The Case Bill: Debate Elicits Differing Views on Important Labor Legislation
The Case Bill: Debate Elicits Differing Views on Important Labor Legislation mMSrOHSIWlM CRITICISM NO Nil/ Fr.m HI/MM ILFtNBtlN Te I*. Kd'tor: mist IN your editorial comment on Lewii Waldman's...
...How Has Russia Been "Rewarded...
...These prohibitions go further thsn the H-B-B Bill...
...This is nothing new, nor particularly wrong...
...There were no provisions in that declaration of Auguat 18, 1941, for bartering about peoples and territories aa "rewards" for stopping further Soviet expansion...
...The Case bill seeks to create a "Labor-1 Management Mediation Board" whose task is "to assist the parties to adjust and settle the dispute and make agreements for that purpose...
...the independent Baltic republics snd hslf of Poland...
...This is far from "compulsory writing in of terms and con-ditiona in contracts...
...The Case bill merely states in this connection that "The award of the arbitrator . . . shall be binding upon all parties contenting to such arbitration...
...It is hard enough to win sdherents to our cause on bonafide criticism without being hampered by reckless illegitimate fault-finding...
...Thia, however, does not continue forever...
...In fact, the Case bill is worse than the HBB bill, opposed by all organized Isbor and liberal forces...
...As to "the compulsory non-union shop," the Case bill is utterly silent...
...In many industrlee, supervisory employees are members of the same union and are part of the same bargaining unit as the employees they supervise...
...In short, how long can a proposed strike be deferred by requiring mediation prelimnary to the Mediation Board taking the rase...
...Moreover, it has all the earmarks of careless and hasty draftsmanship...
...6—The bill provides that "hereafter -no supervisory employees shall have the status of an 'employe' for tha purposes of Sections 7, 8 and 9 of the National Labor Relations Act" Under the law today, supervisory employees or foremen have a right to form their own unions...
...For good measure, the bill provides a few more penalties than are to be found in the H-B-B Act...
...There is not even a provision that "makes it compulsory for unions to insert certain specified arbitration proposals in their contracts," with which Waldman charges the HBB bill...
...This compulsory duplication of mediation is irrational...
...UNCONSTITUTIONAL...
...As to maintaining the ttatut quo, the Case bill has some obviously undesirable provisions...
...Yet many feel that this is already the law of the land and moreover does not prevent all-union shops...
...Why ie It that Russia is rewarded by the sacrifice of the freedom, property and life of other nations...
...But already this trend has been bgun by unions as in the Ford contract...
...This bill would, with a stroke of the pen, destroy these rights snd these relationships which are of long standing...
...There Is the compulsory non-union shop...
...Here are six examples of the objectionable features of the bill: . 1—Like the H-B-B Bill, it turns the clock of progress back fifteen years, and in effect repeals the Norris-LaGuardia Act, for which labor had fought for over a generation...
...As to the supreme "will of a board . . . which is practically unlimited," nothing in the bill gives it any power extending beyond the thirty days during which it seeks to mediate the dispute...
...Finland, a nation of 3,700,000 inhabitants, has been stripped of a large part of its territory and population...
...Does the plural "procedures" mean the union must resort to all existing mediation agencies first...
...j "Arbitration" means the submission ef a diapute to the decision of privately chosen judges...
...What constitutes an attempt at mediation procedure...
...Furthermore, during that time it may, if it wish, not order the status quo preserved...
...They outlaw many practices in labor relations now legal and recognized...
...Perhaps you were mindful of the provision that would make it unlawful for persons by force or threat to prevent any individual from working...
...There is not a word about an employer using violence and intimidation, but this provision is only a characteristic of the one-sidedness and partiality of this bill...
...And like the other bill, though it freezes the ttatut quo, which is so beneficial to employers, it fsils to provide for the minimum protection to labor, that of making the agreement subsequently entered into retroactive to the date of expiration of the last agreement...
...They have a right to be affiliated with national labor bodies...
...There Vk compulsory maintenance of the tin tut .awe...
...I fail to find in the Case bill as published in the New York Timet any provision for the "compulsory writing in of certain terms and conditions in contracts...
...There is an implicit acquiescence in and> even connivance with the conquests made hitherto, when Churchill calmly states: "There is no reason why Soviet Russia should feel "ill-rewarded" for her efforts In the war...
...Even the so-called Mediation Board could issue injunction orders under this bill...
...It necessitates merely .."available conciliation and mediation procedure," under which the intermediaries simply try to induce the parties to octree with each other...
...It requires that the labor union may call a strike only "after other available conciliation and mediation procedure* have been attempted...
...he seemed not to be as much disturbed by the status quo already created by Soviet Russia as to know where Russia intends to stop...
...Under arbitration, on the other hand, the arbitrators decide for . the partie...
...The annexation Af Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was characterized by the United States Government, in July, HMO, as a predatory action and "contrary to the principlee of reason, justice snd law, which govern the relations between nations...
...Tbe Case Bill Is an anti-labor chop suey rooked up in the spirit of anger, antagonism and anti-labor bias, not ia the spirit of deliberate, well-considered, constructive legislation...
...There is compulsory writing in of certain terms and conditions in con-,,liracts...
...It may be sponsored by reactionaries, it may be harmful to labor, it may even be helpful to capital...
...Churchill put it, but from Tallinn in Eatonia, if not from Peteamo in Finland...
...It has taken on some of the objectionable features of the H-B-B Bill :.nd added some of its own...
...For one thing, the denial of the right to strike under modern industrial conditions ll a nullification of the right secured by the Thirteenth Amendment against involuntary servitude...
...The Atlantic Declaration, of which Churchill ia co-author, aaeerted that Britain and the United States "desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with the freely expressed wishes of the peoples concerned" and that "they Wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them...
...Why then must efforts at mediation be previously made...
...Hitler rewarded Soviet Russia, for her neutrality and friendship, with lands which did not belong to him, viz...
...I Waldmsn's objecitons to the HBB bill were stated by him thus: , "The heart of the bill is compulsion...
...The right to freedom of the Bsltie nations ia just as sacred as the right of Iran, Turkey, Greece, China, Korea—and Great Britain, New York...
...t—An individual who violates the anti-boycott provisions of thia proposed measure would "on and after such violation cease to have, and cease to be entitled to, tha status of an employee for the put poses of Sections 7, S and • of the National Labor Relations Aet----" This denial of status to an individual worker is without time limit Presumably, under this Aet, he would lose it for the rest of his life and thereby be deprived of all rights to collective bargaining...
...There are compulsory forjns for union organization and existence.' Everyone in management-labor relations is subordinated to the will of a board fud its creatures which is practically unlimited by standards or criteria of action, tt ia the antithesis of s free, voluntary .system...
...They have a right to bargain collectively...
...This is a fault, v At any rate It is during this inital period af compulsory mediation (not arbitration) that the etatu* quo muat be-- maintained...
...A Debate on HBB-Bill" in your February 9 issue, 'you state that "The arguments advanced here by Louie Waldman, author of Labor Law'/, against the HBB bill apply - win equal force to the Case bill, which : jjji been accepted by the House...
...But that does not justify panicky denunciation of it on grounds that are entirely false...
...You are wrong If you say "there is compulsory arbitration...
...A mere violation of the boycott restriction would lose for a union its status as s labor organization under the National Labor Relations Act for a period of as long as ate months...
...Under the Case bill It may be ordered preserved by the board only for thirty days after the dispute is presented to it Nevertheless, it is misleading to say (2) "there is compulsory maintainance of the eta tut quo," which makea one infer the period is endless...
...Nothing in it makes the board's decision final or binding...
...There ia compulsory arbitration...
...The iron curtain has descended across tha European continent not from Stettin, aa Mr...
...BADLY DRAFTED Reply by LOUIS WALDMAN THE Cast Bill is a vicious anti-labor measure...
...Likewise "compulsory forms for union organization and existence" are not touched upon by the Case bill...
...It permits the board only to "endeavor to induce the parties to the dispute voluntarily to submit their differences to arbitration...
...And these efforts must precede taking the rase to the Mediation Board...
...From KAAREL ROBERT FUST A ¦ To the Kditor: Winston churchill, co-author of the Moscow, Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam agreements, erstwhile sponsor of 'Tito in Yugoslavia and promoter of the ipresent status in Poland, has voiced "anxiety about the further expansion of Soviet Russia...
...It emasculates the National Labor Relations Act as far as labor is concerned, piling up penalty upon penalty upon the workers and their labor unions...
...The Federal Government, under the Constitution, may not invade the rights of the states to deal with the purely domestic questions of violence...
...How long must it last to be a genuine effort...
...If her I oases have been grievous . . . her "gains" have also been magnificent...
...Russia bravely fought back when attacked by Germany in 1941...
...This Case bill, however, does provide that "All collective-bargaining contracts shall be mutually and equally binding and enforceable" and "In the event of a breach may be maintained...
...The bill also requires the Mediation Board itself to mediate...
...In 1944 the Baltic States, which had endured three years of German occupation and Gestapo rule, were again invaded by Russia and subjected to a regime of terror...
...Assuming therefore that eevrything that Waldman says of the Hatch-Burton-Ball bill ia correct about it, it is apparent that none of it is true of the Case bill...
...This of course is a hope, though not a probability, in any large-scale or serious situation...
...Churchill...
...And it is difficult to understand why three Baltic States should lose their freedom so that Russia can be rewarded...
...However, speaking of the s "reign of world law and International foundations of enduring peace...
...The Case bill does not require this...
...BILL IS ANTI-LABOR...
...2—Like the H-B-B Bill, the Case Bill sets up penalties for the use of violence and intimidation in connection with labor relations, but those penalties run only one way—against labor...
...Perhaps the 10,000,000 Poles now incorporated into Russis by the "Curson Line" settlement, feel much less happy than Mr...
...The Carson Line, I am glad to say, is no longer in question...
...Kd'tor: mist IN your editorial comment on Lewii Waldman's article, "Compulsory Arbitration Or Collective Bargaining...
...8- Like the H-B-B Bill, the Cass measure prohibits strikes during a prescribed so-called "cooling off" period...
...4—The proposed Case law prohibits the "boycott, and so forth...
...But it is slso a fact that Soviet Ruesia broke her solemn peace treaties of 1920, the non aggression pacta of 1939, and the mutual assistance pacts of 1939, by invading the Baltic States snd Poland, and by attacking Finland, long before the German-Russian war started...
...In addition to being a badly drawn bill, the Case measure is of doubtful constitutionality...
...Aa international union might forfeit Ita rights to represent its momsOTi in collective bargaining everywhere because of a secondary boycott against a single employer anywhere...
...For another thing, the attempt by Federal legislation to deal with t be general subject of violence is of doubtful constitutional validity...
...If the Case Bill becomes law, the evil of the labor injunction will be brought back on the scene with all its injustice and its inequality before the law as far as labor is concerned...
...In the west the Hsltic Stales and a large part of Finland have been reincorporated in Rusaie...
...It is not Besides, it is unlikely that the requirement for preliminary mediation will protract the period of negotiations and prevent or obstruct a strike, for the unions will merely submit their disputes to the outside mediators so much earlier...
...Moreover, nothing in the bill prevents the union from seeking the offices of several sets of mediators at the same time...
...The Baltic nations did not cause the wsr nor have they been enemies ef Russia...
...And it is the irony of ironies that the Republicans and the Southern Democrats in the House should unite on s bill which would have the Federal Government invade the purely domestic affairs of the states to deal with the suppression of crime or the protection of the citizens of the state against violence...
...Whether it has the dubious honor of measuring up in all respects in ita evil effect to the HBB Bill, is besides the point...
...It prescribes penalties for violations of these prohibitions so sweeping snd gen-eneral as to be shocking in their implications...
Vol. 29 • March 1946 • No. 12
