The new War Labor Board addressed issues of pay inequality based on gender or race. By this time, many of the union rights that were encouraged by the World War I board had become rights guaranteed by statute.

Roosevelt in 1942, for essentially the same purpose. Nevertheless, the World War I board was terminated in 1919.Ī new board with the same name was created by President Franklin D. The War Labor Board ought to be continued in existence by Congress and endowed with all the powers for effective action that it can possess under the federal Constitution. Its main guiding principles have been a family living wage for all male adult laborers recognition of the right of labor to organize and to deal with employers through its chosen representatives and no coercion of nonunion laborers by members of the union. A statement by Catholic Bishops in February 1919 described the board as follows: In exchange for not striking, unions were able to add more than a million members in two years.Īfter the war, the work of the National War Labor Board was praised by progressives. Under the direction of former president William Howard Taft and the labor lawyer Frank Walsh, the board persuaded industry to improve working conditions and wages and open themselves to negotiations with their employees for labor contracts. The first appointments were made the next month. The National War Labor Board was authorized in March 1918 for the purpose of preventing strikes that would disrupt production in war industries.

Nwlb keep it moving