<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> United Steelworkers v Warrior & Gulf Nav. Co 363 US 574 (1960) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> United Paperworkers v Misco, Inc 484 US 29 (1987) </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> See US labor law and unions </Td> </Tr> <P> Since the industrial revolution, collective bargaining has been the main way to get fair pay, improved conditions, and a voice at work . The need for positive rights to organize and bargain was gradually appreciated after the Clayton Act of 1914 . Under § 6, labor rights were declared to be outside of antitrust law, but this did not stop hostile employers and courts suppressing unions . In Adair v United States, and Coppage v Kansas, the US Supreme Court, over powerful dissents, asserted the Constitution empowered employers to require employees to sign contracts promising they would not join a union . These "yellow dog contracts" were offered to employees on a "take it or leave it" basis, and effectively stopped unionization . They lasted until the Great Depression when the Norris--La Guardia Act of 1932 banned them . This also prevented the courts from issuing any injunctions or enforcing any agreements in the context of a labor dispute . After the landslide election of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 was drafted to create positive rights for collective bargaining in most of the private sector . It aimed to create a unified federal system so that, under § 157, employees would gain the legal "right to self - organization", "to bargain collectively" and use "concerted activities" including strikes for "mutual aid or other protection". The Act was meant to increase bargaining power of employees to get better terms in than individual contracts with employing corporations . However § 152 excluded many groups of workers, such as state and federal government employees, railway and airline staff, domestic and agriculture workers . These groups depend on special federal statutes like the Railway Labor Act of 1926 or state law rules, like the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act of 1975 . In 1979, five US Supreme Court judges, over four forceful dissents, also introduced an exception for church operated schools, apparently because of "serious First Amendment questions". Furthermore, "independent contractors" are excluded, even though many are economically dependent workers . Some courts have attempted to expand the "independent contractor" exception . In 2009, in FedEx Home Delivery v NLRB the DC Circuit, adopting submissions of FedEx's lawyer Ted Cruz, held that post truck drivers were independent contractors because they took on "entrepreneurial opportunity". Garland J dissented, arguing the majority had departed from common law tests . The "independent contractor" category was estimated to remove protection from 8 million workers . While many states have higher rates, the US has an 11.1 per cent unionization rate and 12.3 per cent rate of coverage by collective agreement . This is the lowest in the industrialized world . </P>

In the u.s. workers ' economic benefits have historically been established by