• Refusing to participate in collective bargaining with employees "in good faith".
• Attempting to dominate or impose undue influence over a labor union.
• Discouraging employees from joining Labor unions through discrimination in hiring or "Yellow Dog" Contracts.
• The legalization of the Closed Shop (forcing employers to hire only union members).
Critics argued that the bill neither prohibited Labor action that could be unfair nor gave the government means to prevent (or at least delay) strikes that threatened national interest. These critics would see their wishes come to pass to a dangerous extreme with the Republican dominated 80th Congress. The conservative Republicans of this 1946 legislature included such "esteemed" names as Richard Nixon and Joseph McCarthy. Set on undoing much of the progressive legislation made during the New deal period the Wagner Act was among its primary targets.
Despite a veto from President Truman the Republican congress passed the Taft-Hartley act in 1947, effectively "throwing the baby out with the bath water" under the guise of ending "Labor Monopolies". While the Wagner Act was called "The Laborers Bill of Rights," Taft-Hartley was dubbed "the Slave Labor" bill.
The act empowered the President to launch an investigation into those strikes he saw as a danger to national health or security. The Attorney General could then seek a court injunction to end the strike. If the court found in favor of ending the strike the disputing parties had sixty days to settle their difference (it should be noted that provision allowed for a twenty day extension, creating an 80 day cooling period). This greatly weakened the workers leverage by weakening their most powerful tool. In addition to this increase in Presidential powers, Taft-Hartley changed many other aspects of Labor Policy. .
• The redefinition of the word "employee" to exclude supervisors and independent contractors.
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