Labor: Post-WWII to 1960

An earlier post dealt with the role of the business community and national affairs from the end of WWII to 1960. This post focuses on labor and the business community in the same time period.

Full Employment Act

After the removal of WWII price controls as well as the excess profits tax, unions undertook widespread strikes to protest the rapid end of these war mechanisms. The Truman administration was also concerned about employment. War production had ended and many in the military would be returning to civilian life.

In this atmosphere the administration drafted the Full Employment Act of 1946. The draft was warmly supported by the liberal-labor alliance because it made full employment a right guaranteed to the American people.… Read the rest