On this day in labor history, the year was 1947.
That was the day the despised Taft-Hartley Act became law.
It was a direct retaliatory response to the 1946 post-war strike wave, where millions walked off the job after waiting years for basic demands.
The labor movement mobilized against the slave labor bill through numerous rallies.
The AFL joined the CIO in threatening 24-hour strikes across whole industries in protest, as the bill wound its way through Congress.
11,000 soft coal miners in Pennsylvania walked out in a spontaneous protest strike earlier in the month.
The bill passed over the veto of President Harry S. Truman, who would invoke it a dozen times over the course of his presidency.
Many union leaders hailed Truman as a friend of labor for his 11th hour veto.
Labor party advocates were incensed that of 219 congressional Democrats, 126 voted in favor of the bill.
Practically overnight, the labor movement had been pushed back 25 years.
Taft-Hartley was nothing short of disastrous for the American labor movement.
With the stroke of a pen, the Act criminalized many of the actions key to historic union victories in the thirties and forties.
Jurisdictional strikes, secondary boycotts, solidarity strikes, closed shops and mass picketing were just a few of the most basic trade union activities now outlawed.
The Act helped fire the first shots of the McCarthy Red Scare by mandating that union officers file non-Communist affidavits with the government, later found to be unconstitutional.
The Act also provided the ammunition needed to strangle strikes by empowering the president to easily acquire strikebreaking injunctions.
And it allowed for the rapid growth of right-to-work laws at the state level.
The union movement has suffered ever since.
January 10 - The Rise of Settlement Houses
January 9 - Courts Stand Against Workers
January 8 - Oil Workers Walk Out Across the Country
January 7 - Tragic Youngstown Massacre
January 6 - Remembering Ida Tarbell
January 5 - Ohio First to Enact Black Laws
January 4 - Standing Up by Sitting Down
January 3 - The Power of Folded Arms and Marching Feet
January 2 - A Nation Fed Up, Strikes Back
January 1 - Transit Workers Push Back
December 31 - The Fight for Safer Working Conditions
December 30 - The Day Mines Were Made Safer
December 29 - The Day Work Was Made Safer
December 28 - Heroes in Space
December 27 - Musicians Fight Back
December 26 - Garment Workers Rise Up
December 25 - Debs Released; Real Gift is His Message
December 24 - A Christmas Eve Beating for Striking Workers
December 23 - The High Cost of Low Wages
December 21 - Red Scare Deportations Begin
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The No-Frills Teacher Podcast
Heal, Survive & Thrive!
Summarize | رادیو سامرایز
The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast
The Mel Robbins Podcast