Effects of the Taft-Hartley Act on Labor Agreements, 1947-1952

Abstract

In August of 1953, the Labor Management Relations Act, or the Taft-Hartley Act, will have been in force for six years. Probably few laws of this nation have promoted more heated controversy than has this legislation since its enactment. It has served as a campaign issue in the national elections of 1948 and 1952. A great many books and pamphlets have been written on many phases of the Act. Provisions of the labor law have been debated pro and con by industrial, labor, educational, and other interested groups. An appraisal of the total effect of the 1947 Act upon collective bargaining is very difficult to make. However, it is interesting to look at some of the trends in labor agreements that have come about since the passage of the labor statute. To facilitate a measurement of the trends in union agreements, a random sampling of 500 contracts negotiated before and after August 1947 was obtained. The following steps were taken by the author in gathering the sample: 1. At first an attempt was made to make a scientific sampling of the some 60,000 to 75,000 bargaining contracts which are in existence in this country.' However, this had to be abandoned due to the impossibility of obtaining a list of the companies which had these agreements. Even the Department of Labor had on hand only 22,000 contracts received in the period beginning June 1947 and ending July 1, 1949.2 The Department's files on contracts prior to 1947 were also incomplete since the unions were not strongly urged to file copies of their agreements until 1947. 2. Finally, it was decided to extract a list of 600 companies selected at random from the contract file of the Department of Labor. These firms were then contacted by letter to obtain copies of their union agreements. A return of 435 replies was obtained. These firms had been requested to send copies of agreements written prior to and immediately following July 30, 1947. In this manner some picture could be obtained of the effects of the Taft-Hartley Act upon labor agreements. Some of the firms did not send agreements written prior to the Act, and a few organizations referred the author to a parent company or to an industry-wide contract. Only companies where contracts were obtainable for the period before and after the enactment of the 1947 Act were included in the sample. The same firms were contacted at a later date for copies of their 1951-52 agreements. 3. A final count of 390 contracts resulted. These were combined with 110