Jackson advocate., 1962-02-10
Work Backers
Seen Out To
Destroy Unions

IulSa, Okla. - AFL-ClO As
sociate Gen. Counsel Thomas E,
Harris charged here that spon-
sors Of a so-called "right-to-
work constitutional amendment
in Oklahoma are out "to de-
stroy unions and collective bar
gaining" as part of a "total
war" on the labor movement.
It's not just a "minor skir-
mish',' he warned the Oklaho-
ma State AFL-CIO convention.
"You must win it," he said.
Harris told the delegates that
it is surely not a coincidence"
that employers who are behind
the "work" campaign are those
who are unwilling to deal with
unions at ALL"
He noted that employers "who
recognize unions, and who ex-
cept to keep on recognizing
them, show little interest in
'right-to-work' agitation"
The AFL-CIO attorney said
the choice of Oklahoma as the
next major battle-ground for
"right-to-work" was made by
"the professional war mongers
of the class war;" by people
who, in order "to collect money
and make a living for them
selves" are willing and in fact
eager to "show discord between
capital and labor at time when
national unity was never more
needed"
The concern" supporter of
"work" laws avow for the free
dom of workers, Harris said, is
"barefaced hypocrisy"
"Did you ever hear of anyone
who believed in keeping wages
down who believed in unions ?"
he asked. "Union exist to fight
for high wages.
Believes in Weak Union
"Did you ever hear of anyone
who believed in unions, but in
weak unions? People who be-
lieve in unions at all want
strong unions"
Granting that many people
who vote for "right-to-work"
laws are "sincere and decent"
Harris probed into their reasons
for supporting such laws. He
said:
81 think that one main reason
is that they are nostalgia for a
simpler form of society, where
people are not so dependent on
each other, and on government,
as they are these days. Many
people look back to an earlier
day when, supposedly at least,
farmers owned their own small
farms and marketed their own
crops, and a shoemaker made
shoes and sold them to his
neighbors.
"Some of the people who
cherish this atavistic vision of
the good life are probably them
selves farmers who vote for
government acreage controls,
receive federal payments, and
market their crops through
farm cooperatives, which en-
joy special exemption from the
antitrust laws"
Harris noted that whether
fortunately or unfortunately"
their concept of society does not
cover "the realities of life in
an industrial society in goth
Century America"
Industrialization, he observed
"will continue at an increasing
pace, and huge corporations will
grow huger."
Alternatives Spelled Out
The alternatives, he said, "are
between giving the managers of
these great enterprises the right
unilaterally to decide what they
will pay, who they will lay off,
whether they will grant pen
sions, ETC., and according a
voice in these decisions to work.
ers acting together in union"
Surely" he emphasized, "the
latter alternative is the more
democratic, and the one which
preserves to workers the great
est degree of individual free
DOM"
Harris pointed out it is often
"very difficult to prove" that
an employer is discriminating
against union members or form
er union members in his hiring
policies. In the absence of a
union security provision, he not