Smith-Connally Act Criminalizes Union Political Contributions, Spawns First PACs

Congress overrides President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s veto to pass the Smith-Connally Act (War Labor Disputes Act), which prohibits unions from making contributions in federal elections and empowers the federal government to seize industries threatened by strikes. The legislation is hurriedly created after 400,000 coal miners struck for wage increases to offset wartime inflation, reflecting Congressional response to 1,200 recorded strikes from December 1941 through late summer 1942. The Act makes it unlawful for any labor organization to make contributions in elections involving Presidential, Vice Presidential, or congressional candidates, with violations punishable by fines up to $5,000 for organizations and $1,000 or one year imprisonment for consenting officers.

The Act requires unions to give 30 days notice of intent to strike, observe a cooling-off period, and secure majority support from rank-and-file membership before striking in designated war plants. It holds war-industry unions financially liable for all damages if they fail to give proper notice. Roosevelt vetoes the bill partly because of his ties with labor organizations and the clause forbidding union contributions to political campaigns, arguing in his veto message that he took this action “only after the most serious study and reflection.” For the first time during the war, Congress overrides Roosevelt’s veto. Between 1943 and 1945, Roosevelt uses the Smith-Connally Act to intervene in labor disputes and federalize industries, including seizing railroads from December 27, 1943 to January 18, 1944, and sending 8,000 Army troops to seize Philadelphia’s transit system during an August 1944 strike.

The Act’s prohibition on direct union political contributions inadvertently creates the modern Political Action Committee system when the Congress of Industrial Organizations forms CIO-PAC in July 1943 to circumvent the restrictions by collecting individual voluntary contributions from union members rather than using union treasury funds. Although designed to expire six months after the war’s conclusion, the Smith-Connally Act has lasting effects on executive power expansion and serves as direct precursor to the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, establishing the legal framework for criminalizing union political activity that continues to restrict labor’s political influence through the present day.