Why Are Workers Still Dangling in the ‘Blue Eagle’s’ Talons?

Today, relatively few Americans remember that in 1933 Congress enacted legislation obliging businesses to form committees with their competitors to write “codes†prescribing the “rules of fair competition†for their industry. Businesses that refused to report how much they charged customers or charged less than was mandated by a code could be subjected to fines of up to $500 per “offense,†with each day considered a separate offense.

The 1933 law, known as the National Recovery Act (NRA), was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court two years later. But heavy-handed federal attempts to prevent “excessive†or “cutthroat†competition among American businesses continued for decades.

However, over the past 30 years government policies that attempt to dictate prices and marketing practices in domestic business have been thoroughly discredited and almost entirely dismantled.

Unfortunately, even today federal labor policy denies to the employee the right to choose his own agent or individually choose no agent in the sale of his labor services. Just as the NRA once authorized the creation of “industry committees,†thus allowing some business people to dictate to others the prices and other terms under which they could sell their products, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) today authorizes union officials to seek and obtain “exclusive†bargaining power over all the front-line employees in a business or other federally-delineated “bargaining unit.â€

Is there any basis in logic or experience for rejecting business monopolies while promoting labor monopolies? A dispassionate look at the actual practices and preferences of American workers indicates that the answer is “No.â€