THE LABOR RELATIONS ACTS-THEIR EFFECT ON INDUSTRIAL WARFARE

This article is addressed to the query whether the labor relations acts have any effect on the ends and means of labor warfare. During the hey-day of the NIRA, decisions may be found which indicated that industrial warfare for the objects within the regulatory power of the code authorities was unlawful. Strikes and picketing were enjoined where carried on for higher wages and hours, objects which were thought properly to be for code authorities to adjust. Those decisions were of dubious soundness, but they suggest an argument which may be advanced under the labor relations acts.

The NIRA was of broader scope than the NLRA in assuming to prescribe terms and conditions of the employment relation, and an interpretation forbidding strikes for purposes which were subject to adjustment under the codes would in effect have outlawed strikes entirely. The NLRA does not assume to decide what the terms of a collective agreement shall be and only on specific issues-discrimination, refusal to bargain collectively, etc.-- does it afford adequate relief. Hence a curtailment of the right to strike on these issues would be less drastic than in the cases mentioned above.