Evening star., 1946-12-02
CurtuiIment of Labor
Seen Backed byPublic
Congress Urged to Change Laws
Now Affecting Unions
Be- David Laurence

4
b. David Laurence
A wave of sentiment so powerful and
unmistakable as to be reminiscent OF
the way in which other major move
ments Of reform have welled up in the
past is sweeping on toward Washing
ton from all parts of the country to de-
mand that the Government do some
thing about the labor situation.
The country is sick and tired of strikes :
and is fearful that economic recovery
will be blocked by economic chaos unless
the authority OF the Congress is asserted
promptly.
The coal strike has merely confirmed
q growing fear, namely that national
labor unions consider themselves above
the law and that they are calloused to
public suffering and the public interest.
The labor leaders are living In by
gone age. The people have lost con-
fidence in them. For they have sat
idly by and offered only one concrete
suggestion to avert labor management
strife-management must surrender.
That suggestion amounts to demand
that wages be raised and management's
profits virtually coniscated, irrespec-
tive Of the effect on the economic
system.
The public has been told again and
again that new legislation will bring
no remedy. This is the specious claim
of those labor leaders who under exist
ing legislation would be able to
| perpetuate monopoly. The big corpora
| tions never wanted legislation either,
| but the Nations resentment over monop-
| olies and trusts in the '90's caused a
Republican Congress to enact the Sher-
| man Antitrust Law
+ 1t is legislation already on the statute
| books which today is the basic cause OF
strikes and labor management strife.
Wagner Act at Fault.
The Wagner law has been the prin-
cipal generator Of friction. 1t needs
drastic amendment. 1t was deliberately
| written as a one-sided law. Under the
| Wagner Act, an opinion of the Supreme
Court of the United States said frankly
| that, no matter how satisfactory rela-
| tions have been between an employer
| and his employees, such a relationship
must be disturbed to conform to the
| provisions Of the statute
| The best labor management relations
are those which are based on mutual
trust and understanding. Under the
Wagner law this cannot be achieved,
because the statute permits fraud and
Misrepresentation and violence and in
timidation on the part of labor unions
and their organizers while it prevents
the employer from talking with his own
employees frankly and candidly except
at the risk of a lawsuit before the Ma
tional Labor Relations Board.
1 The statute has been used and is be-
ing used to blackmail and coerce en-
ployers. 1t has provoked state of war
in industry and an incalculable loss of
production. It has brought an stmos-
phere of class hostility which, Of course,
has always been the aim of Communism.
There are other laws beside the Wag-
ner Act which need revision. 1t should
be made unlawful, for example, for any
employer to refuse to hire a prospective
employe solely because he is not mem
ber of q union or will not join one. It
! should be unlawful for any labor union
to conduct strike or intimidate an
employer to induce him to violate such
| law. That would end the CLOSED shop
in America-and 1t should be ended
The coal strike has illustrated how dan
gerous a closed shop" monopoly can
| become
| The coal miners are helpless today.
They can't work even if they want to
| work They would be expelled from the
| union, and since the miners union has
! contract forbidding an employer to
employ any one who is not "in good
| standing in the union, the miner can
not expect ever to get job unless he
| follows the orders of John L. Lewis.
Law Forces Union Membership.
The sympathy of the Nation might
well be extended to the helpless miners
who are caught in the straitjacket. For
the Wagner law permits contract dis
| eliminating against worker who re-
| fuses to Join union. The law says
| such contracts must be voluntary"
| when entered into by unions and en-
| ployers"-but everybody knows the word
voluntary" in actual practice is a
| rockery. Rarely ever has closed
shop" contract Sbeen signed by an en-
| ployer except under duress.
| The American people are witnessing
an example of supergovernment-an ex-
ercise of authority by national unions
which defies what little law there is left
to restrict their operations. The answer
may come in sweeping revision of all
labor laws to make unions amenable
to the public interest exactly as are
corporations, but leaving individuals free
to work or quit work as they please. 1t
| is no more involuntary seryitude" to
regulate union than it is to regulate !
cooperative or corporation.
| Labor union leaders could have averted
the avalanche that is coming now. But
like certain spokesman of big business
| in the old days, the union leaders are
| blind to their own mistakes. They would
be able to preserve many of their social
/ gains If they exhibited conciliatory
/ spirit.
But, fortunately for the opposition.
/ the labor leaders want battle to the
| finish, and they are getting it now in
the court of public opinion, where every
/ prominent labor leader is lined up on
the side of economic force and against
the public interest as the Government
seeks merely to secure respect from the