Evening star., 1947-12-28
Committee Report Louds
New Labor Relations Law
Foresees Tightening Instead of Easing
of Statutes Ban on Closed Shop
Bv Gerard d. Reilly


Current controversies over foreign aid and
imitation have pushed labor relations issues
so far into the background that significant
progress report by the Joint Committee on
Labor Management Relations, filed by Senator
Ball of Minnesota shortly before the special
session adjourned has received little attention
from either the press or Congress.
One Of the most important duties assigned
the committee was that of watching the opera
tions of the Taft Hartley Labor Management
Relations Act. Although his committee has
held but few hearings-and those in executive
session-Chief Counsel Thomas E. Shroyer and
his staff have established system of obtaining
reports from all the agencies having anything
to do with the administration of the new law
These include the Department Of Justice the
Labor Department and the Federal Mediation
Service as well as the National Labor Relations
Board.
At its last meeting, the Joint committee,
after listening to the staff reports, authorized
Chairman Ball to announce that not single
instance of specific injustice created by the
new statute had come to its attention. The
committee noted that opponents of the law
were still denouncing 1t but found that the
objections voiced were still Of a Hypothetical
and general nature.
Inasmuch as the committee membership In
cludes two members of Congress who voted
against the legislation when 1t was on the floor,
the unanimity of the report is highly signih-
cant. Nevertheless, it should not be inferred
that the committee regards either the act or
its administration to date as fawless, for the
committee invited any individual or organiza-
ton knowing of specific irregularities resulting
from the act to present such information to it.
4 X
Prompt investigation of SUCH concrete cases
was promised. Senator Ball stated that this
did not mean, however, that there was to be
any deviation from the committees policy Of
refusing to inject itself into disputes which
were still in progress
In off -the-record conversations several men,
bers of the joint committee have recently
displayed concern with the wisdom OF some Of
the investigations undertaken by certain COL
leagues in the House. On one occasion Con-
gresham insisted on sitting in at a conference
which the Mediation Service had arranged
with some difficulty between the disputants
The result was that the union representatives
withdrew from the meeting. costly strike
was thereby protracted 1t was settled several
weeks later, on very much the same terms the
mediators were prepared to propose at the
original conference
There we're also some eyebrows raised in the
Senate last week at reports from Chicago
quoting Representative Kersten, one of the
members of the House subcommittee con-
ducting hearings on the strike Of the COM
posing room employees of the Chicago news
papers, as stating 1t had never been the
intent of Congress to make closed-shop con-
tracts illegal.
If there was one thing on which both the
Senate and House committees were agreed at
the time that the bill was drafted, 1t was
the abolition of the closed shop In fact,
the reports OF both committees were ex-
plicit in this respect, declaring that the closed
shop had created too serious union monopoly
over all jobs in particular industries to bs
longer tolerated. Consequently specific lam
guage was inserted in the measure which
rendered any form Of compulsory membership
contract void with respect to applicants for
employment and permitted q union shop only
after referendum vote of the employees in
the bargaining unit.
Congressmen who had returned home to
discuss the new act with their constituents
last summer generally reported that this was
one of the most popular reforms in the law.
1t is the consensus among the leaders IN both
Houses that any amendment to this part OF the
bill would result in further restrictions IN
compulsory membership rather than In easing
the limitations on the closed shop For this
reason it Is felt that statements by members
Of Congress which do not reflect the prevalent
feeling of that body tend to prolong industrial
strife by the handful of trade unions which are
not complying with the law by holding out
false hopes of modification.