Word: taft-hartley
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...efforts of our affiliates to negotiate guaranteed annual wage agreements"-a pet project of Reuther's. ¶ Demanded that the federal minimum wage, now 75? an hour, be raised to $1.25. Even that, said Reuther, is "not adequate," just a "first step." ¶Called for repeal of the Taft-Hartley act. Earlier, the delegates heard Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell suggest that they "preclude further talk of repeal" and "concentrate on those features of the law which are really dangerous to labor, really loaded, really unfair." Mitchell did not say what unfair features he was talking about...
Another area in which protection under Taft-Hartley is vague is in the protection afforded "neutrals" in labor disputes. Under Section 8 (b) (4) (A), Taft-Hartley forbids a union to strike against an employer if its motive is to pressure the employer from dealing with some other producer. But if this law were to be enforced with its present hazy wording, employees in a plant could be required to continue work for one employer while other union members were striking in the factory of his ally. The law should be so amended that if such an alliance is shown...
Perhaps the greatest single contribution the Taft-Hartley Act should provide, however, is a workable labor policy for time of national emergency. But it is in establishing emergency procedures that some of the gravest weaknesses in the law have appeared. The injunction provision of the bill, invoked twelve times, has been actually successful in only three of them. Often the unpopularity of the injunction with union officials has delayed arbitration when it should have facilitated it. In place of this clumsy, unpopular procedure, Congress should authorize a plan similar to the one recently proposed by economist Sumner Slichter. Such...
These are a few of the broad problems to be met in revising the Taft-Hartley law; the very number of Mr. Durkin's amendments shows that many smaller issues are unsettled. He would, for example, reduce a required 60-day notice-of-contract-termination clause in the act to thirty. But here again, it is not enough to effect these changes without considering the many associated questions. In this instance, the penalty for violating the sixty-day notice requirement is one-sided: stringent on laber, not so harsh on management. While the length of notification is being considered, penalties...
Even with its admitted faults, the Taft-Hartley Act has been successful in practice. Filling a need in labor-management legislation, the act deserves careful study and revision. The cool reception which union members have accorded Eisenhower's cloudy promises should be a warning to the Administration that revisions in the law are essential and should top the agenda when Congress reconvenes...