<P> When John L. Lewis, Philip Murray, and other men of power in the new CIO negotiated the first contracts for auto workers and steelworkers, these contracts, even if only a few pages long, typically contained a no - strike clause . All workers in a given workplace were now prohibited from striking as particular crafts had been before . This remains the situation today . </P> <P> Nothing in labor law required a no - strike clause . Indeed, the drafters of the original National Labor Relations Act (or Wagner Act) went out of their way to ensure that the law would not be used to curtail the right to strike . Not only does federal labor law affirm the right "to engage in...concerted activities for the purpose of...mutual aid or protection"; even as amended by the Taft--Hartley Act of 1947, Section 502 of what is now called the Labor Management Relations Act declares: </P> <Dl> <Dd> Nothing in this Act shall be construed to require an individual employee to render labor or service without his consent, nor shall anything in this Act be construed to make the quitting of his labor by an individual employee an illegal act; nor shall any court issue any process to compel the performance by an individual employee of such labor or service, without his consent; nor shall the quitting of work by an employee or employees in good faith because of abnormally dangerous conditions for work at the place of employment of such employee or employees be deemed a strike under this chapter (;) </Dd> </Dl> <Dd> Nothing in this Act shall be construed to require an individual employee to render labor or service without his consent, nor shall anything in this Act be construed to make the quitting of his labor by an individual employee an illegal act; nor shall any court issue any process to compel the performance by an individual employee of such labor or service, without his consent; nor shall the quitting of work by an employee or employees in good faith because of abnormally dangerous conditions for work at the place of employment of such employee or employees be deemed a strike under this chapter (;) </Dd>

Organizations set up by workers that wanted higher wages and better conditions