Norris-La Guardia Act of 1932 was one of the first laws that encouraged labor union activity in the United States. It restricted federal courts from issuing injunctions (orders) to stop union activities, including strikes, that involved no violence. The law made it impossible to enforce yellow-dog contracts. Many employers had forced their workers to sign such agreements, in which the employees promised not to join or aid a union. The act was sponsored by Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska and Representative Fiorello H. La Guardia of New York, both Republicans.
Before Congress passed the Norris-La Guardia Act, an employer could obtain an injunction to stop any union activity that hurt the employer’s business in any way. The act banned such injunctions unless the employer had made every possible effort to settle the dispute through negotiations with the union. The act also required an employer to prove that denial of an injunction would hurt the employer more than an injunction would hurt the union. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 allowed injunctions in certain other cases (see Taft-Hartley Act ).
The Norris-La Guardia Act prohibited employers from suing employees for breaking yellow-dog contracts. Employers thus could not enforce the contracts, and so eventually stopped using them.
