The Smith–Connally Act or War Labor Disputes ActMalsberger, ''From Obstruction to Moderation: The Transformation of Senate Conservatism, 1938-1952,'' 2000, p. 104. (50 U.S.C. App. 1501 et seq.) was an American law passed on June 25, 1943, over President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

's veto. The legislation was hurriedly created after 400,000 coal miners, their wages significantly lowered because of high wartime inflation, struck for a $2-a-day wage increase. The Act allowed the federal government to seize and operate industries threatened by or under strikes that would interfere with war production, and prohibited unions from making contributions in federal elections. The war powers bestowed by the Act were first used in August 1944 when the Fair Employment Practices Commission ordered the

Philadelphia Transportation Company The Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) was the main public transit operator in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1940 to 1968. A private company, PTC was the successor to the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company (PRT), in operation since ...

to hire

African-Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

as motormen. The 10,000 members of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Employees Union (PRTEU), a labor union unaffiliated with either the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual ...

or the

Congress of Industrial Organizations The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was a federation of Labor unions in the United States, unions that organized workers in industrial unionism, industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. Originally created in ...

, led a sick-out strike, now known as the Philadelphia transit strike of 1944, for six days."Trouble in Philadelphia,"
''Time,'' August 14, 1944. President Roosevelt sent 8,000

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

troops to the city to seize and operate the transit system, and threatened to draft any PRTEU member who did not return to the job within 48 hours.Klinkner and Smith, ''The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America,'' 2002, p. 191. Roosevelt's actions broke the strike.

Footnotes

Bibliography

*Atleson, James B. ''Labor and the Wartime State: Labor Relations and Law During World War II.'' Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1998. *Goodwin, Doris Kearns. ''No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II.'' New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. *Karatnycky, Adrian. ''Freedom in the World: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties, 2000-2001.'' Rev. ed. Piscataway, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2000. *Klinkner, Philip A. and Smith, Rogers M. ''The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. *La Raja, Raymond J. ''Small Change: Money, Political Parties, and Campaign Finance Reform.'' Ann Arbor, Mich: University of Michigan Press, 2008. *Malsberger, John William. ''From Obstruction to Moderation: The Transformation of Senate Conservatism, 1938-1952.'' Selinsgrove, Pann.: Susquehanna University Press, 2000. *"Philadelphia Transit Strike (1944)." In ''Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-Class History.'' Eric Arnesen, ed. New York: CRC Press, 2007. *Sabato, Larry and Ernst, Howard R. ''Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections.'' New York: Facts On File, 2006.
"Trouble in Philadelphia."
''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

.'' August 14, 1944. *Wagner, Margaret E.; Kennedy, David M.; Osborne, Linda Barrett; and Reyburn, Susan. ''The Library of Congress World War II Companion.'' New York: Simon and Schuster, 2007. *Winkler, Allan. "The Philadelphia Transit Strike of 1944." ''Journal of American History.'' June 1972. {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith-Connally Act 1943 in American law 78th United States Congress United States federal labor legislation Labour history of World War II 1943 in labor relations