It provided for court injunctions if strikes threatened production in ways that were contrary to the national interest, as determined by the President. In such cases, Taft-Hartley provided for an 80-day off” period, “cooling- during which strikes were prohibited where the national interest was affected, with NLRB elections on final contract proposals conducted during this period. It created the to Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service assistance in settling labor disputes. It limited legal exposure of individual members with respect to suits against the union, but it did authorize the union as an organization to sue and be sued in federal court. It prohibited strikes by federal employees. The New Production Paradigm Whereas the 15 years prior to Taft-Hartley had ceded to employers the organizational role of intensely directing employees with the ultimate power of hiring, firing, and pay decisions through the so-called drive system, Taft-Hartley ushered in a new accommodation between and labor. In the new paradigm, higher-ability employees were hired, and wage and benefit programs were funded through increases in productivity per worker. In Fossum’s view, this situation was largely in place until the 1980s. RETRENCHMENT AND MERGER The Lessons of Taft-Hartley for Labor Organized labor would, in future, have to be prepared to exert more influence in legislative activity and to take a more visible public stance on issues affecting the interests of labor. The relative strengths of labor and management had fundamentally changed, and labor could no longer afford to squander its energies on internecine quarrels as that which raged between the AFL and the CIO. Fossum notes that with the passing of both William Green and Philip Murray in 1952, and with the arrival of leaders like George Meany of the AFL and Walter Reuther of the CIO, conciliation was more feasible than it had been in many years. While John L. Lewis was still a very visible leader of the United Mine Workers, the unaffiliated UMW was not in a position to scuttle these developments. Merger
It provided for court injunctions if strikes threatened production in ways that were contrary to the national interest, as determined by the President. In such cases, Taft-Hartley provided for an 80-day “cooling- off” period, during which strikes were prohibited where the national interest was affected, with NLRB elections on final contract proposals conducted during this period. It created the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to assistance in settling labor disputes. It limited legal exposure of individual members with respect to suits against the union, but it did authorize the union as an organization to sue and be sued in federal court. It prohibited strikes by federal employees. The New Production Paradigm Whereas the 15 years prior to Taft-Hartley had ceded to employers the organizational role of intensely directing employees with the ultimate power of hiring, firing, and pay decisions through the so-called drive system, Taft-Hartley ushered in a new accommodation between and labor. In the new paradigm, higher-ability employees were hired, and wage and benefit programs were funded through increases in productivity per worker. In Fossum’s view, this situation was largely in place until the 1980s. RETRENCHMENT AND MERGER The Lessons of Taft-Hartley for Labor Organized labor would, in future, have to be prepared to exert more influence in legislative activity and to take a more visible public stance on issues affecting the interests of labor. The relative strengths of labor and management had fundamentally changed, and labor could no longer afford to squander its energies on internecine quarrels as that which raged between the AFL and the CIO. Fossum notes that with the passing of both William Green and Philip Murray in 1952, and with the arrival of leaders like George Meany of the AFL and Walter Reuther of the CIO, conciliation was more feasible than it had been in many years. While John L. Lewis was still a very visible leader of the United Mine Workers, the unaffiliated UMW was not in a position to scuttle these developments. Merger