Evening star., 1949-01-31
AH Council Prepared
To Act on Formation
Of World Labor Group
BY Jones Y. Newton
Stes StoH Correspondent

MIAMI, Jan. 81. - American
Federation of Labor leaders be-
gan. their annual meeting here
today amid expressions of gen.
eral satisfaction with the admin
istration's new labor bill and the
prediction of far more significant
action-that the AFL will indorse
a move to join the Congress of
Industrial Organizations and
British labor in creating q new
world labor organization.
Individual members of the AFL
Executive Council praised the bill
which the Democrats hope to SUBJ
stitute for the Taft-Hartley Act,
despite the fact that organized
labor's approach to new legislation
was not followed.
However, official action on the bill
was postponed pending arrival Of
Vice President George M. Harrison,
a leader in the fight for Taft
Hartley repeal.
Endorsement Predicted.
The AFL, and CIO too, favored
repeal and restoration of the OLD
Wagner Act before Congress con-
siders amendments to the Wagner
Act. The administration chose to
do it all in one step. Leniency of
the amendments to the Wagner law
proposed in the new bill tended to
cause the labor leaders to forget the
precedural arguments.
Action on q plan to cooperate
with the CIO and the British Trade
Union Congress in setting up new
world labor federation will come
before the council. An official pre-
dicted the AFL will indorse the idea.
If that is done, it will mark the
first time the federation has agreed
to work with the CIO on anything
since beginning Of Americas major
labor split nearly IA years ago.
Split Over WFTU.
The C1O and British labor re-
Gently split with the World FEEDER
alton of Trade Unions over the
issue of Communist domination of
the WFTU, which includes Russian
labor and representatives Of the
satellite countries. The AFL stead
fastly refused to join the WFTU for
that reason.
Positive action here on the idea
Of another world group would go
long way toward making the or
ganization a reality.
1t could have even greater sigm-
ficance. since new discussions of
CIO-AFL unity are likely to be held
soon.
While satisfaction with the new
labor bill as whole seemed gen.
eral, there was fear that the less
stringent ways of handling juris-
dictional strikes, If enacted into law,
will bring fresh outbreak of the
stoppages which plagued the con-
struction industry for many wears.
A year ago. the AFL Building
Trades Unions and the Nations con-
tractors worked out a plan for
settling jurisdictional disputes
within the family" and without
serious strikes. The plan has worked
well. However. its success has de-
pended largely on the injunction
club" in the Taft-Hartley Act.
Since the plan went into effect |
May l. 1t has been unnecessary for
the National Labor Relations Board
to obtain a single injunction against
a strike arising from arguments be-
tween unions as to which should
handle certain construction tasks.
But even some Of the labor people
admit the record would not have
been so good If the law had not
provided for use of injunctions if
needed. Under Taft Hartley, a
court back-to-work order can be
obtained Immediately at the start
Of strike.
Long Delays Seen.
The new bill provides for court
enforcement action, but only after
dispute has gone through a long
arbitration process which probably
would take months. Meanwhile, a
strike could go on, and the union
which started 1t probably would
have won victory long before the
case reached the courts.
Indicating what probably would
happen, there is repeatedly a sizable
increase in number of jurisdictional
strikes since election day, the unions
apparently feeling that a Truman
victory assured them OF Taft
Hartley repeal.
But the union leaders feel differ
ent about it. Last Friday, day be-
fore the administration labor bill
was made public, the Executive
Committee of the building trades
unions voted overwhelmingly to
continue their dispute-settling plan.
The only dissent came from William
L. Hutcheson. president of the
carpenters, union which over the
years has been involved In many
such disputes.
The first action of the AFL
Executive Council will be on hous-
ing legislation. 1t was expected to
call for a larger program of Gov
ernment-subsidized housing that is
provided in either the old Taft
Ellender-Wagner Bill or the ad-
ministrations new bill, The AFL
will say that because OF high costs,
families earning from $4,000 to
$4,000 need nearly as much govern
ment assistance in getting decent
housing as do those in the very low
income group.
Staying OF Duke Student