---
kind: "section"
citation: "29 U.S.C. § 151"
title: "29"
title_heading: "Labor"
number: "151"
heading: "Findings and declaration of policy"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/29/151"
units:
  - "Chapter 7 — Labor-Management Relations"
  - "Subchapter II — National Labor Relations"
---

# §151. Findings and declaration of policy


The denial by some [employers](/usc/29/152.md?p=2) of the right of [employees](/usc/29/152.md?p=3) to organize and the refusal by some [employers](/usc/29/152.md?p=2) to accept the procedure of collective bargaining lead to [strikes](/usc/29/142.md?p=2) and other forms of industrial strife or unrest, which have the intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing [commerce](/usc/29/152.md?p=6) by (a) impairing the efficiency, safety, or operation of the instrumentalities of [commerce](/usc/29/152.md?p=6); (b) occurring in the current of [commerce](/usc/29/152.md?p=6); (c) materially affecting, restraining, or controlling the flow of raw materials or manufactured or processed goods from or into the channels of [commerce](/usc/29/152.md?p=6), or the prices of such materials or goods in [commerce](/usc/29/152.md?p=6); or (d) causing diminution of employment and wages in such volume as substantially to impair or disrupt the market for goods flowing from or into the channels of [commerce](/usc/29/152.md?p=6).

The inequality of bargaining power between [employees](/usc/29/152.md?p=3) who do not possess full freedom of association or actual liberty of contract, and [employers](/usc/29/152.md?p=2) who are organized in the corporate or other forms of ownership association substantially burdens and affects the flow of [commerce](/usc/29/152.md?p=6), and tends to aggravate recurrent business depressions, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners in industry and by preventing the stabilization of competitive wage rates and working conditions within and between industries.

Experience has proved that protection by law of the right of [employees](/usc/29/152.md?p=3) to organize and bargain collectively safeguards [commerce](/usc/29/152.md?p=6) from injury, impairment, or interruption, and promotes the flow of [commerce](/usc/29/152.md?p=6) by removing certain recognized sources of industrial strife and unrest, by encouraging practices fundamental to the friendly adjustment of industrial disputes arising out of differences as to wages, hours, or other working conditions, and by restoring equality of bargaining power between [employers](/usc/29/152.md?p=2) and [employees](/usc/29/152.md?p=3).

Experience has further demonstrated that certain practices by some [labor organizations](/usc/29/152.md?p=5), their officers, and members have the intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing [commerce](/usc/29/152.md?p=6) by preventing the free flow of goods in such [commerce](/usc/29/152.md?p=6) through [strikes](/usc/29/142.md?p=2) and other forms of industrial unrest or through concerted activities which impair the interest of the public in the free flow of such [commerce](/usc/29/152.md?p=6). The elimination of such practices is a necessary condition to the assurance of the rights herein guaranteed.

It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States to eliminate the causes of certain substantial obstructions to the free flow of [commerce](/usc/29/152.md?p=6) and to mitigate and eliminate these obstructions when they have occurred by encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining and by protecting the exercise by workers of full freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of [representatives](/usc/29/152.md?p=4) of their own choosing, for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment or other mutual aid or protection.


## Source credit

(July 5, 1935, ch. 372, § 1, 49 Stat. 449; June 23, 1947, ch. 120, title I, § 101, 61 Stat. 136.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1947—Act June 23, 1947, amended section generally to restate the declaration of policy and to make the finding and policy of this subchapter “two-sided”.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date of 1947 Amendment

Act June 23, 1947, ch. 120, title I, § 104, 61 Stat. 152, provided that: “The amendments made by this title [amending this subchapter] shall take effect sixty days after the date of the enactment of this Act [June 23, 1947], except that the authority of the President to appoint certain officers conferred upon him by section 3 of the National Labor Relations Act as amended by this title [section 153 of this title] may be exercised forthwith.”