By:Erin Mulrane

October 30th,1948

The Taft -Hartley act has become a great source of tension and debate in the nation's capital in the past month. The Taft-Hartley Act, known also as the Labor-Management Relations Act is a revision of the Wagner Act of 1935. The revisions of the aforementioned Wagner Act were made in hopes to limit som e of the activities of labor unions in the United States. These revisions resulted in enraging the working community, and President Truman as well. President Truman warns that the act is a "shocking piece of legislation" that would "take away fundamental rights from our working people,"and thus has already attempted to veto the act.

This act, if reinstated would continue to bar the closed shop, (requiring union membership in a previous job as a prerequisite for being hired)the secondary boycott, and the common practice of unions to require employees to become members.

Leading the negative hype surrounding the act is the chief spokesman against Taft-Hartley, George Meany of the American Federation of Labor. Meany has stated that "most American workers have refused to accept that the class struggle could...be a national political issue," and that he wonders "if the class struggle is about to shift from the economic to the political field." That may just be the case. But, according to President Truman, the blame for the act is placed squarely on the American peoples shoulders. He says, ...we have the law now, and I am the President and I have to enforce it, and if you continue that law in effect, that is your fault and not mine, because I don't want it."

The past of this act is a complicated one. The act was passed in November of 1946 by just one third of voters. As a result of this President Truman further the American public by stating "This is partly your fault In . . . 1946 two-thirds of you didn't even go out and vote. Look what the other third gave you. Since the act was passed, there have been numerous attempts to veto and eliminate it.

Works Cited:

Author Unknown. University Publications of America Online.http://us.net/upa/upa/books/tru9.html [Acessed 13 October 1998].

Goulden,Joseph C. The Best Years 1945-1950} New York: McClelland