Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-06-30
FAMILY MATTER
Jurisdiction Issue
Plaques AFL-CIO

present q unified political front.
This it seems to be doing at the
national level. BY December 5 1t
hopes to be doing this at the State
and municipal level. That's the
date by which the Go Industrial
Councils and the AFL declarations
are supposed to merge at both the
State and municipal levels. It is
expected that the majority Of them
will make the deadline, which is
two years after the merger.
Half Stotes Merged
So far there have been "a State
mergers. AFL-CIO officials say
they expect mergers in Washing
ton State, Texas, Kansas and Mary
land within the next so days.
President Meany has said those
State organizations which haven't
completed merger by August Is
should submit to him detailed
statements explaining specific dis
agreements which have prohibited
consolidation. He then plans to
send out his mediators to speed UP
the mergers.
The new State groups will be
specifically prohibited from at
tempting to solve jurisdictional dis
puteS between various unions. This
doesn't mean, however. that the po-
litical type of merger isn't running
into variety of problems.
One gigantic headache is the set
ting up of a new constitution for
a newly merged State group. OBJ
viously it would not be fair to
adopt either an old ALL or CIO
constitution in toto. A lot Of COM
promising is needed to agree on
one substitute. The constitutional
problem was what held up merger
in Connecticut, which finally ac-
complished merger week before last.
The constitutions are a great
problem, particularly to the South,
where some take different stands
on the racial indignation issue.
While the AFL-CIO has only one
stand on this at the top. State
positions vary a great deal.
Another serious problem of
merger is the selection of new Of
ficers. Very often the mergers
bring together union officers who
have been at swords point for years.
Minor Unions Merge
A recent development is the mer-
ger of several of the minor AFL
and CLIO unions. Such mergers have
occurred or are planned only where
Jurisdictions of the unions overlap
everywhere.
The International Brotherhood
of Paper Makers formerly ALL
and the United Paper Workers
formerly CIO) have merged. Other
unions negotiating include the
Glass Bottle Blowers formerly
ALL and the United Glass and
Ceramic Workers formerly CIO) !;
the Book and Shoe Workers for
merly ALL and the United Shoe
Workers formerly CIO); the Up
holsterers Union formerly ALL
and the Furniture Workers for
merly CIO); the Insurance Agents
formerly ALL and the Insurance
Workers formerly CIO).
I Altogether the AFL-CIO says
about 100000 Of its members are
negotiating mergers. While this is
a lot Of people. it's not many for
an 18-million-member federation,
and the outlook for mergers in
volving really big memberships is
not good.
Chances are very remote, for
instance, that the International
Seafarers. formerly AFL, and the
National Maritime Union, formerly
CLIO, ever will merge. Both unions
claim the same jurisdiction and
have often fought over it.
For unions where jurisdictions do
not overlap everywhere. no-raiding
agreements are the best device the
AFL-CIO has come up with so far.
A majority Of the member unions
have signed these voluntarily. In
essence they promise that when one
union represents certain employees,
another union affiliated with the
AFL-CIO will not try to wean men,
bers away.
Presumably, these agreements
constitute contracts enforceable by
the courts. So far the AFL-CIO
says they are working fairly well.
But they leave unsolved the basic
problem of who shall represent a
given group Of workers in the first
place.