Question

With the Taft-Hartley act how does anyone know how much is too much relative to union dues? What is featherbedding and why is that a problem?

Answer 1

In 1947, the republican lawmakers passed the Taft-Hartley Act over prohibit of President Truman as unions had grown very powerful. This act gave new rights to businesses. The Taft-Harley Act contained a number of laws and had numerous benefits for employers.

The act constituted of amendments that stopped labor groups from manoeuvring their associates or their employers. The act inflicts limitations on unions from forcing their associates to pay excessive membership fees and dues as a requirement to joining.

The act forbids unions from demanding that employers pay for work that its associates did not perform or failed to complete adequately. Under the Taft-Hartley Act provisions the President can assign a board to examine union disputes if necessary. The law also banned employers from collecting union and banned unions from contributing members’ money to political campaigns.

Featherbedding is the way of hiring more employees than required to perform a given task, or to implement work events which are non-value-add, multifaceted and prolonged simply to employ additional workers. It is a problem as although individual union workers are often more productive than non-union workers, unions can cut productivity for a business as a whole. The negotiators of the union more often engage in featherbedding to hire more workers for a job than they really need to get it done. And resist new equipment and processes that could improve efficiency because they fear these will result in fewer jobs.