TAFT-HARTLEY LAW FAILS TO PUT COAL SUPPLY ABOVE 'DANGER' LINE
STOUT, JONATHAN
Taft-Hartley Law Fails to Put Coal Supply Above 'Danger' Line Truman Board Places Blame For Crisis on Mine Operators By JONATHAN STOUT NEw Leader Washington Correspondent WASHINGTON. D....
...He appeared before the committees as a representative of Iowa truckers...
...But Spangler denies he ever signed the contract...
...Spangler has long been Republican National Committeeman from Iowa, and recently served on the Republican Policy Committee that drafted the party's statement of principles...
...The union's reply to this position was that it was willing to bargain with the operators on all issues, and that the whole contract was wide open for discussion—but at the collective bargaining table, and not in advance, and that nothing would be barred from being placed on the bargaining table...
...Again the President's board gives us the answer: "On December 3, 1949, the United Mine Workers/announced that a contract had been signed with a number of coal companies . . . providing for increases in basic wage rates of 95 cents per day and of 15 cents per ton in the contributions to the welfare fund...
...D. C. BARRING A LIGHTNING CHANGE in the coal situation in the few days between the writing and the publication of this dispatch, there is today—on the publication of this issue of The New Leader—an 8-day supply in the nation's coal bin...
...The President's board answers this question as follows: "The Southern Wage Conference met for a total of 44 days and was terminated by the operators on Nov...
...But what has the public gotten...
...The nation, therefore, is 22 days below the approximate danger point...
...Who Initiated the conflict in coal...
...They got that a week ago...
...The U. S. Bureau of Mines generally considers anything less than an average 3Q«days supply as "near the danger point to the national economy and welfare...
...Since that date the United Mine Workers . . . now states that a total of 1,860 companies with 41,000,000 tons annual production axe under this contract" So, this is how it sums up: Relying on the coercive powers of the Taft-Hartley Act, the coal operators...
...They got that two weeks ago...
...Today there is only a one-week supply...
...WHO IS RESPONSIBLE for the breaking-off of negotiations...
...The union apparently took the view that close collaboration existed among all the coal producers...
...A week ago, when a Federal court in Washington handed down an injunction ordering the coal miners back into the pits, there was a two-weeks supply of coal above ground...
...The lobby committee has in its possession the draft of a contract between Spangler and the truckers under which he and his law firm would receive 10 par cent of any money recovered from the government on behalf of the companies...
...The President's board lays the blame on the Southern Coal Producers' Association...
...When, in 1949, the coal ^operators decided to change their minds about the terms of the contract they had agreed to twice before, In 1947 and 194S, they insisted that the mine workers agree before any negotiations even began—to wipe out of existence certain portions of the 1947 and 1948 contracts, and to agree beforehand that those portions are not even subject to further collective bargaining...
...He is regarded as one of the leaders of the "Old Guard" in the party...
...And exactly how much does that come to...
...The lobby law provides penalties for lobbying, without registering, up to $5,000 fine and a year in jail...
...Ividence* gathered by the lobby cowmittee indicates Spangler was lobbying without registering...
...The President's Board of Inquiry, although prevented by the TaftHartley law from indicating its opinion through any recommendation, made the truth amply clear in its report...
...If the union would agree to this, the coal operators indicated they would then be willing to sit down at the collective bargaining table and discuss the issues of wages and welfare funds...
...The contract called for the employment of Spangler'* "services, legaland otherwise," in "furthering of the adoption" of the legislation...
...The negotiations which followed on February 1 and February 2, 1990, broke down without any effective bargaining as the parties debated 'conditions precedent*to bargaining.' The operators withdrew" What were these "conditions precedent to bargaining...
...How did the nation arrive at this position...
...in turn, makes clear how the nation arrived at the position it finds itself in today...
...Nevertheless, there is today an 8-day supply of coal above ground . . . and tomorrow there will be a 7-day supply...
...9) Refused to bargain collectively unless the union retreated from Its position before even getting to the bargaining tablei and (4) were apparently quite eager to Jeopardise the welfare of the public and the economy of the nation to avoid bargaining over a 95-centa-day raise and a lS-cent-a-ton increase in me welfare fund...
...He admitted helping prepare briefs, and committee records show he testified before House and Senate Com-" miftees on the legislation...
...Under the proposed contract Spangler was to pay for "entertainment" and other expenses...
...The President's board lays it right on the line, in these words: The significant fact which emerged from this inquiry is that this is basically a dispute, at the present stage, over the wage and welfare fund contribution issues...
...They insisted that the President invoke the Taft-Hartley Law...
...The companies are claiming this much in profits realized when the- government was operating their companies after a strike during the war...
...1) Initialed the conflict...
...THE PRESIDENTS BOARD reports explicitly on this point, saying: "The last bargaining conference, on February 2, 1950, had ended upon the withdrawal of Northern operators when the union moved this resolution: " The mine workers move that we proceed to negotiate a contract and that in the negotiations all matters before the conference are subjects for consideration and negotiation and are not to be considered as conditions precedent to agreement,"' That, of course, makes clear who, refused to bargain . . . and that...
...UNDER THE LAW this does not necessarily constitute lobbying, but in his .testimony before the House Committee, Spangler told of helping prepare legislation which was finally approved by Congress...
...THE MINE OWNERS, within the past 10 days, got the two things they have been demanding...
...Behind the tactical maneuvering* of the negotiators is fundamentally an issue of dollars and cents...
...2. Whether coal (real stuff that you can burn in a furnace) can be realistically produced by the stroke of a judge's pen, or even by the pen of Congress...
...The third time up, however, the coal operators wanted to change the rules...
...Everything that third-party intervention by the public and the Govern, ment, and everything that the law can do...
...In short, the coal operators demanded that the union give up certain advantageous portions of the old contracts without any further discussion . . . to give up its position without any bargaining...
...The coal producers, therefore, had agreed to the terms of the contract twice before...
...GOP Ex-Chairman 'Illegal' Lobbyist WASHINGTON (LPA) THE HOUSE Lobby Investigating Committee has uncovered evidence that Harrison Spangler, for-mer charman of the Republican Nail Committee, helped enact legislain,the Republican 80th Congress for big trucking and motor carrier firms but w&s not registered as a lobbyist...
...The Iowan was chairman of the National Republican Committee from IMS to 1944, and has continued to be a power in the party sine...
...2)* Broke off the negotiations...
...The board says the coal contract currently in controversy is substantially the same one which both parties agreed to in 1847, and which, with modifications, they agreed to again in IMS...
...And they got them by law...
...And what was all this fast and phony footwork all about...
...Spangier, questioned at his home in Iowa, denied he was "acting in the capacity of a lobbyist" for the motor carriers...
...Subsequent events confirmed that view when the Northern coal operators and the captive mines owned by the steel corporations took the identical position of the southern producers...
...This hard fact necessitates a re-examination of two fundamental and critical questions: 1. Whether the kind of genuine collective bargaining that produces real working agreements .between two parties'is possible of achievement when one of the parties comes to the bargaining table armed with the gun of a coercive law (Taft-Hartley Act), and depends upon the gun in its pocket to intimidate the other party into agreement...
...Spangler's is the first big name to be dragged into the House lobby inquiry, which has had a corps of investigators working for several months...
...The Northern Conference met for a total of 27 days of sessions prior to Oct...
...21, 1949, when these negotiations were terminated by the operators...
...2, 1949...
...On the face of it, giving the mine owners what they want has cost the public another week's supply of coal, with further losses imminent...
...On April 21, 1949,',' the President's board reports, "the Southern Cool Producers' Association gave the union notice of termination effective at the expiration of the agreement on J one "80, 1649" And the union retaliated by serving the same notice en the rest of the industry, expecting thereby to exert pressure on the southern producers to get back into line with the rest of the industry...
...has so far been done...
...They demanded a court injunction to order the coal miners to dig coal...
...They were resumed in February 1900...
...Spangler helped draft and put through Congress legislation under which midwest trucking firms can prosecute claims against the government for about S20,000,000...
Vol. 33 • February 1950 • No. 7
