Evening star., 1949-01-30

The Administrator yesterday
submitted its labor legislative
proposals asking Congress to
scrap the Taft-Hartley Act, drop
Federal court anti-strike in
functions and give the blessings
of Federal law to the closed shop.
Secretary of Labor Tobin sent the
bill to the Capitol and he will tes-
tify on it tomorrow at the start Of
hearings before the Senate Labor
Committee.
Besides scrapping the Taft-Hart-
ley law enacted by the Republican,
controlled 80th Congress in 1947,
the measure would restore, with the
Improvements" President Trumap
wants, the old Wagner Act which
governed or-managment rela-
tions from 1885 until superseded by
Taft Hartley. The Wagner Act
places no restriction on unions and
the improvements" would add lit
tie in that respect.
Probably the most important new
feature of the measure worked out
at the White House is the ma
chinery for dealing with so-called
national emergency disputes-ones
where work stoppages might imperil
the national health and safety. A
soft coal strike is a good example
of the type.
Voluntary Plan Proposed.
Taft-Hartley provides the Pfesi-
dent with authority to halt such a
major strike for 80 days through
the use of court injunctions. The
administration would drop that
method and set up a voluntary plan
with 30-day cooling of period.
Fact-finding boards would be given
25 days in which to investigate the
dispute and make recommendations
for settlement. The cooling off pc
riod would extend five days beyond
the 2Sdays provided for completion
of the boards report.
There is provided. however. no
means of enforcing the plan which
will rely for it's effectiveness on
moral force" In some quarters.
1t is held that the President could
protect the Nation from effects of
a disastrous strike by use of his
constitutional powers. The Presi-
dent might be able to call for Gov
ernment operation of such strike
bound facilities.
Other Amendments Sought.
Other suggested amendments to
the Wagner Act are:
l. A ban on jurisdictional strikes
-stoppages arising from disputes
between two unions as to which
should do certain work. The Ma
tional Relations Board is authorized
to appoint an arbitrator for such
disputes. The NLRB would enforce
the arbitrators settlement recon-
mendations through its regular
channels in the courts.
2. A prohibition against boycotts
by unions in furtherance of juris-
dictional strikes by making them
unfair labor practices. This amend
ment places mo restrictions on other
types of boycotts, except that such
procedure may not be used in an
effort to force an employer to violate
an NLRB ruling.
3. A provision stating that is is
the policy of the Government for
disputes arising from Interpretation
of existing contracts to be settled
by arbitration. The. bill does not
call for compulsory arbitration in
such cases.
Closed Shop Assured.
4. A provision wiping out State
laws banning the closed shop-as
far as interstate commerce is con-
cerned. The bill draft states moth
ing in "any State law" shall pre-
vent an employer from agreeing to
require membership in a union as
a condition of employment. A
number of States now prohibit such
agreements.
S. The size Of NLRB would re-
main at five members, as provided
by Taft-Hartley, instead of three
members as the Wagner Act carried.
Organized labor fought hard to
keep provision for use of injunc-
tions out of the administration pro-
posal and succeeded largely. A
union conceivably could be subject
to injunctions for refusing to fol-
low procedure in the handling of
Jurisdictional disputes, but only
then after NLRB had found it
guilty.
The Governments strike settling
(See LABOR, Page A-40