Taft-Hartley Act

The passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, also called the Labor-Management Relations Act, over President Harry Truman's veto on June 23, 1947, ended the national policy established with the enactment of the Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act) in 1935. Under this policy, the federal government had supported workers’ self-organization into unions and for collective bargaining. Unions increased their membership more than fourfold between 1933 and 1945 thanks in part to the Wagner Act, the friendliness of the New Deal Democratic administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the expansion of the economy during World War II. The campaign of business organizations to amend the Wagner Act, begun after the Supreme Court declared the law constitutional in 1937, was renewed in earnest after World War II. After a year of numerous strikes, some of which found unions and Truman seriously at odds, the Republicans campaigned on the slogan “Had Enough?” and won decisive control of both houses of Congress in the 1946 election. Passage of the Taft-Hartley Act followed, with the majority of House Democrats and nearly half of Senate Democrats joining their Republican colleagues.