taft-hartley act

noun

1. an act of the U.S. Congress (1947) that supersedes but continues most of the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act and that, in addition, provides for an eighty-day injunction against strikes that endanger public health and safety and bans closed shops, featherbedding, secondary boycotts, jurisdictional strikes, and certain other union practices.

A major law concerning labor, passed by Congress in 1947. President Harry S. Truman vetoed Taft-Hartley (see veto), but it became law by a two-thirds vote of Congress. It marked a reversal of the pro-labor policies pursued under the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. For example, the law prohibited a list of “unfair” labor practices and restricted the political activities of labor unions.