Wagner Act

Midsized manufacturers in particular were absolutely livid at the prospect of what became the Wagner Act, which legalized collective bargaining nationally.

Affirmative action, as a term, came to the fore in 1935 with the Wagner Act, a federal law that gave workers the right to form and join unions.

The National Labor Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act, guaranteed workers the right to form unions and collectively bargain for fair wages and workplace safety.

Put another way, these disasters cannot be separated from the overall political economy of the United States, which is arguably more anti-labor now than it’s been at any point since Franklin Roosevelt signed the Wagner Act in 1935.

That is what the great emblems of a reconstructive presidency — the 14th Amendment, which granted Black Americans citizenship, or the Wagner Act, which liberated workers from the tyranny of employers — are meant to do.