Question

Watch Representative Fred Hartley discuss the Taft-Hartley Act. Write a one-paragraph summary of the purpose of the act based on Hartley’s interview. Include specific details about what the act contains, as well as its relationship to the Wagner Act. Note: You may also want to search on the Internet or in a library for examples of Senator Robert Taft discussing the act in the 1940s.

Answer 1

Representative Hartley argued that Congress passed the Taft-Hartley Act to curb the overbearing power of labor unions and labor bosses in order to protect individual workers. Hartley and his Republican colleagues in Congress felt that the Wagner Act and similar laws from the 1930s had given too much power to labor unions. Hartley argued that the Taft-Hartley Act continued to protect the rights of workers to unionize. However, it expanded the rights of union members by curbing the power of union leaders to call territorial strikes between two unions or take other actions harmful to workers. Hartley believed unions should not have so much power that they harmed economic growth, profits, or individual workers’ opportunities, and he showed particular concern for public safety and the public good in his justifications for the law.

This is the plato sample.

Answer 2

The repercussions of the Taft-Hartley act were as follows: 1) it removed the restrictions for jobs for union members only; 2) It no longer allowed collective bargaining in industries; 3) union members were required to take loyalty oaths proving they were not part of the Communist party; 4) it allowed the President of the United States to stop strikes if it was detrimental to the public; 5) it allowed state legislatures to pass "right to work" laws which ended compulsory union membership.