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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 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.
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