A discussion of the New Deal and its attempt to reduce poverty is incomplete without mentioning two other important policy changes: the Wagner Act and the ³Indian New Deal.² After the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the
1933 National Industrial Recovery Act, which had included a provision to allow workers the right to organize and bargain collectively, Roosevelt decided to support the Wagner Act. The Wagner Act, which was signed into law in 1935, guaranteed the right of workers to choose their own unions, picket, boycott, and strike. The act made it illegal for employers to blacklist union leaders, to hire spies to infiltrate the union, and to operate company unions. The Wagner Act also established the National Labor Relations Board to ensure compliance. Roosevelt hoped that these new powers would allow the labor movement to increase worker wages in order to spark consumption.

Myers-Lipton, p. 167

  (Excerpted from “Social Solutions to Poverty” © Paradigm Publishers 2006)