Taft-hartley: A slave-labor law?

Catholic University Law Review

Volumn 47, Issue 3, 1998, Pages 763-789

  Lichtenstein, Nelson ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA   (United States)

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EID: 8544248630     PISSN: 00088390     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (113)

1. Daniel Bell, The Taft-Hanley Fumble, FORTUNE, May 1949, at 189,190.
2. Joseph Shister, The Impact of the Taft-Hartley Act on Union Strength and Collective Bargaining, 11 INDUS. & LAB. REL. REV. 339,350 (1958).
3. Id.
4. See generally Derek C. Bok, Reflections on the Distinctive Character of American Labor Laws, 84 HARV. L. REV. 1394,1394-1463 (1971);
5. David E. Feller, A General Theory of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, 61 CAL. L. REV. 663, 663-856 (1973).
6. CHRISTOPHER L. TOMLINS, THE STATE AND THE UNIONS: LABOR RELATIONS, LAW, AND THE ORGANIZED LABOR MOVEMENT IN AMERICA, 1880-1960, at 251 (1985).
7. Id.
8. GEORGE LIPSITZ, RAINBOW AT MIDNIGHT: LABOR AND CULTURE IN THE 1940s, at 170 (1994).
9. Historians of labor and social class have become particularly attuned to the rhetoric of politics and the discourse of debate. See generally MICHAEL KAZIN, THE POPULIST PERSUASION: AN AMERICAN HISTORY 285-86 (1995);
10. BRYAN D. PALMER, DESCENT INTO DISCOURSE: THE REIFICATION OF LANGUAGE AND THE WRITING OF SOCIAL HISTORY (1990);
11. RETHINKING LABOR HISTORY: ESSAYS ON DISCOURSE AND CLASS ANALYSIS (Lenard R. Berlanstein ed., 1993).
12. DAVID L. STEBENNE, ARTHUR J. GOLDBERG, NEW DEAL LIBERAL 62 (1996).
13. Id.
14. CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS (CIO), FINAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE NINTH CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION 22 (1947).
15. Id. at 189.
16. Cf. id. at 186 (noting that Resolution Number 3 of the CIO's Ninth Constitutional Convention denoted Taft-Hartley as a Slave Labor Act).
17. George Meany, The Taft-Hartley Law: A Slave Labor Measure, 14 VITAL SPEECHES OFTHE DAY 119,122 (1947).
18. Id. at 120 (citing Congress's language in the Clayton Act of 1914).
19. Id. (quoting a dissent of Justices Holmes and Brandeis).
20. ELIZABETH A. FONES-WOLF, SELLING FREE ENTERPRISE: THE BUSINESS ASSAULT ON LABOR AND LIBERALISM, 1945-60, at 22 (1994) (citing United Aircraft Corporation Vice-Chairman Eugene E. Wilson).
21. William J. Walker, The Taft-Hartley Law: Preserves Freedom of the Worker, 14 VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY 123, 123 (1947) (citing a House of Representatives Committee report on the Taft-Hartley Bill).
22. Cf. ALAN BRINKLEY, THE END OF REFORM: NEW DEAL LIBERALISM IN RECESSION AND WAR 157-61 (1995) (discussing the significant impact of Hayek and The Road to Serfdom).
23. See generally ANTHONY CAREW, LABOUR UNDER THE MARSHALL PLAN: THE POLITICS OF PRODUCTIVITY AND THE MARKETING OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE (1987);
24. CHARLES S. MAIER, IN SEARCH OF STABILITY: EXPLORATIONS IN HISTORICAL POLITICAL ECONOMY 153-84 (1987);
25. Otto Jacobi & Walter Müller-Jentsch, West Germany: Continuity and Structural Change, in EUROPEAN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS: THE CHALLENGE OF FLEXIBILITY 127-153 (Guido Baglioni & Colin Crouch eds., 1990).
26. Threat to Capital Held U.S. Menace, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 14,1947, at 8.
27. Id.
28. See generally COLIN GORDON, NEW DEALS: BUSINESS, LABOR, AND POLITICS IN AMERICA, 1920-1935, at 5-34 (1994) (examining the historical and institutional background of business cooperation and conflict with the New Deal);
29. Sanford M. Jacoby, American Exceptionalism Revisited: The Importance of Management, in MASTERS TO MANAGERS: HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON AMERICAN EMPLOYERS 173-200 (Sanford M. Jacoby ed., 1991);
30. David Vogel, Why Businessmen Distrust Their State: The Political Consciousness of American Corporate Executives, 8 BRIT. J. POL. Sci. 45,45-78 (1978).
31. See generally HOWELL JOHN HARRIS, THE RIGHT TO MANAGE: INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS POLICIES OF AMERICAN BUSINESS IN THE 1940s, at 23-40 (1982);
32. C. WRIGHT MILLS, THE NEW MEN OF POWER: AMERICA'S LABOR LEADERS 223-50 (1948);
33. Thomas Ferguson, Industrial Conflict and the Coming of the New Deal: The Triumph of Multinational Liberalism in America, in THE RISE AND FALL OF THE NEW DEAL ORDER, 1930-80, at 3-31 (Steve Fraser & Gary Gerstle eds., 1989) (surveying the policies and methods of realist and liberal business leaders);
34. See LIPSITZ, supra note 7, at 169 (noting Harriman's attention to walkouts by the United Mine Workers and to speeches by their leader, John L. Lewis....).
35. Id. at 169-70.
36. See Vogel, supra note 23, at 45-78 (identifying rationales for managerial mistrust of bar regulation); see also Jacoby, supra note 23, at 173-200 (discussing the pervasive role of private management in American labor development).
37. JOSHUA FREEMAN ET AL., 2 AMERICAN SOCIAL HISTORY PROJECT, WHO BUILT AMERICA? WORKING PEOPLE AND THE NATION'S ECONOMY, POLITICS, CULTURE AND SOCIETY 472 (1992) (quoting Alfred P. Sloan).
38. See generally GORDON, supra note 23, at 35-86 (describing the business strategies of the intenvar period).
39. DAVID A. HOROWITZ, BEYOND LEFT & RIGHT: INSURGENCY AND THE ESTABLISHMENT 159 (1997);
40. see also Leo P. Ribuffo, Why Is There So Much Conservatism in the United States and Why Do So Few Historians Know Anything About It?, 99 AM. HIST. REV. 438 (1994) (analyzing twentieth-century American conservatism).
41. See generally Theda Skocpol & Kenneth Finegold, State Capacity and Economic Intervention in the Early New Deal, 97 POL. SCI. Q. 255 (1982);
42. see also Peter Swenson, Arranged Alliance: Business Interests in the New Deal, 25 POL. & SOC. 66 (1997).
43. See TOMLINS, supra note 5, at 197-328;
44. Theda Skocpol, Political Response to Capitalist Crisis: Neo-Marxist Theories of the State and the Case of the New Deal, 10 POL. & SOC. 155-201 (1980) (providing contrasting discussions of the way state functions accommodated and influenced the new labor movement).
45. See generally LEO PANITCH, WORKING-CLASS POLITICS IN CRISIS: ESSAYS ON LABOUR AND THE STATE 132-86 (1986);
46. THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF CORPORATISM (Wyn Grant ed., 1985);
47. Ronald W. Schatz, From Commons to Dunlop: Rethinking the Field and Theory of Industrial Relations, in INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA: THE AMBIGUOUS PROMISE 87 (Nelson Lichtenstein & Howell John Harris eds., 1993);
48. Philippe C. Schmitter, Still the Century of Corporatism?, in TRENDS TOWARD CORPORATIST INTERMEDIATION 7 (Philippe C. Schmitter & Gerhard Lehmbruch eds., 1979).
49. Nelson Lichtenstein, From Corporatism to Collective Bargaining: Organized Labor and the Eclipse of Social Democracy in the Postwar Era, in THE RISE AND FALL OF THE NEW DEAL ORDER, 1930-1980, at 122,125 (Steve Fraser & Gary Gerstle eds., 1989) (quoting a WLB memorandum).
50. Id.
51. See HOWARD BRICK, DANIEL BELL AND THE DECLINE OF INTELLECTUAL RADICALISM: SOCIAL THEORY AND POLITICAL RECONCILIATION IN THE 1940s, at 102 (1986);
52. see also Nelson Lichtenstein, America's Left-Wing Intellectuals and the Trade Union Movement, in PROCEEDINGS, INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS RESEARCH ASSOCIATION 50TH ANNUAL MEETING (forthcoming 1998).
53. See NELSON LICHTENSTEIN, LABOR'S WAR AT HOME: THE CIO IN WORLD WAR II 223-24 (1982);
54. ROSA LEE SWAFFORD, WARTIME RECORD OF STRIKES AND LOCK-OUTS, 1940-1945, at 20-21 (1946).
55. Amendments to the NLRA: Hearings Before the House Comin. on Educ. and Labor, 80th Cong. 1069 (1947) (testimony of George Kennedy, President, Kelsey-Hayes Wheel Co.) [hereinafter Hearings].
56. How to Win for the Union: A Discussion for UAW Stewards and Committeemen, (UAW Education Dep't, Detroit, Mich. 1941), reprinted in MAJOR PROBLEMS IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN WORKERS 369, 370 (Eileen Boris & Nelson Lichtenstein eds., 1991).
57. Id.
58. See LIPSITZ, supra note 7, at 100-02; Nelson Lichtenstein, The Man in the Middle: A Social History of Automobile Industry Foremen, in ON THE LINE: ESSAYS IN THE HISTORY OF AUTO WORK 153-89 (Nelson Lichtenstein & Stephen Meyer eds., 1989).
59. Hearings, supra note 38, at 1071.
60. Id.
61. NELSON LICHTENSTEIN, THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN DETROIT: WALTER REUTHER AND THE FATE OF AMERICAN LABOR 220 (1995) (discussing this strike).
62. Id. at 230.
63. Id.
64. Meg Jacobs, How About Some Meat?: The Office of Price Administration, Consumption Politics, and State Building from the Bottom Up, 1941-1946, 84 J. AM. HlST. 910, 925 (1997).
65. See id.
66. See id. at 935 (displaying a National-Association of Manufacturers newspaper advertisement entitled Would You Like Some Butter or a Roast of Beef).
67. Cf. id. at 935-41.
68. JAMES BOYLAN, THE NEW DEAL COALITION AND THE ELECTION OF 1946, at 151-67 (1981). See generally JOEL SEIDMAN, AMERICAN LABOR FROM DEFENSE TO RECONVERSION 233-44 (1953);
69. Jacobs, supra note 47, at 940-41.
70. Cf. Hearings, supra note 38, at 868 (testimony of FAA President Robert Keys).
71. Id. at 2711 (testimony of Theodore Iserman).
72. See id. at 2710.
73. Lichtenstein, supra note 41, at 177 (quoting Ford Motor Company counsel William T. Gossett); see also Hearings, supra note 38, at 1074.
74. Lichtenstein, supra note 41, at 177-78; see also Hearings, supra note 38, at 1074.
75. Hearings, supra note 38, at 1074; see also Lichtenstein, supra note 41, at 178.
76. The Foreman Abdicates, FORTUNE, Sept. 1945, at 150.
77. Virginia A. Seitz, Legal, Legislative, and Managerial Responses to the Organization of Supervisory Employees in the 1940's, 28 AM. J. LEGAL HIST. 199, 240 (1984) (quoting H.R. Rep. No. 245).
78. Charles T. Joyce, Union Busters and Front-Line Supervisors: Restricting and Regulating the Use of Supervisory Employees by Management Consultants During Union Representation Election Campaigns, 135 U. PA. L. REV. 453, 464 (1987) (quoting the congressional Pressures Hearings).
79. Louis Stark, CIO to Follow AFL on Anti-Red Order, N.Y. TIMES, Sept. 11,1947, at 20.
80. Stuart S. Ball, A Balance of Power: The Prerequisite to True Collective Bargaining, 13 VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY 300,303 (1947).
81. Id.
82. Threat to Capital Held U.S. Menace, supra note 21, at 8.
83. See generally PONES-WOLF, supra note 17, at 53-55;
84. BARBARA S. GRIFFITH, THE CRISIS OF AMERICAN LABOR: OPERATION DIXIE AND THE DEFEAT OF THE CIO 139-60 (1988);
85. TIMOTHY J. MINCHIN, WHAT Do WE NEED A UNION FOR?: THE TWUA IN THE SOUTH, 1945-1955, at 44-47 (1997).
86. See Ellen W. Schrecker, McCarthyism and the Labor Movement: The Role of the State, in THE CIO'S LEFT-LED UNIONS 139, 147-49 (Steve Rosswurm ed., 1992).
87. LICHTENSTEIN, supra note 44, at 266.
88. Id.
89. Id.
90. Id.
91. Id.
92. Id.
93. SIDNEY LENS, THE COUNTERFEIT REVOLUTION 1-12 (1952).
94. Studies that see U.S. Communism largely as the Stalinist product of Soviet foreign policy include THEODORE DRAPER, AMERICAN COMMUNISM AND SOVIET RUSSIA (1960);
95. IRVING HOWE & LEWIS COSER, THE AMERICAN COMMUNIST PARTY A CRITICAL HISTORY (1957); and HARVEY KLEHR ET AL., THE SECRET WORLD OF AMERICAN COMMUNISM (1995). Social and labor historians of the current generation recognize the weight of Moscow's heavy hand, but most also assert the complex, indigenous sources of Communist influence within the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. See, for example, MICHAEL HONEY, SOUTHERN LABOR AND BLACK CIVIL RIGHTS: ORGANIZING MEMPHIS WORKERS (1993);
96. MAURICE ISSERMAN, WHICH SIDE WERE You ON?: THE AMERICAN COMMUNIST PARTY DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR (1982); and ROBIN KELLEY, HAMMER AND HOE: ALABAMA COMMUNISTS DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION (1990); STEVE ROSSWURM, ED., THE CIO's LEFT-LED UNIONS (1992);.
97. See HARRY A. MiLLis & EMILY CLARK BROWN, FROM THE WAGNER ACT TO TAFT-HARTLEY: A STUDY OF NATIONAL LABOR POLICY AND LABOR RELATIONS 383-86 (1950); JAMES T. PATTERSON, MR. REPUBLICAN: A BIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT A. TAFT 352-66 (1972).
98. Cf. MILLIS & BROWN, supra note 75, at 383-86 (noting that the House wanted to greatly limit industry-wide bargaining);
99. PATTERSON, supra note 75, at 352-66.
100. See LIPSITZ, supra note 7, at 160;
101. see also DAVID PLOTKE, BUILDING A DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL ORDER: RESHAPING AMERICAN LIBERALISM IN THE 1930s AND 1940s, at 232-34 (1996).
102. C. E. Wilson, Problems Industry Faces: The Months Ahead, 13 VITAL SPEECHES 181, 183 (1947). The language of the Wagner Act's preamble dealing with wages and business depressions was actually deleted from Representative Fred Hartley's draft of the new labor law.
103. See Daniel J. B. Mitchell, Inflation, Unemployment, and the Wagner Act: A Critical Reappraisal, 38 STAN. L. REV. 1065,1071 (1986).
104. Hearings, supra note 38, at 2683 (testimony of Ira Mosher).
105. Id. at 2691 (testimony of Ira Mosher).
106. Id. at 2685 (testimony of Ira Mosher). 81 Id.
107. See generally IRVING BERNSTEIN, PROMISES KEPT: JOHN F. KENNEDY'S NEW FRONTIER 133-37 (1991);
108. WALTER W. HELLER, NEW DIMENSIONS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY 42-47 (1966);
109. DAVID L. STEBENNE, ARTHUR J. GOLDBERG: NEW DEAL LIBERAL 279-315 (1996).
110. BARRY GOLDWATER, THE CONSCIENCE OF A CONSERVATIVE 67 (1960);
111. LICHTENSTEIN, supra note 44, at 347;
112. see also GILBERT J. GALL, THE POLITICS OF RIGHT TO WORK: THE LABOR FEDERATIONS AS SPECIAL INTERESTS, 1943-1979, at 93-128 (1988);
113. ROBERT ALAN GOLDBERG, BARRY GOLDWATER 67-76 (1995).