Michael Hiltzik: The key to union resurgence is repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act

Labor advocates and critics alike can debate the reasons for the decline of union membership in America over the last seven decades, but one event gets the nod from both sides as a major obstacle to union organizing. It's the passage in 1947 of the Taft-Hartley Act.

"Taft-Hartley was devastating to labor," the former (and reformed) union-buster Martin Jay Levitt wrote in 1993. In labor relations, he observed, management always had the upper hand. But after Taft-Hartley, "the bosses could once again wage their war with near impunity."

So it's understandable that the two most progressive candidates running for the Democratic nomination for president, Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have called for repeal of sections