6:00

But it didn't really make a difference. There

6:02

was so much bipartisan support for this bill

6:04

that Truman vetoed it, and then Congress overruled

6:06

that veto. And this

6:08

act, Taft-Hartley did a number of

6:10

things, like banning closed union shops

6:13

and other tactics unions used in

6:15

the past. So it gave

6:17

all sorts of powers to employers that they

6:19

didn't have before. Yeah, in many ways it

6:21

neutered the unions, but it

6:23

did one very specific thing that

6:25

reveals why everybody was talking about

6:27

Taft-Hartley last week. Beth Eker

6:30

says it gave the president, under section 206

6:33

of the act, the power to stall

6:35

a strike. The president cannot snap his

6:37

fingers and say go back to work

6:40

or don't strike, but there is an

6:42

executive power that they could appoint a

6:44

board, which would then ultimately result in

6:46

a federal court stopping the strike from

6:49

happening for a cooling off period of

6:51

80 days. A cooling off period where

6:53

both parties were forced back to the

6:56

negotiating table and in the

6:58

union's case, back to work. Because

7:00

the thinking goes that when a strike

7:02

occurs in a strategically vital sector, like

7:05

container ports, the stakes for

7:07

the entire economy merit special attention. Betsy

7:10

Stevenson says in the case of the

7:12

dock worker strike, it's not just about

7:14

one company. They're like a linchpin to

7:16

the whole economy and there's a whole

7:18

bunch of companies who are affected. And

7:20

then when we start to think about

7:22

the, what economists would call here externalities,

7:24

the ways in which this negotiation spills

7:26

out and spreads

7:29

out throughout the economy. Strikes can

7:31

affect all sorts of companies, many

7:33

of which may be only peripherally associated with

7:35

the sector whose workers have struck. As

7:38

those other companies suffer, so they cut costs

7:40

and maybe lay off workers. Spending

7:42

decreases and that affects more companies

7:44

and the negative spiral continues. And

7:47

then there are the potential effects

7:49

on inflation. Inflation typically comes when

7:51

you just have more

7:54

people who want to buy stuff than there is stuff

7:56

to buy. It's really that simple. You

7:58

clog up the port and then you're going to have

8:00

a bunch of people who want to buy stuff and

8:02

stuff's not going to be there. And that's going to

8:04

push up the prices. Since it was

8:07

created, Section 206 of the Taft-Hartley Act

8:09

has been invoked by a president 37 times to

8:12

deal with striking workers in a

8:14

range of industries, from steelmaking to

8:16

maritime work. But it's had

8:19

mixed results. And that's because presidential

8:21

intervention only delays a strike. It

8:23

doesn't necessarily stop it. About

8:25

half the time presidents have

8:28

invoked this Section

8:30

206, the parties worked

8:32

out their differences. But

8:36

nine times workers went ahead with a

8:38

strike. So this

8:40

may only delay a strike that's inevitable.

8:43

And that may be part of the reason

8:45

why President Biden told reporters that he's not

8:47

a believer in Taft-Hartley. It just doesn't work

8:49

that well. The other part

8:51

of the reason, of course, is that he's

8:53

a Democrat, a union supporter, a big union

8:56

supporter. During the successful auto workers strike last

8:58

year, he was the first president in history

9:00

to join a picket line. Now

9:02

Vice President Harris, the Democratic candidate for

9:04

president, is a union supporter too, of

9:06

course. And actually so

9:08

is the other candidate, former President Trump,

9:11

who has said some pro-union

9:13

things but also has sort of contradicted himself

9:15

at times. But on the face

9:17

of it, this is a big difference from 1947 in

9:20

the way that Republicans view unions. Maybe

9:23

in the way they view Taft-Hartley

9:25

too. The Republican Party's different, and

9:28

that has led it to attract

9:30

more union members. And

9:33

union members really

9:36

dislike Taft-Hartley.

9:39

We are in a situation where

9:42

union votes could go to

9:45

either candidate, and

9:47

so both candidates are worried

9:49

about angering the unions. Republicans

9:52

seem to be having a little bit of a moment right

9:54

now. I mean, for the first time in a long time

9:56

they've got strong allies on both sides of the political aisle,

9:58

or at least they seem to. And

10:00

over the last year, they've succeeded in getting many

10:03

of their demands met in strike after strike. I

10:05

mean, who knows, maybe their next target will be

10:07

the piece of legislation that every union member

10:09

loves to hate. Taft-Hartley.

10:15

This episode was produced by Julia Ritchie with

10:17

engineering by Kwee C. Lee. It

10:19

was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Kate Kincannon is

10:22

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