Evening star., 1941-12-05
The Right to Strike

Even after full allowance is made
for organized labor's unf1agging op-
position to any legislative restraint
on the right to strike, there is room
for surprise in the vehemence Of
William Green's attack on the Smith
bill as passed by an overwhelming
vote in the House.
According to the president of the
American Federation of Labor, the
bill violates the Constitution and is
"a vicious instrument of oppression
concocted in haste by the avowed
enemies of labor" He added that
under no circumstances will the
A. F. of L. ever submit to restriction
of the right to strike by law"
Certainly, however, the vast ma
jority of the 252 members of the
House who voted for the bill did not
consider it a vicious instrument of
oppression. In the view of its spon-
sorS the bill has several main pur-
poses.
One is to re-create the Defense
Mediation Board, giving it authority
to take jurisdiction in a defense
labor dispute after other conciliation
and mediation processes have failed.
If necessary, the board may ask the
disputants to submit to voluntary
arbitration and also may require
maintenance of the status quo be-
tween the parties to the dispute for
from thirty to ninety days. These
are steps which plainly are designed
to bring about orderly adjustment of
industrial disputes, and it is difficult
indeed to see wherein any of them
may be considered unconstitutional
or viciously oppressive. Enforcement
of these steps, where necessary,
would be sought through Federal in
junction proceedings. Under the
Wagner Act employers are subject to
this injunctive process and no labor
leader has been heard to call it op-
preSsive. Why would the character
of this remedy be so vastly different
if the injunction were directed to a
union?
Another important purpose of the
bill, according to its sponsors, is to
insure free decision by all workers
in a given plant through a secret
vote before a strike could be called.
President Roosevelt is reported to
have objected to this section on the
ground that it might imply govern
mental sanction of a defense strike
once it had been approved by ma
jority of the workers, but, whatever
the merits of that objection, it does
not follow that requirement so es-
sentially democratic is in any sense
oppressive of labor's legitimate rights.
Other sections of the bill call for an
original thirty day cooling-of period,
forbid the intimidation or violent
treatment of non-strikers, ban the
importation of picketS who are not
employees of a struck plant, prohibit
jurisdictional and sympathy strikes
and require unions to file reports
showing their financial status and
the names of their officers.
1t is obvious, Of course, that en-
forcement of some of these sections
would eliminate practices which un-
ions, from narrow point of view,
have used effectively in the past. But
the sponsors of the bill contend, and
there is much evidence to support
them, that it has been the indulgence
in these practices which has aroused
strong public sentiment against un-
ionism as a whole, the good as well
as the bad. Abandonment of such
tactics as mass picketing, violence
and intimidation in connection with
strikes may be expected to pay divi-
dends in the long run in any country
where organized labor, as we'll as all
other minority groups, must pass the
test of public opinion.
1t is easy to understand why labor
leaders, under normal conditions,
would object to other provisions,
such as those freezing open and
closed shop relationships and deny
ing union office to persons with Ger
tain subversive political affiliations.
The latter we'll may be too difficult
of enforcement and the former can
be justified only as an emergency
measure In this connection, how
ever, it should be noted that the
provision is applicable only for two
years-a period during which unions
are asked to give up their normally
proper aspirations for the sake of
the national welfare.
1t is to be expected that the ques-
ton of labor legislation will receive
more careful consideration in the
Senate and that changes in the
Smith bill will result. In that
process, Mr. Green and other labor
leaders will have opportunity to
submit constructive suggestions for
improvement or modification, and it
is to be hoped that they will avail
themselves of this opportunity.
Nothing is to be gained for labor or
the country by an attitude of un-
compromising opposition to any and
all legislation, based on the erroneous
ass11na nfinn that lohor onious q cfo4u.