Evening star., 1954-01-02
Union Chiefs Hi
Administration
As'Two-Faced'
AFL-CIO Charge
'Anti-Lubor' Rulings
Made by NLRB
By james Y. Newton

BY james I. Newton
Organized labor is becoming
increasingly angry with the
Eisenhower administration over
what it calls "the anti-labor'
rulings of the National Labor Re-
lations Boards, the agency which
interprets the Taft-Hartley Act.
The charge is made that the
administration is 'two-faced" on
the subject of the labor relations
law.
Union leaders say that while
the White House gives lip serv-
ice" to the idea Of easing Taft
Hartley toward labor, the admin
istration really is Tightening the
law on unions through interpre-
tations of the newly constituted
NLRB.
The first reference was to the
dozen or so amendments to the
law President Eisenhower will
recommend to the new session of
Congress. The latter reference
was to recent rulings of the
Eisenhower NLRB" which over
turned interpretations of Taft
Hartley made by the old ''Tru-
man NLRB" which generally
were more favorable to labor.
Administration Position.
Gen. Eisenhower has described
parts of the law as union bust
ing" and Secretary of Labor
Mitchell, without being specific,
recently pledged the administra-
tion to seek elimination of parts
Of the law which he said were
really harmful to labor"
o.. while administration and
congressional circles" says the
CIO, 'gravely discuss what Taft
Hartley amendments that will be
proposed lin CongreSS). the Ma
tional Labor Relations Board has
been doing a thorough-going job
of sharpening the teeth of the
law"
The board ruling which
brought the loudeSt cries of
anger from the unions was one
of 10 days ago dealing with the
rights of employers and unions
under the so-called free-speech
provision of Taft-Hartley. But
this was preceded by numerous
other rulings and indicators"
by the board which either
changed previous .NLRB policy
or indicated a different view of
the law. and which unions de-
scribe as anti-labor.
One Vacancy.
Gen. Eisenhower has made
two appointments and there is
vacancy on the five-member
board still to be filed. He has
named Chairman Guy Farmer
and Philip Ray Rodgers. There
are two hold-overs from the old
regime, Abe Murdock, former
Democratic Senator from Utah,
and Ivar H. Peterson. a Repub-
lican. Mr.. Murdock has been
the diSSenter.
A CIO official said that in
every instance where the new
board has reversed interpreta-
ton of the far-reaching Taft
Hartley Act. the change has been
against labor.
And the AFL outlined seven
instances where it claimed the
rules Of Taft Hartley have been
changed against unions.
In the free speech" case, the
board reversed earlier policy
which required employers who
use company time and premises
to talk to employees on questions
of union membership in advance
of an NLRB representation elec-
tion to grant the union equal
time to reply.
The new board says employers
no longer have to do that, but it
did bar employers from gathering
employees together to hear argu-
ments against voting for the
union within "a hours of the
election.
"Brain-Washing" Charged.
Unions all along have claimed
the free speech" clause made it
difficult for them to organize en-
ployes. They said that in the new
ruling the NLRB approved of
"brain-washing" of the employees.
In seve1al rulings the new
board has indicated that it will
take jurisdiction over far fewer
cases than the old board did, and
it has overturned rules governing
board Jurisdiction. The new board
now is working on new rules.
For example, the old board
would handle a dispute, regard
less of size, that involved national
defense or a public utility. In
other areas less important to the
public interest. the old boarc
would take a case If the inter-
state business of a firm reached
a certain dollar volume.
The new board has indicated
1t would keep hands of cases
involving small public utilities
and has refused to accept some
other disputes where the amount
of interstate business exceeded
(See LABOR BOARD, Pg. A-3.)
n