Evening star., 1945-12-01
Labor Industry PorIey
Failure Charge Hit
Will Form Basis for Action BY
i Congress, Says Observer

Will Form Basis for Action BY
Congress, Says Observer
By Dapid Laurence
While II may prove stimulating to
Congress for observers to refer to the
Labor-Management Conference as I
failure, the fact Is that the whole prob
lem is far too complicated to be dealt
with In any one session Of few weeks
anyway. Provision has been made for q
semipermanent committee to carry on
discussions.
The work that has been done in select
Ing constituent personnel for the con-
ference will not be lost If the groups can
be convened at any time that their in.
tegim committee reports progress. Un-
doubtedly the pressure for concrete
settlements Of issues. enveloping the
pending strikes had much to do with the
prevention Of full agreement at this time,
Curiously enough, both sides recognize
that the public interest demands adop.
ton Of certain basic principles but when
1t comes to interpreting them or even
writing them out, suspicion emerges and
there is pressure from factions within
labor or management, as the case may
be, to insist on particular wording.
Disagreement, Of course, ensues.
Records Before Congress.
The basic principles that both sides
privately accept are that strikes and
other work stoppages do not contribute
to the public interest, that collective
bargaining with bona fide workers
organizations needs definition and cer-l.
tainly requires good faith in its conduct :
on both sides, and that once contracts
are made some means of fulfilling the
obligations contained therein and set
Ting grievances or differences of inter.
probation must be found.
Congress will have before 1t all the
records OF the Labor Management Con.
ference and summary of all the dis
cussions. 1t will be starting point
for the drafting of legislation. For one
certain result of the Labor management
Conference is the writing of new laws
touching on many of the topics covered
in the meeting
Thus, for instance, everybody agrees
that mediation and Cancellation ma.
chinery must be strengthened. This re-
quires appropriations by Congress and Q
spelling out of functions.
1nasmuch as the Smith Connally Act
has to be repealed, labor legislation
must come out of committees on both
sides OF the Capitol. This is a signifi-
cant opportunity for those who want to
oner amendments to existing statutes
or to add new legislation Ever since
1885, when the Wagner Labor Relations
Act was passed, all efforts to clarity
some of its ambiguous clauses have been
squelched in ommittee-usually by the
Roosevelt administration influence and
prolabor members of the committees
dealing with labor legislation.
! The House Of Representatives is In a
mood to pass what might be termed by
labor unions as drastic legislation. The
Senate is less inclined to go along but
ultimately compromise between Sen.
ate and House views will be made. The
Labor management Conference tends to
| strengthen the hand of the House ma
jority and possibly to add some votes
in the Senate.
Argument to Be Heard.
For the main argument that will be
heard is that labor and management
men cannot or will not write q code for
themselves, nor are they in a position
to enforce such a code even if agreed
upon by delegates representing huge
membership organizations Of labor and
management. Hence in such circum-
stances legislation becomes inevitable
in order to protect the public interest.
The recess of the Labor r-Management
Conference for long interval will place
upon both sides a responsibility toAtackie
concrete controversies. When Federal
mediation does clear up some of the
major strikes, as seems likely, during the
next few weeks, the very demonstration
of how Federal mediation and concilia.
tion have been utilized will afford Con.
gress reason for including in existing
laws some provision for mediation and
| possibly some restrictions as to the use
of strikes or lockouts while mediation
processes are being utilized
1t is superficial characterization to
say the Acknowledgements Conference
has failed. The discussions will con-
tinue intermittently both by its semi
permanent committee and by congress,
sional committees. Both labor and
management will merely transfer their,
meeting place to the committee rooms
of Congress. For the problem will have
to be tackled if reconversion is to pro-
ceed at maximum speed.
tReproduction RiEhts Reseryed)