Evening star., 1949-03-13


The repeater bill in all proba-
bility will not reach the Senate
floor until some time in April. And
after it has been taken up for con-
| siGeration a great deal of time
viii be required for the considera-
ton of amendments which will be
proposed by Senator Taft and
other supporters of the Taft
Hartley Act. Particularly is this
true since the proposal of these
amendments in committee was cut
off by an unusual ruling of Chair
man Thomas. Whether the House
will not wait on Senate action on
the new labor bill has become a
question. The House Labor Com
mittee has begun its hearings on
the repeater bill and should finish
them in comparatively short
time.
Compromise Being Sought
But even in the House, it is now
reported, members have caught
their second wind, following the
Truman victory and the election
of a Democratic Congress last No
vember. They are more and more
questioning the Truman assertion
that he and Congress received a
mandate in that election to wipe
the Taft-Hartley Act completely
of the statute books. Many of
them have come to the conclusion
that while organized labor had a
considerable part in that Demo-
cratic victory, it was by no means
the only factor or even the most
important.
The closed-shop ban. one of the
chief targets of organized labor,
will die hard if it dies at all. In
the first place, the feeling that it
is all wrong to compel a man or
woman to join a labor union to get
a job (Which involves the right
to work for a living) is still strong
as it was when the ban on the
closed shop was placed in the ex-
isting law. 1t has been recognized
by some of the Taft-Hartley law
supporters, however, that closed
shop hard-and-fast ban has run
into conditions which have existed
over long period of years, as in
the printing trade, the building
trades and the shipping industry
So strenuous efforts are under way
to write some kind of a ccmpro-
mise, or substitute, which will at
tack the evils of the closed shop
and at the same time recognize
the conditions which have existed
in certain trades for so long. Ad-
mittedly it is a tough problem and
so far its promoters have met with
small success. Unless, however,
some acceptable compromise is
reached, those who are demanding
the ban on the closed shop be
lifted may be in for a rude awak-
ening.
Stand on Closed Shop
The Taft-Hartley Act set up
Joint committee, composed OF
seven members of the Senate
Labor Committee and seven men,
bers of the House Labor Commit
/ tee. to study the operation of the
labor law and to make any recon-
mendations for changes in the law
that appear advisable. The joint
committee, after a study of nearly
year and a half operation OF
the law made a report to Con-
gress last December, proposing
about a dozen changes in the law.
Some of them relaxed provisions
of the law and others strength
ened provisions. 1t is noticeable
that the joint committee, instead
of relaxing the ban on the closed
shop, proposed to strengthen 1t.
The committees recommendation
was to make it an unfair labor
practice for a union to force an
employer to violate the act, for
example, by striking to compel a
closed-shop agreement. The ad-
ministration and the labor leaders.
in their demands for repeal Of the
Taft Hartley Act. have completely
ignored the recommendations OF
this Joint committee. although 1t
has made the only official study
of the effect of the Taft-Hartley
Act.
Another recommendation of the
Joint committee, the elimination
of the required badloting by en-
ployes on the union-shop issue, Is
one of the relaxing amendments
proposed and will be accepted by
the supporters of the law. So
is a proposed amendment allow
ing unions 120 days after the end
of the year in which to file finan-
cial reports. Still other amend
ments proposed by the committee
would make unions responsible
for loss of pay of employees which
is due to unfair labor practices
by the union, just as. an employer
is require to make up pay lost
by reason of his unfair labor prac-
tices. For example, a man who
wanted to work during a strike
and was kept from working by
mass picket line could look to the
union for his pay for the time lost.
Undoubtedly the amendments
to the law proposed by the Joint
committee will have their day in
court when the repeater bill is
before the Senate-and some of
them may be accepted.