Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-02-20
Ives Bill Asks
End Of SO-Day
Writs
Toft Objects to
Dropping Cool OFF
Period in Strikes
By J. A. O'Leorv

New York today introduced a bill
to repeal one of the basic fea-
lures of the Taft Hartley law
the 80-day injunction which
provides a cool-off period in ma
tional emergency strikes.
Senator Taft, Republican, of
Ohio promptly announced he is
not in favor of changing the ma
tional emergency provisions Of
his law at this time.
Senator Ives proposed as a
new approach that the President
be required to submit each big
emergency strike to Congress for
separate action if all mediation
efforts fail to prev AneM ,aAkout.
MY position has been that,
while the present law may not
be perfect, we better wait and
see how it works under the new
administration" Senator Taft
said.
G. o. p. Ranks Split.
The new Ives bill served to
point up division in Repub-
lican ranks over the extent to
which the new administration
should go in rewriting the Taft
Hartley law to make it more
acceptable to labor.
During the recent campaign,
President Eisenhower promised
revision of the labor laws to
make them fair to labor and
management alike, but opposed
outright repeal as advocated by
the Democrats.
One or two of the changes
the administration favors are
included in series of amend.
ments already filed by Senator
Taft. One would apply the anti
Communist oath requirement to
management as well as labor. It
was not certain today what the
attitude of the administration
would be toward the Ives pro-
poSal. Ee
Much of organized labor's OPP
position to Taft Hartley has
been directed at the use Of the
injunction power. Former Pres
ident Truman used the emer-
| gency injunction remedy on q
number Of occasions. although
he always denounced the Taft
Hartley law and advocated the
enactment of a brand-new labor
| relations act.
Truman Seized Mills.
In the last big emergency
strike in the steel mills last year,
however, the former President
bypassed the injunction pro-
visions of the Taft-Hartley law
and seized the mills claiming
inherent powers. The courts up
set the Presidents action.
Senator Ives said his proposal
would avoid the injunction as
well as seizure or compulsory
arbitration, unless Congress
should authorize one of these
steps in any particular instance.
Under the Ives bill, the Presi-
dent would still proclaim a ma
tional emergency" when any in
dustry is threatened with a work
stoppage that would endanger
national health and safety. II
this declaration failed to bring
the parties together through coll
lective bargaining, the President
would be obliged to bring the
dispute to the attention of Con-
gress. If Congress was not in
session, he would be required to
convene it Immediately for this
purpose.
Views Plan as Effective.
Senator Ives believes his plan
would be more effective because
he thinks labor organizations
would be likely to hesitate" be-
fore striking on a Nation wide
scale when they considered that
the whole matter would go be-
fore Congress Immediately.
Although this proposal con-
tains no certain guarantee by
which to prevent a work stop
page" Senator Ives said, lit al
most surely would prevent undue
interference by Government,
either in the activities of labor
organizations and workers,
through the injunction. or in the
operation of industry. through
seizure, or in the fields of both
labor and management. through
compulsory arbitration"
He believes it would bring a
better feeling between manage
ment and labor.
The Taft amendments already
introduced affect less important
provisions than are covered by
the Ives bill. The Ives proposal
would reduce the pressure on the
President if a big strike was
threatened, because he would be
required only to pass it on to
Congress.