Evening star., 1948-08-24
Union Bosses Claims
Seen Absurd in Year
OF Taft-HartIey Act
Lobor Law Hos Served
To Sove Workers From
Coercion, Writer Holds
By David Laurence

ny bNUfH laurence
A year of the Taft-Hartley laws
operations has demonstrated the ab-
sufdity of the claim of labor union
bosses that this was a slave law"
The truth is the new law has
served as an emancipation act. Mil
lions OF workers can breathe more
freely today than they could under
the old Wagner Act This is be-
cause today worker cannot be CO.
creed by labor-uni boss. Many
workers haven't found out yet that
they can file an unfair labor prac-
tice charge against union boss but
many more are learning it every
day.
The real reason, indeed, why the
union bosses are so violent In their
denunciation of the law Is that it
cramps their technique and prevents
them from riding roughshod over
workers. 1t prevents a. small group
OF union strategists, for instance,
from forcing closed shop or a
union ship on unwilling workers
there must be elections by secret
ballot. 1t prevents individual griev-
ances from being smothered by
union bosses. 1t prevents the mis-
representation of the facts concern
ing wage negotiations SO that an
employer can refute publicly the
untruths that used to be told about
wage offers
Hoe nriuan nuf paIs
More than anything else, the pro-
visions of the new law have driven
Communists from control of certain
upions. The few unions that are
holding out against signing anti
Communist afhdavits are doing so
either because they do not dare Of
fend Communists in their ranks or
because they want to show their
members how defiant they can be
about scorning the Taft-Hartley
law.
Today there are more members in
unions than there were before the
Hartley bill became law. Col
lective bargaining has not been
frustrated or squelched. as was pre-
dicted by the union bosses, but in
stead there are more contracts in
operation as result of collective
bargaining than ever before in the
industrial history of America.
There have been fewer strikes
since the Taft Hartley law was
ho
before and those which for a time
threatened the national safrty-
such as the coal strike-have been
brought to peaceful end through
The use OF the preventive injunction.
Employers were previously sub
iect to injunctions and now both
labor unions and employers can be
enioined from doing illegal acts.
Perhaps the most ridiculous of all
the claims made about the alleged
unworkability or unconstitutional
ity of the Taft Hartley Act CEN
tered for while on the right of
union members to conduct political
activities and to use their funds to
help elect political candidates of
their own choosing.
The courts, as predicted in these
dispatches a year ago. have held |
that it is not unlawful for indi-
vidual workers to contribute money,
to politica, campaign committees. !
They must however, do it directly ,
as other citizens do and they can
not convert unions into political
committees, collecting funds osten-
siblv for union dues and using such /
dues for political purposes without
the individual consent of each
member.
No Civil Rights Lost.
Today, Is always, separate po-
li5ical committees composed of .
union leaders or any one else can
be formed and can canvass union /
memberships and collect campaign
contributions. No civil or political
rights of any kind have been lost,
Likewise, all the hue and cry
about unions and corporations not
being able to publish newspapers
that present editorials in a cam
paign has been stilled, because the
Supreme Court has said, in effect, ,
that the laws ban is on expendi- /
lures lin connection with" a cam
paign and not expenses incurred
in the regular publication of bona
fide newspapers and periodicals.
The union bosses will not cease,
OF course, to attack the Taft-H Hart
ley Act. 1t did deprive them of
their license and freedom to do as
they pleased. misrepresenting the
employer attitude and taking re-
fuge under the unfair labor prac-
tice" provisions of the old law,
ccercing workers and crying out
unfair labor practice" if an en-
ployer attempted to give the facts
to his employees
The Taft Hartley Act in one
year has already operated as bal
anced law AS between employers
and unions. Properly interpreted
and sincerely enforced, it will prove
the best law yet passed to protect
the collective bargaining process
and to promote the cause of in
dustrial peace.
tReprC Cduction Rights ReserveG)