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Virginia Department of Labor and Industry Strike Data Files, 1949-1952. Accession 23847, State government records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. 23219
Transferred, Virginia Department of Labor and Industry, Richmond, Virginia, 8/11/1952.
The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry was charged with ensuring compliance of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) or Wagner Act of 1935, the subsequent changes known as the Taft-Hartley amendments of 1947, and the subsequent legislation enacted by the Virginia General Assembly. The original NLRA established the National Labor Relations Board which was given the power to investigate charges of unfair labor practices, and also gave workers a forum within which to vote for union representation. The NLRA was passed after a series of violent strikes, with the hope that additional violence could be avoided by allowing workers to bargain collectively with new levels of protection, such as the legalized right to strike. Under the NLRA, employers could no longer fire an employee for participating in union activities.
The NLRA was unsuccessfully attacked by Congress many times until the passage of the Labor-Management Relations Act, or Taft-Hartley Act, in 1947. This legislation significantly altered United States labor laws. Most significantly, the amendments gave state governments the right to pass what are known as "right-to-work" laws. These laws could include requiring notification of intention to strike, and giving state officials the authority to intervene if a strike were to cause an emergency situation. In response to these amendments, the Virginia General Assembly passed two acts during its 1947 extra session. The first law, (Chapter 2 of the Acts of Assembly), proclaimed Virginia a "right-to-work" state within which unionization could not be required for receiving or retaining a job. The second law, (Chapter 9 of the Acts of Assembly), became known as the Virginia Public Utility Labor Relations Act. This law was created to prevent interruptions in the operation of certain public utilities resulting from labor disputes. Lockouts, strikes and work stoppages were outlawed because utilities served a public interest, and were essential to the health and safety of the citizens. This act also allowed the governor to take possession of any public utility threatened with a strike.
The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry was responsible for monitoring the state's overall labor situation. Commissioner of Labor Edmond M. Boggs served as a liaison between employers, unions, the Governor, and sometimes the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. The Commissioner was called to duty if and when companies operating under a collective bargaining agreement or contract were in dispute about changes to the agreement. Each case directed to the Department of Labor and Industry was recorded on a Public Utility Labor Relations Docket and given a number. The Commissioner monitored each situation until a settlement was agreed upon, or he notified the Governor if talks broke down and state intervention was needed.
Contains correspondence, dockets, notifications, arbitration agreements, and newspaper articles that document public utility labor disputes in Virginia resulting from changes to federal and state labor laws.
This collection is arranged into the following series:
Series I. Strike data files, 1949-1952Contains a variety of documents that reveal the Department of Labor and Industry's role in monitoring labor disagreements, union activities, and ensuring the smooth and uninterrupted operation of public utility companies in Virginia. Also included are files pertaining to non-public utility labor disputes from around the state. Although some files may contain material from more than one year, the cases are arranged according to the year during which the dispute was settled. Within each year, the docketed cases are arranged according to case number, but also include the names of the proponent and respondent for each case. If no case number is present, the file can be found behind those with numbers. The Public Utility Labor Relations Docket, if available, is placed at the front of each case folder. Correspondence, in reverse chronological order, is placed behind the docket(s). Any other miscellaneous paperwork is placed at the very back of each folder. Additional files not related to a particular case are filed at the end of the year in which they were created. Of these miscellaneous files, non-public utility dispute notifications are notable due to their volume. The strike data files are considered one series of records, even though the files came to the Library of Virginia in three separate accessions: 1949 (Accession 23847), 1950 (Accession 23921), and 1951-1952 (Acession 24107).