I've looked through a couple threads discussing FDR's death but none seem to have approached the issue of the Taft-Hartley Act. So my question is this, what is everyone's opinion, could FDR have held together the Democratic caucus and blocked Taft-Hartley? It's my opinion that he most certainly could. A second question then arises, so what? Well, if Truman pulls through in '48, which is much more likely than IOTL, the chance of the law ever being passed becomes virtually nill. What role, than, does greater and more militant industrial strength play on the post-war US.
What makes this so interesting is it wouldn't have the big, flashy AH events. I doubt it would have changed who became president or who was nominated, at least not till years later. However, the effect on the day to day lives of Americans would have been extraordinary, and the concerns taken in by congress vastly different. To this day I'd bet you'd see union density at least twice what it's become and the CIO would have effectively driven the AFL into obscurity, as was becoming the trend before Taft-Hartley already.
A few possible differences, both good and bad, I thought of off the top of my head:
- No NAFTA, CAFTA, TPP, etc: What's been notable about America's multitude of free trade agreements in recent years is almost all, including the most notable of all NAFTA, have been signed by Democratic presidents. A more powerful trade union lobby could have blocked this.
- Minimum Wage pegged to inflation.
- Democrats, similar to Labour in the UK, struggle to become the environmental party and the Republicans, as a result, don't become the science-deniers. The strength of a mighty industrial lobby dependent on manufacturing would make it quite difficult to regulate that very manufacturing.
- As mentioned above, substantial union density, 20%-25%.
- Reagan would never have broken the air traffic controllers strike if solidarity strikes were legal.
- Reagan's reforms really weren't as massive as many Americans think, especially compared with Thatcher and many would likely have gone off as planned, perhaps slightly moderated.
- The service industry would be highly unionized. The CIO was always a radical organization and the rise of the service industry would have come at a very important point for the CIO, right when it was teetering. I'd bet they'd have given there all to organize the service industry and would likely have been successful. This, more than anything else, would have changed the face of modern America.