The Law: Federal legislation that restricted labor unions’ activities
Date: Enacted on June 23, 1947
Significance: The Taft-Hartley Act amended the prolabor National Labor Relations Act of 1935. It defined unfair labor practices and prohibited labor unions from engaging in such practices.
U.S. senator Robert A. Taft and U.S. representative Fred A. Hartley, Jr., sponsored the legislation officially known as the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 and commonly known as the Taft- Hartley Act. A Republican-controlled Congress passed the legislation over the veto of President Harry S. Truman on June 23, 1947. The act restricted labor unions from engaging in a number of activities it defined as “unfair labor practices,” including jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, political strikes, and secondary boycotts.
The closed shop, or a company that only hired union members, was made illegal. Conversely, the union shop was still permitted. This meant that a union could be formedin a given business only after a majority of employees voted for its creation. Newly hired employees of union shops would be required to join the union as part of a collective bargaining agreement but were to be given a minimum of thirty days in which to do so.
The Taft-Hartley Act made it illegal for unions to contribute to political campaigns and required employers and unions to give each other sixty days’ notice before striking. The act also authorized the use of federal injunctions to end strikes after eighty days if the government determined that the strike threatened the health or safety of the nation’s citizens. Finally, the act required union leaders to take an oath and sign an affidavit affirming that they did not support communism.

See also: AFL-CIO; Contract law; Labor history; labor strikes; John L. Lewis; National Labor Relations Board; National Labor Union; Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act; Supreme Court and labor law.