History of Union Busting in The United States - Strikebreaking and Union Busting, 1936-1947

Strikebreaking and Union Busting, 1936-1947

Employers in the United States have had the legal right to permanently replace economic strikers since the Supreme Court’s 1937 decision in NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co.

Meanwhile, employers began to demand more subtle and sophisticated union busting tactics, and so the field called "preventive labor relations" was born. The new practitioners were armed with degrees in industrial psychology, management, and labor law. They would use these skills not only to manipulate the provisions of national labor law, but also the emotions of workers seeking to unionize.