National Association of Manufacturers (U.S.). Industrial Relations Dept.

The National Association of Manufacturers was organized in January of 1895 as a political lobbying organization to represent the interests of America's manufacturers. At its first convention which was held in Cincinnati, Ohio, 600 assembled delegates agreed that the N.A.M.'s primary purpose was to promote foreign trade and create a political environment that was favorable to the business community. During its early years N.A.M. was largely controlled by representatives of small and medium sized firms in the Middle West and South. N.A.M. was a opponent of America's trade union movement in the early years of the twentieth century and was a major participant in the open shop movement. N.A.M. opposed most of the reform legislation of the Progressive Era as it saw itself as a proponent of traditional laissez-faire capitalism. N.A.M., however, did support the workman's compensation laws that most state legislatures passed in the 1910s, as its members were becoming concerned about the increasingly large liability claims that were being awarded to injured workers.

In 1920, in the aftermath of the union organizing campaigns of the World War I era, and the 1919 strikes in the steel and coal industries, the National Association of Manufacturers organized an open shop committee in order to fight organized labor. This committee, under the leadership of James Emery, provided logistical and financial support for the employer open-shop drives of the 1920s. N.A.M. was also particularly active in lobbying Congress and the state legislatures in support of anti-union legislation. With the end of the open shop movement in the 1930s, N.A.M.'s Open Shop Committee became the Employment Relations Department, and in 1942 it was renamed the Industrial Relations Department. During the New Deal period it was particularly active in opposing the Roosevelt Administration's labor legislation, particularly the Wagner Act.

After the war, NAM played a leading role in the campaign to amend the Wagner Act that culminated in the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1948. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Industrial Relations Dept. was at the center of the right-to-work movement tht lobbiied state legislatures to outlaw the union shop. It also played a leading role in the campaigns for labor law reform that sought to limit the authority of the National Labor Relations Board in such a way as to make its administrative procedures more employer friendly. In the 1970s, it joined the fight against wage and price controls and national health insurance, while it sought to limit affirmative action programs and the reach of the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission.

From the description of Records, 1920-1976. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 122397787