Discuss the differences between unions before and after the Great Depression. What laws ...

Until about 1930, there were no special labor laws. Employers didn't have to engage in collective bargaining with employees and were virtually unrestrained in their behavior toward unions. The use of spies and the firing of agitators were widespread. "Yellow-dog" contracts, whereby management could require non-union membership as a condition for employment, were widely enforced. Most union weapons—even strikes—were illegal. This one-sided situation lasted in the United States from the Revolution to the Great Depression (around 1930). Since then, in response to changing public attitudes, values, and economic conditions, labor law has gone through three clear changes: from "strong encouragement" of unions to "modified encouragement coupled with regulation" to "detailed regulation of internal union affairs." The Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932 set the stage for a new era in which union activity was encouraged. It guaranteed to each employee the right to bargain collectively "free from interference, restraint, or coercion." It limited the courts' abilities to issue injunctions (stop orders) for activities such as peaceful picketing and payment of strike benefits. In 1935, Congress passed the National Labor Relations (or Wagner) Act to add teeth to the Norris-LaGuardia Act. It did this by (1) banning certain unfair labor practices, (2) providing for secret-ballot elections and majority rule for determining whether a firm's employees would unionize, and (3) creating the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to enforce these two provisions.