Evening star., 1953-02-09

A total of 20 amendments
to the act will be demanded
Toft's Suggestions to Amend Labor Aei
Criticized by Cl0. Poee As
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when AFL President George
Meany testifies before the House
and Senate Labor Committees
The House committee will start
hearings tomorrow on amend
ment of the labor law.
Specific amendments to Taft
Hartley demanded by the AFI
probably will not be announced
formally in advance of Mr..
Meany's testimony. but it was
learned they will be far more
sweeping than anything proposed
to Congress to date.
Senator Taft, Republican, of
Ohio, has introduced a bill pro-
posing Is changes in the law, of
which he is co-author. But nearly
all of these changes are re-
garded by AFL leaders as either
insignificant or unfavorable to
labor. They described Senator
Taft'S proposal to increase men,
bership Of the national labor re-
lations board from five to seven,
for example, as an effort to
pack the NLRB administrator
of Taft Hartley against organ
lied labor"
Changes To Be Sought.
The major changes to be
sought by the AFL would:
l. Legalize the closed shop in
the printing, construction and
maritime trades. The closed
shop. outlawed by Taft-Hartley,
means that an employer can
hire only union members.
2. Legalize secondary boycotts
when one union refuses to handle
goods made by a company where
it's employees are engaged in q
legal strike. Under the law a
union refusing to handle So
called "struck" work can be the
subject of a court injunction.
3. Removal of the provision
for 80-day court injunctions in
so-called national emergency
disputes and strikes where 9
work stoppage threatens to i'm.
pair the Nations health and
welfare.
The AFL presently plans tc
offer no substitute for handling
emergency disputes. Its position
Is that the AFL unions would
not permit a strike to continue
if it really endangered the pub
lie welfare.
4. Strike from Taft-Hartley
the requirement of union Of
f1cials to sign non-Communist
af1idavits before they can dea.
with the NLRB, or union repre-
sentation elections, and the
filing charges of unfair practices
against employers.
Procedure Called Nonsense"
Senator Taft would amend
that part of the law to require
non Communist oaths of EN-.
ployers as well as unions. The
AFL regards the whole procedure
as nonsense" and feels it would
be simply stupid" in the words
of one official, to extend the
affidavit requirement to en-
ployers.
The AFL position is that any
problem of communist infiltra-
ton should be and can be han
died by its individual unions OF
by the federation itself.
The whole matter of Taft.
Hartley amendments will be
presented to the AFL executive
council late today by a special
committee. It is almost certain
the council will approve the COM
mittee'S report.
AFL legislative representatives
in Washington will be given
some f1exibility for bargaining
with members Of Congress on
Taft-Hartley changes. In other
words, the 20-point amendment
program worked out here will
be q guide-post for the AFL's
formal dealing with Congress.
Earlier the AFL announced
a nationwide drive to tie wages
to worker productivity. The
basis Of the drive is that the
pay Of workers should be in
creased annually to reflect the
increased efficiency Of men and
machines in a given plant.
Railroad labor. for example,
already is seeking yearly in
crease of six cents an hour to
Offset estimated operating ell
cheney Of the railroads.
The AFL said wages currently
are not keeping pace with the
output Of workers based on the
average output per inan-hour,
Most or all Of this has been due
(Con AET, Dare A.SN