Labor unrest forced the federal government to step into labor relations and forge a compromise between management and labor. Under the Wagner Act of 1935 (the National Labor Relations Act), the federal government guaranteed the right of employees to form unions and bargain collectively. It also set up the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which had the power to prohibit unfair labor practices by employers.

In response to falling steel prices, Henry C. Frick, the general manager of Andrew Carnegie’s steel plant in Homestead, Pennsylvania, cut wages and attempted to quash the workers’ Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. The workers protested, and Frick closed the mills and refused to negotiate with the union, declaring that he would only deal with individual workers. The workers tried to appeal to Carnegie, who had defended unionization, but Carnegie made himself unavailable. The workers voted to strike, and Frick hired a private...

The United Farm Workers of America (UFWA) is a labor union established in 1966 by the merger of the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA), founded by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta in 1962, and the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC). With the leadership of Chavez, Huerta, and others, the UFWA organized various farmworker strikes and boycotts, including the grape strikes of the 1960s and 1970s, to improve conditions and increase wages.