Worker Lawmaking, Sit-Down Strikes, and the Shaping of American Industrial Relations, 1935-1958

Abstract

Between 1936 and 1939, American workers staged some 583 sit-down strikes of at least one day's duration. In the latter year, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion inNLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corporation, resolving the official legal status of the tactic.Fansteelmade it clear not only that a state could punish sit-downers for violating trespass laws, but also that an employer could lawfully discharge them—even if that employer had itself provoked the sit-down by committing unfair labor practices in violation of the National Labor Relations Act.