HRM textbook

CHAPTER 15 LABOR RELATIONS AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 501
Period of Modified Encouragement Coupled with
Regulation: The Taft-Hartley Act (1947)
The Taft-Hartley (or Labor Management Relations) Act of 1947 reflected the public s
less enthusiastic attitude toward unions. It amended the National Labor Relations
(Wagner) Act by limiting unions in four ways: (1) prohibiting unfair union labor
practices, (2) enumerating the rights of employees as union members, (3) enumerating
the rights of employers, and (4) allowing the President of the United States to bar
temporarily national emergency strikes.
Unfair Union Labor Practices
The Taft-Hartley Act enumerated several labor practices that unions were prohibited
from engaging in:
1. First, it banned unions from restraining or coercing employees from exercising
their guaranteed bargaining rights. (Some union actions courts have held illegal
include stating to an anti-union employee that he or she will lose his or her job
once the union gains recognition, and issuing patently false statements during
union organizing campaigns.)
2. It is also an unfair labor practice for a union to cause an employer to discriminate
in any way against an employee in order to encourage or discourage his or her
membership in a union. For example, the union cannot try to force an employer
to fire a worker because he or she doesn t attend union meetings or refuses to join a
union. There is one exception: Where a closed or union shop prevails (and union
membership is therefore a prerequisite to employment), the union may demand the
discharge of someone who fails to pay his or her initiation fees and dues.
3. It is an unfair labor practice for a union to refuse to bargain in good faith with the
employer about wages, hours, and other employment conditions. Certain strikes
and boycotts are also unfair practices.
4. It is an unfair labor practice for a union to engage in featherbedding (requiring an
employer to pay an employee for services not performed).
RIGHTS OF EMPLOYEES The Taft-Hartley Act protected the rights of employees
against their unions in other ways. For example, many people felt that compulsory
unionism violated the basic right of freedom of association. Legitimized by
Taft-Hartley, new right-to-work laws quickly sprung up in 19 (now 23) states (mainly in
the South and Southwest). In New York, for example, in many printing firms you can t
work as a press operator unless you belong to a printers union. In Florida, such union
shops except those covered by the Railway Labor Act are illegal, and printing shops
typically employ both union and nonunion operators. Even today, union membership
varies widely by state, from a high of 26.8% in New York to a low of 3.2% in North
Carolina. 26 The Taft-Hartley act also required the employee s authorization before the
union could have dues subtracted from his or her paycheck.
In general, the Labor Relations (Taft-Hartley) Act does not restrain unions from
unfair labor practices to the extent that the law does employers. It says unions may not
restrain or coerce employees. However, violent or otherwise threatening behavior or
clearly coercive or intimidating union activities are necessary before the NLRB will find
an unfair labor practice. 27 Examples include physical assaults or threats of violence,
economic reprisals, and mass picketing that restrains the lawful entry or leaving of a
work site.
Taft-Hartley Act (1947)
Also known as the Labor Management
Relations Act, this law prohibited unfair union
labor practices and enumerated the rights
of employees as union members. It also
enumerated the rights of employers.