The union times., 1947-10-04
Few Unions Are Complying With
 Interpretation
Only 1,112 Of 80, ,OOO Have Filed Organizational,
 Financial Reports

showdown that NLRB General Counsel Robert Denham has been seeking to force union compliance with his interpre- tatiOn of the Taft-Hartley law was in the making on two fronts this week.
 Denham filed actions in Chat tanooga against the Int'l Brother hood of Teamsters = AFL for alleged secondary boycott, and in Baltimore against the Int'l Typo graphical Union-AFL for al- legged refusal to bargain in good faith.
 FLOP COMING UP
 A trial examiners hearing on the Baltimore case was set for Oct. 6. In Chattanooga, the Carpenters were given until Sept. 30 to show cause why an injunction should not be issued restraining the union from prohibiting its members' working with nOn-uniOn workers on a floor and wall covering job.
 Meanwhile concrete evidence de- veloped that the efforts of Dem ham, anti-labOr COngressmen and big business spOkesmen to stam- pede labor into subjecting itself to the Taft-Hartley law had proved a complete flop.
 Of the nations nearly 5000 inter- national and local unions, exactly 1112 had filed the financial and organ izational reports required under the Taft-Hartley law by the end of the laws first month of operation. The remaining unions are automatically barred from use of the NLRB serv- ices and facilities until or, unless they do file
 BOARD DIVIDED
 NLRB officials indicated that there would be no announcement for three or four weeks on the number of un- ions that have filed the anti -Commun- ist afidavits but there was good req son to believe that the total here would also be a tiny percentage-es- pecially after the refusal of the AFL executive council and CIO executive board to comply.
 Behind this wholesale boycott of the Board was a growing battle over Denham's stubborn insistence that the law requires the top AFL and CIO officials to sign the af6- davits before affiliated unions can acquire any status before the NLRB. It was known that the Board itself was divided over the Dem ham interpretation with a distinct possibility seen that it might be Overruled.
 Sen. George Aiken (R., Vt.) who voted for the law and also to Ovcr- ride the Presidents veto, character ized the Denham notion as ''siIly" and presidential hopeful, Harold Stassen, addressing the Massachu- setts and New Hampshire Press Associations said that the ruling was probably unconstitutional. Denham, however, made it clear that he would not yield an inch on his personal interpretation of the law. In an address to the American Bar Assn convention in Cleveland. Denham went out of his way to include an im- piled threat that if large unions do not use the NLRB facilities they may be victimized by smaller unions.
 SEES BOYCOTT
 Said Denham, Some labor organi izations have indicated an intention or desire to boycott the act and to refuse to utilize the services of the Board Labor organizations now exist in a highly competitive field Many of them are decidedly big busi- ness; but if big business were denied the protection of the courts in its legitimate operations it would soon come to be the prey of the smaller elements which enjoy such protection, and can attack and raid it with i'm punity."
 Denham also conceded what Ia- bOr lawyers cOntended even before the laws enactment, that portions of it are vague, that it will provide a field-day for attorneys, that it will flood the NLRB with election cases and that ''there may be some in it." On elections Denham said that last year the NLRB handled 1O,676 representa- ton petitions and 6943 elections. ''This year"it will probably double that number because of she new provisions for some five or six ad- ditiOnal types of elections in vari- ous stages of representation mat ters. The union shop provisions alone could equal or exceed the en- tire total of all elections held last year.''
 Turning to secondary boycottS, Denham declared, "They are repug-