Senate Overrides Veto: Taft-Hartley Limits Union Power
The Senate overrode President Harry Truman's veto of the Labor Management Relations Act (Taft-Hartley Act) on June 23, 1947, by a vote of 68-25. The House had overridden the veto three days earlier, 331-83. The act, sponsored by Republican Senator Robert Taft and Representative Fred Hartley, restricted union activities in several ways: it banned closed shops (requiring union membership as a condition of employment), prohibited jurisdictional strikes and secondary boycotts, allowed states to pass right-to-work laws, and required union officers to sign affidavits swearing they were not Communists. Truman called it a "slave labor bill." The act fundamentally shifted the balance of power between unions and management that had been established by the Wagner Act of 1935 and remains one of the most consequential labor laws in American history.
June 23, 1947
79 years ago
Key Figures & Places
United States House of Representatives
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Harry Truman
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United States Senate
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veto
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Taft-Hartley Act
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United States Senate
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United States House of Representatives
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Harry S. Truman
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Veto power in the United States
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Taft–Hartley Act
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