Industrial relations

Industrial relations, conduct of relations between organized labor and management and the relations between individual workers and their supervisors. Wage rates, work conditions, and productivity are among potential sources of conflict between the 2 sides. Unresolved conflicts can result in strikes and lockouts that cut output and profits and thus harm employees and employer alike. In the United States the federal government helps to settle major industrial disputes, the National Labor Relations Board serving as adjudicator. U.S. industrial relations are largely governed by the Wagner Act of 1935 and the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.