Today in Labor History

May 16 - Union Communications Services, Inc.
 
Minneapolis general strike backs Teamsters, who are striking most of the city’s trucking companies - 1934

U.S. Supreme Court issues Mackay decision, which permits the permanent replacement of striking workers. The decision had little impact until Ronald Regan’s replacement of striking air traffic controllers (PATCO) in 1981, a move that signaled anti-union private sector employers that it was OK to do likewise - 1938

Black labor leader and peace activist A. Philip Randolph dies. He was president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and first black on the AFL-CIO executive board, and a principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington - 1979

 Working Class Heroes -- via -- www.unionist.com

U.S. Supreme Court issues Mackay decision, which permits the permanent replacement of striking workers. The decision had little impact until Ronald Regan’s replacement of striking air traffic controllers (PATCO) in 1981, a move that signaled anti-union private sector employers that it was OK to do likewise - 1938 ~De

NLRB v. Mackay Radio & Telegraph Co. 304 U.S. 333 (1938) is a 7-0 decision by the United States Supreme Court which held that workers who strike remain employees for the purposes of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The Court granted the relief sought by the National Labor Relations Board, which sought to have the workers reinstated by the employer. However, the decision is much better known today for its obiter dicta in which the Court said that an employer may hire strikebreakers and is not bound to discharge any of them if or when the strike ends.

The Mackay doctrine, as the striker replacement portion of the ruling is known, is one of the most significant Supreme Court rulings in American labor law, and has defined collective bargaining in the United States since its publication. "Mackay Radio was more than a decision that provided an instrumental method for a firm to replace economic strikers and to resist their return to employment after a strike. It was also a decision that established important practices that constituted the conduct of union-management bargaining during the post-New Deal Era."

The ruling is also highly controversial, even 70 years later. It is strongly and uniformly condemned by labor unions, and resolutely defended by employers. In the legal community, however, "the doctrine continues to provoke the notice and the nearly universal condemnation of scholars."
Mackay Radio has had a significant impact on collective bargaining and labor relations in the United States. As several legal scholars and others have noted, the decision makes the "United States... almost alone in the world in allowing permanent replacement of workers who exercise the right to strike."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLRB_v._Mackay_Radio_%26_Telegraph_Co.