Cool USA Facts!

In 1947, the Taft-Hartley Act remains an anti-worker law intended to dismantle and break up labor unions (around 1/4 workers were in unions at that time). It was passed by capitalists as a response to the post-WW2 strike wave of 1945-46, as more than 5 million workers went on strike during the labor upsurge of returning soldiers. The Taft–Hartley Act prohibited jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, solidarity or political strikes, secondary boycotts, secondary and mass picketing, closed shops, and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns. It also required union officers to sign non-communist affidavits with the government. Union shops were heavily restricted, and states were allowed to pass right-to-work laws that ban agency fees. Furthermore, the executive branch of the federal government could obtain legal strikebreaking injunctions if an impending or current strike imperiled the national health or safety. The amendments required unions and employers to give 80 days' notice to each other and to certain state and federal mediation bodies before they may undertake strikes or other forms of economic action in pursuit of a new collective bargaining agreement. Anyone opposed to the act was labeled a communist, in the rising red scare initiated by McCarthy. 1