TaftHartley

The Taft–Hartley Act, officially the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, is a United States federal law enacted in 1947 over President Harry S. Truman’s veto. It amended the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 to rebalance labor relations and limit certain activities of both labor unions and employers within the framework of the National Labor Relations System.

Major provisions of the act include new limits on unions and expanded protections for employers. It enumerated unfair labor practices by unions, such as coercing or discriminating against employees for exercising organizing rights, and it restricted certain union practices, including jurisdictional strikes, secondary boycotts, and hot cargo agreements. The act also restricted or prohibited the use of closed shops in most circumstances and authorized states to pass right-to-work laws. It required unions to disclose financial information to the Department of Labor and introduced other reporting and anti-corruption measures.

The act also provided tools for government intervention in labor disputes. It gave the President authority to intervene in strikes deemed to threaten national health or safety, including the appointment of a board to investigate and, if necessary, the imposition of an 80-day cooling-off period during which a strike could be delayed.

Impact and legacy of Taft–Hartley are debated, but the act is widely seen as shifting power toward management and the federal government within the NLRA framework. It remains a central element of U.S. labor law and influenced later developments such as the Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959, which aimed to increase union transparency and democracy.