The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-03-09
AFL Urges Action Quickly
To Bolster Sociul Security

aSnlnglOn LIZA ne ldiiuIS
of Congress to expand the social
security system after wars end
"has created vacuum in this field
which there have been attempts to
fill by other methods, some of them
unsound and ill-advised." So de-
clared AFL President William
Green before the Senate Finance
committee March /.
AFI. affiliates are watching to
see what Congress does about
bringing the social security struc-
ture up to date, Green warned, and
"they cannot be restrained indie
finitely. Many of them are in a
strong position to bargain collec-
lively for plans to meet their own
individual problems" Both Green
and AFL's director of social insur-
ance activities, Nelson Cruikshank,
who followed him, said the AFL
would prefer federal social insur-
ance to that negotiated through
contracts with employers. The lat
ter, he said, cut down on the free
dom of the worker to move from
job to job.
AS the federal social security
structure is made more adequate,
Cruikshank told the Senators, there
will be less pressure by workers
for higher private social security
benefits, since workers would pre-
fer to get the federal benefits that
might be due them as they get into
higher wage brackets. "There are
brakes in plan to which workers
contribute" he added.
Hailing the House-approved So
cial security bill, HR 5000, as "a
constructive measure which we are
glad to support" Green told the
Senators of the improvements the
AFL's convention and executive
council voted it would like to see
made in the Senate version.
Cruikshank spelled them out in
more detail. They included lowering
the age at which a woman worker
could receive the pension from 65
to so, and extension of coverage to
agricultural workers.
In regard to the permanent and
total disability provisions in HR
5000, Cruikshank advised the Sen
ators to disregard the "fears of
what might happen" expressed by
such opponents as the insurance
companies and the American Medi-
cal Assn, and TO look instead at
the practical experience of union
disability plans and the Railroad
Retirement Board.
He read a letter from Chairman
William j. Kennedy of the Railroad
Retirement Board stating that
while there We're problems, 1--WE
have not found these problems in
superabie or even particularly diff
ficult." As for ANA assertions
that there would be Imaginary i'll
nesses" and other forms of mailing
ering, Kennedy wrote, I'VE have
no doubt that few irresponsible
persons here and there occasionally
succeed in Stimulating disability in
order to take advantage of the dis
ability retirement provisions. To
condemn the program for that rea-
son would be like condemning a
barrel of apples because il con-
tained one or two rotten ones"
DR.. Leo Price, director of the
Labor Health Center of the Int'l
Ladies Garment Workers in New
York City, and member of an ANA
committee on medical care for
workers in industry, told Of the re-
tirement program worked out for
his unions members. Rather than
wanting to retire, the vast ma jor-
ity of the older garment workers
want TO stay at work long after
the union doctors think they should
retire, DR.. Price said. IL is possible,
he asserted, from the unions ex-
perienee, to set down clear criteria
for deciding whether a worker is
disabled to the point where he
should retire and collect disability
Insurance. His testimony ran coun-
ter to the claims of ANA spokes-
men the previous day, who had
warned we'd have a nation of neu-