In 1934, there were more than 1,800 strikes involving more than 1.4 million workers. General strikes followed walkouts by dock workers in San Francisco, truckers in Minneapolis and auto parts workers in Toledo.

In reaction, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Democratic-controlled Congress enacted the National Labor Relations Act in 1935. A key piece of this new labor policy: a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with clear, strong enforcement powers.

This week’s news cycle has been packed with immigration-related stories. Immigration policy reform is finally moving in Congress, and creating a road map to citizenship for 11 million immigrants living in the United States is becoming a top priority for lawmakers. In the political negotiations, some lawmakers also have demanded enhanced border controls and other enforcement measures.

This week’s reports from The New York Times that found “credible evidence that bribery played a persistent and significant role in Wal-Mart’s rapid growth in Mexico” are breathtaking, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a Huffington Post column. 

Nothing like this has happened since the collapse of Enron and Worldcom in 2002. And Wal-Mart is, of course, a more important company than either Enron or Worldcom. Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the United States.

The AFL-CIO Legal Department has announced a new fellowship opportunity for recent law school graduates. The one-year fellowship will begin in September 2012.