The Labor-Management Relations Act (also known as the Taft-Hartley Act) required unions to represent all employees in the bargaining unit, regardless of who voted for the union in the election during the certification process.

The Labor Management Relations Act was passed in 1947 to restore a more balanced relationship between labor and management due to the increase in power of "newly formed unions" that had grown out of the National Labor Relations Act (also referred to as the Wagner Act). It gives employees the right to refrain from participating in union activities and adds a series of prohibited unfair labor practices by unions.

On the other hand, the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act was later enacted to protect the rights of the "employees" from corrupt and discriminatory labor unions.

The law established a bill of rights for union members, prohibited unions from discriminating on the basis of union membership, required reporting and disclosures of certain financial transactions and administrative practices of labor organizations and employers, prevented abuses in the administration of trusteeships by labor organizations, provided standards with respect to the election of officers of labor organizations, and outlawed certain types of secondary boycotts and "hot cargo" provisions in collective bargaining.