CHARLOTTE "
LABOR JOURNAL
VOL. XVII; NO. 28
CHARLOTTE, N. C., THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1948
Subscription $2.00 Per Year
COUNCIL STATEMENT PLEDGES RENEWED DRIVE
TO REPEAL LAW, DEFEAT REACTIONARY SPON
SORS; WARNS ON CLAIMS FOR LAW’S SUCCESS.
“When present collective bar
gaining contracts expire,’* the
council said, “the most difficult
period in the history of labor re
lations in this conntry threatens
to ensue.”
rging the labor movement to
redouble its efforts to fight
against the forces of reaction and
ward off further efforts to curb
union activities, the council de
clared: '
“We know that if the forces
of reaction, are returned to power
next November, they will, pro
ceed at once to renew their war
against labor by enacting a ban
against nation-wide collective bar
gaining, by outlawing all health
and welfare funds for workers
and by making unions subject to
anti-trust prosecutions.
“We know that labor cannot live
and endure the Taft-Hartley Act
and that the basic policy of its
sponsors ig to stifle progress in
A We* full text of the council
statement follows:
“The sponsors of the Taft
Hartley Act are preparing to ac
claim it as a success next month*
when it becomes 6 months old.
Seeking to escape the political
consequences of their actions, they
are hoping to make the Amer
ican people believe that the Taft
Hartley Act has reduced strikes
and improved labor-management
relations.
“The workers of this country
will not be misled by such statis
tical illusions. They know that
the comparative lull in strikes
during the past few months has
been caused by the signing of
new contracts last August which
in many industries postponed the
evil eectl of the Taft-Hartley Act
fot'a year or more.' r
“In fact, America is now ex
periencing a lull before the storm.
When present collective bargain
ing contracts expire, the most dif
ficult period in the history of la
bor relations in this country
threatens to ensue.
“The signs are unmistaaaoie.
Perhaps the most dramatic in
stance to date has been the ex
perience of the International
Typographical nion in attempting
to negotiate new contrasts with
publishers during recent weeks.
Testimony * before the National
Labor Relations Board by both
union and employer represent
atives is in complete agreement
on the fact that the present
rupture etf amicable and co-op
erative labor-management rela
tions in this country is due en
tirely to the harsh provisions of
the Taft-Hartley Act. If there
were no such law, both side could
have agreed on new contracts long
ago, as they have, for many, many
years.
“Instead, we find a government
agency—the National Labor Re
lations Board — prosecuting this
stable, progressive and public
spirited trade union because the
law makes it well-night impossible
for the union to obtain the tra
ditional type of security which
it must have for the protection
of its members.
“Government prosecutions of the
legitimate activities of unions now
threatens to break out into a
rash all ovei* the nation. Already
injunction suits have been filed
against several organizations and
employers, in some instances, have
taken advantage of the new law's
provisions to file damage suitts
against unions.
“How anyone can expect to
function and industrial produc
tion to proceed smoothly when
labor-management relations are
tied up with legal red tape is
beyond reason and common sense.
“The Executive Council feels
constrained to point out these un
pleasant facts because the ene
mies of labor are determined to
attempt to remove the Taft-Hart
ley Act as an issue of the 1948
elections.
“Organized labor will never let
the professional politicians gee
away with that.
“‘We know that if the forces
of reaction are returned to power
next November, they will proceed
at once to renew their war
against labor by enacting a ban
against nation-wide collective bar
gaining, by outlawing all health
and welfare funds for workers
and by making unions subject to
anti-trust prosecutions.
“We know that labor cannot
live and endure under the Taft
Hartley Act and that the basic
policy of its sponsors is to stifle
progress in America.
“Therefore, the Executive Coun
cil of the American Federation of
Labor hereby reemphasises its de
termination to carry on the fight
against the Taft-Hartley Act un
til it is repealed and to campaign
against the sponsors and sup
porters until they are defeated.
With the support of all Amer
ican workers and their friends,
we are confident that these goals
can be achieved in’ the 1948 elec
tions and that our government
will receive an unmistakable man
date to go forward to greater
progress and not backward to
reaction and oppression.”
AFL AIR LINE PILOTS
SIGN NEW AGREEMENT
New York City. — The AFL’*
Air Line Pilots Association and
United Air Lines signed a new
contract governing pay and work
ing conditions for the company’s
1,000 pilots.
The contract provides that a
senior officer dying 80 hours a
month, half day, half night, in
a DC-3 will receive $909, and if
flying a DC-6 in overwater opera
tions will receive $1,266 a month.
The rate for the same officer on
a DC-6 run in the United States
will be $1,186.
Taft-Hartley Law Exposed!
By J. ALBERT WOLLJ and HERBERT S. THATCHER
(Members of the law firm of Padway, Woll, Thatcher, tilenn and
Wilson, serving as general counsel for the American
Federation of Labor)
This is the eighth of a series of articles to be published by the
AFL Weekly News Service in refutation of an article appearing
in the Saturday Evening Post which praised the Taft-Hartley
law to the skies. Author of the Post article was J. Mack Swi
gert, law partner of Senator Robert A. Taft—enough said:
NO. 8—THE “SO-CALLED 14 PRIVILEGES” OF THE
TAFT-HARTLEY LAW—(Continued)
13. “Escape From Forced Political Contributions”
The thirteenth “privilege” which
has descended upon workers un
der the Taft-Hartley Act is the
privilege of not being able to
use the funds of their union, even
though they so desire, for the
purpose of disseminating informa
tion regarding the voting records
and qualifications of federal polit
ical candidates.
The framers of the Taft-Hart
ley Act, not content with revers
ing the philosophy underlying the
Wagner Act* have attempted to
perpetuate their new order by
making it difficult, if not impos
sible, for organized labor to seek
to defeat them at the polls and
to install in their places legisla
tors equipped with better under
sanding of the nature of our
economy. The act makes it un
lawful for labor unions to make
any “expenditure” on behalf of
or against any political candi
date, and the sponsor of this pro
vision explained that it was in
tended to muzzle the union press,
in so far as it was used to seek
the election of labor’s friends and
the defeat of its enemies.
While it is true that corpora
tions are also prohibited from
making political expenditures,
there are no such restrictions
upon political expenditures by era
ployer associations such as local
or national chambers of commerce,
the National Association of Man
' ufacturers, Liberty Leagues, etc.
j Further, it is one thing to pro
hibit a corporation operating for
| private profit from making a
political expenditure, and another
to deny such privilege to labor
organizations which are non
profit voluntary associations of
working people, one of whose
prime purposes, unlike corpora
tions, is the securing of legisla
tion beneficial to the working
people of this country.
Organized labor was prmarily I
responsible for such constructive
legislation as child labor laws,
minimum and maximum hour
laws, workmen’s compensation
acts, social security laws and the
like.' While individuals are per
mitted to make political expen
ditures under the act, it is obvious
that employers are able to utilize
this privilege much more effec
tively than Individual workers
whose income i8 greatly more
limited than the income of corpo
rate officers. It is only through
small joint contributions of many
individual employes associated to
gether in a small organization
that the rights of the individuals
to make contributions can. have
any practical meaning.
Total Industrial Production
Drops; Goods Output Rises
Washington, D. C. — Industrial
production failed to maintain the
post-war record level attained in
November and declined slightly
during December, the Federal Re
serve Board reported.
In another section of its report,
the board said that department
stores sales for the last three
months of 1947 were 9 per cent
greater than for the correspond
ing period in 1946, but that for
the first half of January store
sales '‘showed somewhat more
than the usual seasonal decline.’1
Output of the nation’s factories
and mines was listed on its pro
duction index at 91 per cent above
the 1935-39 average in ecember
again 92 per cent in November
and 90 in October.
Despite the general decline, ac
tivity in durable goods industries
continued to advance in Decem
ber to a new post-war peak. The
board said these factors played
an important part:
1. Iron and steel production
reached the highest rate of the
year in December and continued
to increase in the first haft of
January.
2. Assembly of passenger cars
increased further* in December
and production for the year was
about 3,600,000 cars compared
with 2,200,000 in 1946 and 3,800,
000 in 1941. Output of trucks in
1947 wa» the highest on' record.
3. Production of freight cars
in December reached 9,800 units
“which virtually met the goal es
tablished for the industry last
spring."
Gains in durable goods were
offset, the board said, by a “slight
decline" in nondurable goods out*
put “largely because holiday in
fluences reduced production in a
few lines such as cotton textiles
and paperboard.”
Morse Says
Dice Loaded
By Labor Law
Washington, D. C. — Senator
Wayne L. Morse of Oregon, in an
article appearing in “Everybody's
Digest,” a widely read monthly
magazine, declared the Taft-Hart
ley law “loads the dice against
our working people,” and called
for its repeal.
Senator Morse’s presentation of
labor’s viewpoint stands out like
a shining iight in a maze of
articles widely publicized by lead
ing magazines in which so-called
impartial authors over-exerted
themselves to show the many
“blessings” accorded labor by the
Taft-Hartley law.
The Oregon Senator started his
article by pointing out that
throughout the long history of the
labor movement in this country
every demand; made by the na
tion’s workers has met with con
sistent and often violent opposi
tion.’*
“Then after each gain had been
won historians and people gen
erally looked back and agreed that
labor’s so-called 'demands* were
just and necessary,’’ he said.
“G® back as far as you like,
the story is, always the same.
Even labor’s long fight for free
education was bitterly denounced.
As for the right to organize and
bargain collectively, there is still
a powerful minority of labor
hating employers who want no
part of it. Unfortunately their
attitude is reflected in sections of
the Taft-Hartley Act.”
" Mrny members of Congress who
voted for the act, Morse said,
are now admitting it has danger
ous provisions which “must bo
changed.” tie called that **a
rather sorry confession” from
“supposedly responsible legisla
tors.”
The only real way to amend
ttfe act now “would be to repeal
it." Morse insisted. He charged
that the bill “was designed not
only to curb certain abuses but
to weaken labor’s position at the
bargaining table.”
“It weights the economic scales
against millions of Americana
who depend on wages and salaries
for their livelihood,” he stressed.
Then Morse listed some of the
“more glaring imperfections” in
the law.
“It invites a return to gov*
eminent by injunction,” ha said.
“Every effort to achieve col*
lective bargaining, every strike
can be met and defeated by de
structive lawsuits in the courts. *
“There are so many grounds
for litigation under this act, that
hostile employers can keep a
union treasury bankrupt. Add
the inevitable delays that legal
procedures involve and you have
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