Labor's Spring Cleaning

...Subsequently, we may expect a report by the Ethical Practices Committee that certain specific areas of the union are dominated by corrupt influences...

...Faced b\ these gloom) prospects, on what basis can we hope that in this historic clash of principles morality will triumph...

...The Distillery Workers have bounced Sol Cilento, also Secretary-Treasurer, and with some difficulty were able to secure his removal from the leadership of his native local in New York...

...The plea was "ignorance...

...Just this: that business tycoons in the labor business will find themselves increasingly on the defensive in the months ahead...

...Perhaps more important, expulsion of a corrupt union, in and of itself, is no solution to the canker of corruption...

...Meany, when asked if the unions had been told what to do, replied curtly: "They know...

...Instead, they were given 90 more days in which to reform themselves...

...The action of the Council, therefore, in applying its enunciated principles to the Teamsters took a fair share of courage...

...Pointing to AFL-CIO President George Meany and Auto Workers chief Walter Reuther, Petrillo announced with mock solemnity: "They get the publicity, but we vote...

...his chief rival, are both in jail and Beck thoroughly discredited, a shadow cabinet of stooges is ahead) waiting to take over...

...The practical lesson is clear...

...Only reluctantly, however, did the union refuse his request to remain as general organizer...

...For one thing, the average truck driver cares more if his pay envelope is full than if Beck's...

...3) In the House, all but two Republicans joined 38 (mostly Southern) Democrats to defeat Congressman Patinan's proposal to investigate the "tight money" policy...

...Whether, in practical terms, the campaign will prove successful depends on careful planning and a slice of luck...

...Otherwise, its place as a dynamic force in American life is doomed...

...In these 70 minutes, the AFL-CIO defined itself as a closely-knit union of unions in which one rotten apple was as important as the entire barrel...

...Frank Brewster's and Hoffa s are overflowing...

...Twice before in recent years, unions which were ostracized for good and sufficient cause have emerged in a firmer position than ever before...

...Beck will run for office on the votes of paid union functionaries acting as delegates to the convention: he will not risk a nationwide referendum of the membership...

...The reasons are persuasive...

...The AFL-CIO Executive Council, unanimously and without even an informal expression of dissent, decided to: • File charges against Teamster boss Dave Beck as a Vice President of the AFL-CIO and a member of the Council for "bringing the labor movement into disrepute...

...There seems even now to be very little realization of the atrociously wrongful conduct and practices requiring voluntary correction by the union itself...

...Some union leaders might even have to go hack In work...

...cannot enter a factory and finished products cannot leave: food supplies cannot enter a hotel or restaurant and retail-store merchandise cannot be delivered...

...Most important of all, however, is the hope that labor can find its way back to the practical vigor and blind honesty that nourished its once-spectacular growth...

...Direct the Ethical Practices Committee to investigate the 1.4-million-member truck drivers' empire for signs it was "substantially dominated or controlled by corrupt influences...

...The McClellan Committee hearings will continue till at least the end of this year...

...Only five Republicans joined Fulbright...

...The Administration opposes a Congressional inquiry...

...The union is virtually essential in conducting many successful strikes by other unions...

...Today, both unions are solidly entrenched, and, in fact, the East's International Longshoremen's Association received valuable support from the West during its election battle last year with the AFL-CIO-sponsored rival...

...At the very outset, Meany had declared that although "there may be some legal question whether he [Beck] is in contempt of the Senate committee, there can be no question that he has been in complete and utter contempt of this Executive Council and every member of it...

...In 1949, the CIO cut loose Harry Bridges's West Coast longshoremen, and four years later the AFL did the same to its East Coast counterpart...

...With Teamster aid, raw materials Meanwhile, back at the oil well Congressional vigilance in exposing profiteering in labor has not been matched in regard to big business...

...It was, however, in coming to grips with the Teamsters—the richest, largest union in the country—that the AFL-CIO finally put the capstone on its new structural principle of unity: No union is big enough to defy the federation...

...One of the chief obstacles to unity was the fear of the former AFL unions that their traditional sovereignty over the central body on internal matters would be impaired...

...Eugene "Jesse" James, Secretary-Treasurer of the Laundry Workers, was permitted to resign from his post but still controls a Chicago local of the union in which he was installed some years ago with the aid of Jimmy Hoffa, flashing meteor of the Teamsters Union...

...On a single day (March 27), the following events took place: (1) The Senate defeated Senator Fulbright's proposal to give small business lax relief by graduating the corporate tax-scale...

...The explanation of innocent ignorance and of being the good-faith victims of deception cannot be accepted...

...Suspend Beck, pending a hearing that he would be "requested" to attend May 20...

...The action was further bolstered in January when the Council met again in Miami Beach and gave the trio until May 20 to clean up or face ouster...

...The CIO, with its strong emphasis on centralization in dealing with corruption and other issues, was pressing for the same approach during the unity negotiations...

...Yet, in spite of the overwhelming evidence of "know nothing, do nothing" on the part of the accused, they were not expelled when the Council met the next time in January of this year...

...The offensive against the Allied Industrial, Distillery and Laundry Workers illustrates the federation's strategy...

...Seventy minutes later, they voted —and dramatically altered the course of the American labor movement...

...according to the Seattle Times, looks like a shoo-in barring a rank-and-file revolt or a split in the top leadership...

...Without the alliance of the trucking union, strike activity and new organizing drives can be sorely hampered...

...Indeed, the first move in this direction was taken last August when the Council ordered an investigation into three other internationals—the Allied Industrial, Distillery and Laundry Workers unions—for evidence of corruption...

...AFL-CIO Moves Against Beck Labor's Spring Cleaning By Mitchel Levitas Labor correspondent, N. Y. "Post" Washington Photographers were perched on chairs and reporters were scurrying in pursuit of their duties when the voice of Jimmy Petrillo, wit, showman and President of the Musicians Union, boomed them to a temporary halt: "Hey, you guys," he called...

...It is wiser to try to bring about the expulsion of corrupt leaders, thereby salvaging the union membership, than to hastily excommunicate the entire union, membership and all...

...2) Senators Douglas and Williams could not even get a rollcall on proposals to reduce the notorious oil "depletion allowance" (and gain SI.5 billion in new taxes), though they could quote even the late Robert Taft against the allowance...

...For the Teamsters represent more than just 10 per cent of the membership of the AFL-CIO or 10 per cent of its revenue...

...The former possibility, despite spotty reactions of disgust from some locals throughout the country, appears slim...

...Within the Teamsters Union itself...

...As for a split in the Teamster presidium, that, too, may wind up as illusion...

...Their defense was not calculated to win sympathy...

...So far in the three-month grace period, the Allied Industrial Workers have received the resignation of Secretary-Treasurer Anthony Doria, a prime target of the Ethical Practices Committee...

...In contrast to the ILA situation, therefore, the long-expected clash between the Teamsters and the AFL-CIO will be considerably attenuated by a wait-and-conquer strategy in the hope that added time will give reform elements a chance to assert themselves...

...A Committee comment on the attitude of the Laundry Workers was typical: "The Committee must conclude that there is no real understanding on the part of this union of the spirit of ethical union practices...

...As the nation's mass media focused on the Beck probe, social policy continued to be quietly controlled by the Republican-Dixiecrat coalition...

...Chiseling employers, partners in corruption with racket unions, may yet awaken to the protests of consumers who pay the price for every "fix...

...Come over here...

...Whether the attempts by these unions to purge themselves will be pleasing enough to the antiseptic eye of the AFL-CIO will be decided May 20...

...In any case, the December convention of the AFL-CIO will provide a convenient pause for reflection...

...E\en if Brewster and Hoffa...

...Beck has ahead) announced his intention to stand for re-election and...

...Southern paladins Johnson, Russell and Byrd opposed him...

...The AIW more recently withdrew the charters of five locals in the New York City area which were licensed by Johnny Dio in the days when that patron of labor was the union's regional director...

...The AFL-CIO has just begun its spring housecleaning...

...In September, the union meets in Miami Beach for its quinquennial convention...

...In 1955, the Arabian-American Oil Company, with earnings of $724 million, paid not a cent of Federal taxes...

...For Meany to shift quickly toward the CIO position would have immediately stiffened the backs of his former AFL colleagues and made any change toward centralization immeasurably more difficult...

...That policy, says Patinan, provides record profits for banks while hurting small farmers and businessmen, home-builders and school boards and failing to curb inflation...

...The union will get its day in court May 20 in Washington...

...Nine months after unity, the Council took its first step, ordering an investigation and a hearing by the Ethical Practices Committee...

...They're over 21...

...In recording their agreement, the leaders of the merged federation conceded once and for all that the old-line principle of autonomy which prevailed in the AFL had to be junked...

...James was accused by the Douglas Committee of "embezzling" a cool million dollars...

...In December, all three unions had separate hearings at which they sought to defend themselves...

...Furthermore...

...The first disclosures of widespread boodling in the health and welfare funds of these unions were made he-fore the Douglas Committee in 1955...

...At that time, it may decide to comply with the demands of the AFL-CIO, or it may issue its own walking-papers and secede from the federation...

...Call a conference of secretary-treasurers and their accountants of the AFL-CIO's 140 affiliates to blueprint a model system for recording union financial receipts and disbursements...

...The hearing will have the "judicial atmosphere," including the right to cross-examination, that Beck complained was absent from the McClellan Committee...

...If the Council's decision is to expel, that ruling must be endorsed by a vote of the federation's second convention, which begins in Miami Beach December 5. Why did the AFL-CIO move so cautiously along the road to reform...