06/18/2026
📖 The United States was in the throes of the Great Depression when President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected in 1932, on the promise of a “New Deal for the American people.”
The first and most ambitious law to pass under the New Deal was the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). As part of the Act, the B&C would cancel its 1933 convention and set up a Washington bureau to participate in Roosevelt’s hearings to write codes of fair competition in its industries.
While the Union’s leaders would be frustrated by several of the outcomes around hours and wages, it saw the key opportunity of the NIRA was its guarantee of workers’ right to organize, bargain collectively and choose representatives without employer interference. The top headline in the July 8, 1933 issue of The Bakers’ Journal urged, “DOUBLE the Membership under NIRA!” The paper issued an urgent call to organizing to Bakery and Confectionery Union workers everywhere.
In the to***co industry, TWIU President E. Lewis Evans announced, “Now that UNCLE SAM has put a quiet on the thwarting business, we are going to get all the members while the getting is good!”
Both unions would increase their rolls by tens of thousands as a result of the NIRA.
The NIRA was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1935, deciding it had given too much power to the president and misinterpreted the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause.
In response, Senator Robert F. Wagner (D-NY) introduced cleaned-up legislation that would become the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (also referred to as the Wagner Act).
The Wagner Act became the foundation of U.S. labor law. It established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which is still in place today, to run union representation elections, investigate unfair labor practices and enforce collective bargaining rights.
The New Deal also created necessary momentum for the American Federation of Grain Millers (AFGM) to materialize in 1937.
