Evening star., 1949-03-24
Unions Seen Expecting
To Get Pro-Labor Act
By Conference Rule
Strategy Is to Wait Until
Bill Goes to Joint Group
Of House and Senate

Bill Goes to Joint Group
Of House and Senute
By David La,crence
The strategy Of the union chiefs
who control the administration
and its supporters in Congress has
become clear now that the Labor
Committee Of each House has
decided to report the original
Wagner Act with minor amend
ments as a substitute for the Taft
Hartley Act.
Unable to obtain assent from
the party leaders for a program
calling for repeal Of the Taft
Hartley Act and a restoration of
the original Wagner Act and then
a discussion of any changes of i'm
portance. the union lobby has
forced the hand of the adminis-
tration supporters on the two
Labor Committees so that the bill
that now comes out of these COM
mittees to the floor will in each
instance be exactly in the form
desired by the labor unions.
Then the effort will be made
to keep amendments down to a
minimum. The idea, of course,
was that If either the House or
Senate committee had amended
the measure to make it a we'll
balanced piece of legislation. the
amendments tackled onto it in
floor debate would have been
farther away from the pro-union
Wagner Act, whereas by keeping
the measure from having any
amendments added before 1t
emerges from the committees the
fight will be centered on the floor.
Labor Can Control Vote.
The labor chiefs can easily con-
troll the vote In the committees
because they can turn their wrath
on a specific group in Congress
and build enough fires to threaten
any who do not do the bidding
of the labor lobby
When the measure gets to the
floor of the House. an attempt will
be made to get record votes on
every amendment. and again the
threats of reprisals at the polls
will be applied. So far as the
House is concerned, the chances
are that the unions will get the
bill through with a minimum of
amendments unfavorable to their
side. 1t Is in the Senate where
the bill will undergo considerable
amendment because a coalition Of
Southern Democrats and an al
most solid group Of Republicans
will insist on retention of certain
provisions now in the Taft-Hartley
Act.
All this. however. the union
lobby has foreseen and has dis
counted. 1t is when the measure
gets into the Conference Com
mittee of both houses that the
union lobbyists expect to play
their trump cards. Inasmuch as
the personnel of the Conference
Committee usually follows the
line of seniority. 1t is already
known on Capitol Hill just who
will be on that assignment. The
unions expect to control the
Conference Committee hands
down and to bring out Of the
conference a measure that dis
cards much Of what the Senate
will have written into the bill.
The expectation is that the
measure will closely resemble the
House bill as 1t Is coming out
of committee this week and that
pressure will be exerted on the
Senate. probably in May. to pass
the conference report, or else the
union lobby will accuse the Sen
ators of refusing to repeal the
Taft Hartley Act.
Contracts Up in Summer.
1nasmuch as many union con-
tracts expire in the summer
months, there will be much talk
about the importance of haste In
getting new legislation. The de-
tenders of the Taft-Hartley Act
are more numerous in the Senate
than in the House. but the joint
Conference Committee is expected
to be a rubber stamp for the
labor unions by a comfortable
majority.
What will the Senate do then?
II q majority of the Senators re-
fuse the Conference Committee
report. it will be sent back for
further revision, but the unions
will be negotiating on the basis
of the minimum because they
feel that the Senate will not dare
to reject the conference report
altogether. The unions will argue
that a vote for the conference
report Is a vote for repeal and
that a vote to reject means a
Taft -Hartley-Act Senator.
In those instances where Sen
ators are up for election in
November, 1850, there will be a
tendency to compromise and ac-
cept in the end conference
report favorable to the union
viewpoint. 1t could happen, of
course, that Republican-Demo-
cratic coalition could kill the con-
ference report altogether and
then the labor unions would have
the Taft-Hartley Act on their
hands until the deadlock was
broken.
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..kN