The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-01-13
AFL Establishes
Permanent Fedora
Legislative Group

s11 W
Washington (LPA) = The AFL
last week set up it's permanent
Natl Legislative Council, as call
ed for in a 1948 convention resolu-
ton.
More than 70 legislative repre-
sentatives of AFL unions Joined
President William Green, Secre-
ary-Treasurer George Meany and
the AFL's legislative staff for the
councils inaugural meeting. They
will come together the third Tues
day of each month that Congress
is in session, beginning Jan. Is, to
insure complete coordination of all
AFL national legislative work.
As clearing house" for SER
vices and information between
council meetings a seven-man adj
ministrative committee was chosen.
It's members are: AFL Legislative
Committee Chairman William j.
flushing, who will act as the ad-
ministrative groups head, Pres
ident Richard Gray of the Building
& Construction Trades Dept, Tom
Walters, administrative officer of
the Govt Employees Council, Pres
ident George Lynch of the Pattern
makers League of North America,
President John Haggerty of the
Int'l Brotherhood of Bookbinders,
A. f. Lyon, executive secretary of
the Railway Labor Executives
Assn, and Fred Tobin, Legislative
representative of the Int'l Broth
erhood of Teamsters.
In discussing the council meet
ing, President Green pointed out
that while the AFL has held legis-
lative conferences at the opening
of previous sessions of Congress,
this is the first time that a continu-
ing body coordinating all AFL eff
forts on Capitol Hill has been in
existence.
First item on the council S
agenda is repeal of the Taft-Hart-
ley law, Green said. The AF'L is on
record, he declared, for the prompt
repeal of the vicious anti-union
statute and the reenactment of the
Wagner labor relations act.
The 1948 convention, Green re-
minded reporters, authorizes dis
cussion of amendments to that act,
but, he insisted, that they must
wait enactment until the Wagner
act is restored. He said that if it's
all attempted in zone package" as
few congressman have proposed,
he fears that labor will lose in the
"bickering and trading" of votes
that would go on between pro-
t f t-Hartley congressman and
those who are committed to its re-
peal.
At it's Jan. 81 meeting the AFL
executive council will consider
just what amendments to the Wag-
ner act are acceptable to the AFL,
Green said. He remarked that he
thought there would be little OBJ
lection to requiring non-Commun-
ist affdavits and financial state
ments from unions using Wagner
act facilities if these same require
ments applied to employers.
The AFL is willing to consider,
also, it's president declared, amend
ments to the Wagner act insuring
free speech for employers, so long
as it is plain that they cannot
threaten or coerce their workers.
While anxious to find some solution
to the problem of national emer-
gency strikes" Green said, the
AFL is "adamant and uncompro-
in its opposition to the use
of injunctions in labor management
disputes.
President Green also emphasized
that any ban on the secondary boy
colt that might ultimately be writ
ten into law, once Taft Hartley's |
out of the way, must clearly dis
tinguish between primary and Sec
ondary boycotts, which Taft Hart
ley does not.