Blackwell Reference Online

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During the Roosevelt years, the federal government assumed new responsibilities for managing the economy. Paying significant attention to the needs of workers, both employed and unemployed, and giving support to labor unions were features of the Roosevelt administration's approach to managing the economy. Labor historian David Montgomery refers to the creation of a “New Deal formula,” in which the federal government promoted economic growth and encouraged and regulated collective bargaining while unions allied with the Democratic Party ( 1979 : 161). Despite the 1947 Taft–Hartley Act's conservative revision of the foundational 1935 National Labor Relations Act, the New Deal system persisted until the 1970s, when economic difficulties connected with increased international competition, high military spending, and the Vietnam War caused its decay. Promoting economic growth became problematical and the Democrats failed to satisfy unions' demands for help against aggressive anti-unionism by business ( Halpern 2003 ). By the time of Ronald Reagan's accession to the presidency in 1981, Steve Fraser and Gary Gerstle conclude, the “New Deal, as a dominant order of ideas, public policies, and political alliances died” ( 1989 : ix). Prior to the New Deal, the US labor movement was dominated by craft unions of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). During the Roosevelt era, under the aegis ... log in or subscribe to read full text