Time to agitate for a repeal of Taft-Hartley

[midnight armadillo]

As the saying goes, go big or go home. Take that WI energy and kick the megacorps in the nuts.

For those unfamiliar with this, here's a bit from Wikipedia. A Google search turns up numerous articles such as this one: http://www.alternet.org/economy/61686/

The amendments enacted in Taft-Hartley added a list of prohibited actions, or "unfair labor practices", on the part of unions to the NLRB, which had previously only prohibited "unfair labor practices" committed by employers. The Taft–Hartley Act prohibited jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, solidarity or political strikes, secondary boycotts, secondary or "common situs" picketing, closed shops, and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns. It also required union officers to sign non-communist affidavits with the government. Union shops were heavily restricted, and states were allowed to pass "right-to-work laws" that outlawed union shops. Furthermore, the executive branch of the Federal government could obtain legal strikebreaking injunctions if an impending or current strike "imperiled the national health or safety," a test that has been interpreted broadly by the courts.

T-H was signed in 1947. Note the decline in union membership since then.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. yep, it should not have been passed to begin with

but they had a supermajority so they went over Truman's veto. The only thing that Congress did by the way, the do nothing congress.

[rhett o rick]

2. would love to have imposed on that graph the standard of living of the middle class. nm

[cliffordu]

3. I was JUST thinking the same thing.

[midnight armadillo]

4. I couldn't find the raw numbers

except for the most recent 10 years or so from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If anyone knows a good source for raw numbers on economic and labor trends over the past 100 years I'd love to see a link!

[upi402]

5. that and soooo much more

but there needs to be a non-corporatist party to even take a breath between anti-worker smears and betrayals. even a dog has enough sense to stop and pant once in a while. but the frequency at which we're getting our brains kicked out... I dunno -they're automatons!

bring a damn tarp, it'll havta get messy I figure.

nice excel chart, thanks, very telling.