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Technology & Innovation

Out of Date Labor Laws

Harvard labor economist Richard Freeman says American labor laws are hopelessly behind the times and that New Deal gains no longer fit the economy of 2010.

Freeman argues the N.L.R.A. [National Labor Relations Act of 1935] system is not adequately addressing the needs of 21st-century labor issues. While the legislation intended to create a proper channel for employees to unionize, many labor organizers have bucked the law by working outside of the N.L.R.A.’s scope of influence. “It is perhaps harsh and impolitic at the N.L.R.A.’s 75th birthday to declare that in 2010 the law no longer fits American economic reality and has become an anachronism irrelevant for most workers and firms. But that is the case,” Freeman writes.


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