Ever since a 1938 U.S. Supreme Court decision, employers have held the right to replace workers on a permanent basis if the workers strike for economic reasons, such as better wages. As part of a package of labor proposals, candidate Barack Obama said he would work to ban the permanent replacement of employees who strike.

The proposed ban would extend the same protections to workers that they already receive for striking against unfair labor practices, included in the National Labor Relations Act of 1935. The permanent-replacement power became a hot button issue for unions in the 1980s and 1990s, when they claimed that employers used replacements -- and the threat of replacements -- to discourage strikes more often than any time since the 1930s.  

As we noted before, President Bill Clinton signed an executive order in 1995 prohibiting most companies from winning contracts if they permanently replaced workers in labor disputes. A federal appeals court struck down the order in 1996. Democrats in the House and Senate also introduced bills repeatedly throughout the 1990s that would have banned the permanent replacement of workers who strike, but none became law.

Last time we visited this promise, we found no evidence that the Obama administration had worked to implement such a ban. This remains true. Nothing in our online searches and interviews suggests the administration ever pursued the ban.

If we find action, we'll revisit this. But for now, we rate it a Promise Broken.