 29--LABOR
CHAPTER 7--LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS
SUBCHAPTER II--NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS
Sec. 151. Findings and declaration of policy
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.
(July 5, 1935, ch. 372, Sec. 1, 49 Stat. 449; June 23, 1947, ch. 120,
title I, Sec. 101, 61 Stat. 136.)
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''.
Effective Date of 1947 Amendment
Section 104 of title I of act June 23, 1947, provided: ``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.''
