Q: What is the Taft-Hartley Act, cited by President Clinton as the reasonfor his not intervening in the UPS strike?
A: The Taft-Hartley Act is the popular name for the federalLabor-Management Relations Act of 1947, an amendment to the Wagner Act(National Labor Relations Act of 1935). It continued the Wagner Act's basicguarantees of workers rights, outlawed certain union tactics and expanded theacts concept of unfair labor practices to include practices of labororganizations. One Taft-Hartley provision allows the start of strikes to bedelayed for 80 days by presidential intervention, if the strike might cause anational emergency. Clinton said this strike didn't constitute such anemergency.Source: Cox News Service "News Q&A" published in DDN on 8-17-1997