legal framework which provides the foundations for the American system of labor / management relations.

The state of labor / management relations today is very different than it was 100 years ago. Workers can actually reason with their employers and, more than anything else, employers often find themselves at the mercy of employees (due to the unions) and having to kow tow to their demands. This has both negative and positive ramifications.

The history of the labor / management relations synthesis started in the 1860s when the Industrial Revolution created a surplus of labor and competition between factories for workers. Few laws had existed for workers and employers had been cheap with their wages. Unions had existed in the past and workers had often been fired from unions. In fact, workers who had banded together had been perceived as criminals.

The first national union that succeeded, the Knights of Labor,...
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