What’s Really Wrong With The T-H Act (Continued Frew Pift 1) . tively new in the telephone in dustry, and the telephone unions do not have the strength of some of our other great labor organi zations. In their negotiations they are confronted by the world’s largest monopoly — the world’s richest corporation. The Beir Telephone System, of course, is a great and wonderful industrial and financial creation. A11.,Americans (an well be proud of its achievements. The man agement of the Bell System con sists of splendid gentlemen and fine citizens. In some respcets they have been most progressive in their personnel policy. As long ago as 191S the Bell com panies established fc" pension sys tem for all their employes: All of the employes, -from the presi dent of the A. T. A T. to the new operator, are governed in their pension rights by the same pro visions. The same formula is used to compute the annual pen sion of $96,000 which goes to the past president of A. T. & T. and the $100 a month less social se curity benefits, which goes to the lowest paid employes. Throughout the fall of 1949 all of the telephone unions were ne gotiating with this respective managements, demanding in creases in minimum pensions. The management uniformly denied the necessity for any increase. Then suddenly, in November, 1949, without negotiating with the unions, without conferring with them about it, without even intimating a willingness to agree upon an increase, the Bell Sys tem from top to bottom, from ■ the greatest to the smallest com- i pany, unilaterally increased the pensions. Now, it so happens that the Labor Board and the courts have frequently said that a unilateral increase in pensions is an unfair' labor practice. Consequently, practically all of the unions, af filiated and unaffiliated, filed un fair labor practice charges. All of these unions are right wing, anti-Communist unions, AH of them have effective constitu tional means of expelling Com miunists from their ranks. None of them has ever been accused of having the slightest tinge of pink. And yet this is wint hap pened under the Taft-Hartley Act: The late general counsel de cided that in order for a union to be in compliance, every officer in each bargaining unit must, on ''"’the day of the alleged unfair la bor practices have on file a non Communist affidavit. The unions have testified that this kind of unanimous compliance is. at least in the telephone industry, physi cally impossible. An election in some local is held almost every day in the year. Sometimes a lineman is fifty miles from home when he is elected president. The act of compliance is a tedious exercise in cutting through red tape. TO i%sult was, that In evary single bargaining unit which had filed an unfair labor practice, the general counsel was able to ftnd some officer not in compliance on the date when the unilateral in crease in pensions occurred. It was either a local or a division or a regional or an international officer who had not yet found tithe to file his affidavit, and the general counsel ordered each and every unfair labor charge dis missed. and they were so dis missed. This seems to me a gross per version of legislation designed to curb communism. Here Is a sec tion of an act which was intend ed to discourage communism, which is twisted oy technicalities to frustrate completely the ef forts of anti-Communist unions to assert their rights under the very same act. This is just bne example out of many. Their rec ords of our sub-committee are full of such examples and they emphatically point up the fact that organised labor is crippled and strait-jacketed by the act of legislative hypocrisy known as the Taft-Hartley Act Our investigations into specif ic cases will continue. Moreover, t think it is vitally necessary to take a careful look at|the ad ministration of the act, not only by the gbneral counsel’s offic< but also by the Board. For soiw time I have been concerned about some of the policies the Board has been following- which do not seem to be required by the lan guage of the Taft-Hartl- y Law but which neverthless, appear to be having a harmful effect on the collective bargaining process and the enforcement of the Taft Hartley Act. A few weeks ago I told tho delegates at the I. T. U. conven* tion in Washington that the sub committee should “find out why Denham and the Board refus* to discuss the question of volun tary compliance with the I. T. U. when at the same time the Board works out with employers settle | ments short' of the court decree ! stage—even in the case of em | ployers who in the past have , been found guilty of repeated violations of the law.” “We've heard a lot about the ' mutuality” of the Taft-Hartley 'law” I said. “I think it would be a good thing to check on whether there is mutuality in the enforcement of orders issued under it.” There are other aspects to this problem of even-handed enforce ment of the law which I am con vinced our Labor-Management Subcommittee should look into The Board itself is ultimately re sponsible for seeking proper en forcement of its orders, and it is disturbing to me to receive re ports from responsible sources that cast doubt on the Board’s impartiality and fairness in this respect. We ought to inquire into the matter and either ex pose any injustice or dissipate the suspicion if it is unfounded. * • * I am confident the great patriotic record that Amreican labor made in World Wars I and II will be repeated, with even greater glory to itself, for the duration of the crisis which now confronts us. Organised labor in our country is one of the great citadels of democratic processes. It is one of the grent strengths of self-government. It is chal lengd today to place the national interest above its immediate sel fish interests, and the proceedings of this great conventh n are clear proof that American labor will meet that challenge again, as it always has, when the national Hterest has called for a united front in defense of the democrat ic way o life. I have said these things not to please you, not to offend you, btfl from a deep-seated conviction that they need to be said. I have said them not to ask you to agree with me. because I nev er ask for agreement. I ask only that my fellow citizens think with me about the great prob lems that confront the Congress and the duties that rest upon the men who are elected to carry out our system of representative gov ernment. I intend to go forward with the political experiment which I have been carrying on the ex periment as to whether or .not in the Republican Party survive, jppd egefowi independence of judgment on the merits of issues in accordance with the facts as he finds them. ATOM AND TV EXPLAINED PITTSBURGH. (ATLA8) — The strange mysteries of atomic energy, jet propulsion, televisior that a 12-year old can understand and what not is all explained sc in a comic book just relei Westinghouse Electiic the cartooned the 16-page publication entitled, “How Does It Work’ v as prepared by the Weating house school service department for use as a teaching aid in jun ior at.d senior high schools. JOIN "“MARCH Of DIMES Green Calb For i Aid In Polio Drive • • William Green, president of the American Federation of La bor today urged the organisa tion's multi-million members to support the 1951 March of Dimes in January and declared ^hat"'the American public cannot afford to relax its vigil against the dread ful toll, of this disease.’* In a message to Basil O'Con nor, president of the National Foundation for Infantile Paraly sis, Mr. Green asserted that the membership of the AFL is keen ly aware of the havoc wrought by the 1950 polio epidemic.sec ond wont in the nation’s history. “We appreciate the excellent services at the Labor Service Di vision and the local chapters of the National Foundation," he wrote. “Our members and their families stricken with polio are the chief beneficiaries of your program." In his appeal to AFL com ponents, Mr. Green referred to the recent announcement by Mr. O’Connor that tlje 1981 March of Dimes must raise at least $50,-, 000,000 to meet the current stag gering costs of polio patient care —the result of three consecutive, years of record-breaking polio' eepidemlcs. During these three years, Mr. Green recalled, more than 100,000 Declare fear independence by knw4tiw TiulanaM^dAM buying umpenoMr* jhhhu. Don't rank* a bonilr* out of your «o* ju«t to aeaia away a ayookl 6 \ .. DIMES JANUARY 11*11 FPtDEMKNO EDUCATION ttSEAfiCH RALEIGH - DURHAM SMIJHFIELD H6GLY WI66LY STORES "FOR BETTER FOODS" Now- a*painle$$* wajjfcr^oo-fasave money! V S» $4,999—cash—in your name! Doesn’t that sound wonderful? You can have It, juat ae surely as you’re reading this page, if youetart this simple 3-*tep plan and stick with it. 1. Deckle today to pvt saving Art#—before you even •each year pay. 2. Decide to save lydometfcoiy—a definite small sum deducted every week. 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