On June 23rd, 1947, the United States Senate—following the House of Representatives—voted 68-25 to override Harry Truman’s veto and enact the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as Taft-Hartley, into law.
By doing so, Congress—over the vocal objection of working Americans—set in motion a generations-long offensive by American employers against labor’s hard-won gains for American workers. Taft-Hartley has cast a long shadow over American labor relations, and one which stretches to our present moment—a moment in which less than 7% of private sector workers belong to a union, and organized labor is in a fight for its life. With high stakes and the glimmers of a resurgence of labor militancy, we should re-examine the road that led us to this point and consider how to fix the road ahead.