VIII-a. (Source: U.S. Congress, Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. In National Emergency Disputes Act (82d Cong., 2d sess., S. Rept. No. 2073)) A BILL TO AMEND THE LABOR MANAGEMENT RELA- JULY 2 (legislative day, JUNE 27), 1952.-Ordered to be printed UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1952 CONTENTS Page A policy for national emergency disputes.. 1. The nature of emergency disputes.. 2. The method of S. 2999; a comparison with Taft-Hartley provisions. 82D CONGRESS 2d Session SENATE { REPORT No. 2073 NATIONAL EMERGENCY LABOR DISPUTES ACT JULY 2 (legislative day, JUNE 27), 1952.—Ordered to be printed Mr. HUMPHREY, from the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany S. 2999] The Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, to whom was referred the bill (S. 2999), to amend the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, as amended, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with amendments, and recommends that the bill, as reported, do pass. PURPOSE OF THE BILL This bill is designed to provide the Government with a comprehensive and flexible plan for averting stoppages of work and operations resulting from labor disputes which may shut off supplies or services essential to the national security and for contributing to their settlement. This bill would supplement not supplant the present provisions of title II of the Labor Management Relations Act. As reported, this bill is the outgrowth of extensive hearings in which testimony was sought and procured from outstanding Government, labor, and business leaders and others with rich experience in industrial relations. Four separate and comprehensive revisions of the bill were made before the committee was satisfied that it was ready for reporting. It provides for (1) The issuance of a Presidential proclamation when a labor dispute threatens to create a national emergency; (2) Recommendations by the President for continuance of production and settlement of the dispute; (3) Emergency boards to hear the disputants and recommend terms of settlement; (4) Seizure by Executive order subject to congressional veto by concurrent resolution within 10 days of a seizure order; 1 (5) Termination of seizure within 60 days of an order unless continued by concurrent resolution; (6) Changes in wages, hours, and working conditions during seizure within the limits of recommendations of the emergency board; (7) No change in union security that exceeds maintenance-ofmembership without consent of parties during Government operation; (S) Continued production during Government operation; (9) Just compensation to owners of enterprises of which possession is taken; and (10) A compensation board to determine just compensation for which some standards are prescribed; its award would be appealable to the Court of Claims. It should be emphasized at this point that this enumeration does not set forth a static procedure or time table. As more fully described under "Analysis of the bill," the various provisions can be used singly or in conjunction with variations in timing as the particular occasion demands. A POLICY FOR NATIONAL EMERGENCY DISPUTES Under the Wagner Act the keystone of national labor policy was the encouragement of collective bargaining. The process of collective bargaining serves to substitute the exchange of ideas and propositions for outright contests of economic strength over inflexible alternatives. The presentation of grievances, ideas, and arguments by both unions and managements helps create an area of understanding. Within the area of remaining disagreement, trading and partial concessions, agreements to reopen questions and the like have made possible contracts acceptable to the parties. An integral part of the collective bargaining process is the right to disagree. In the normal case, cach side has an ultimate sanction to enforce its will or to exact concessions. For labor, it is the right to strike. For management, it is the right to refuse improvements, to insist upon the status quo until agreement is reached." Labor and management alike have endorsed these principles and the Wagner Act embodied them. These factors are the purported basic principles of the Labor Management Relations Act of 1947, which states, in part: Experience has proved that protection by law of the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively safeguards commerce from injury, impairment, or interruption, and promotes the flow of commerce by removing certain recognized sources of industrial strife and unrest, by encouraging practices fundamental to the friendly adjustment of industrial disputes arising out of differences as to wages, hours, or other working conditions, and by restoring equality of bargaining power between employers and employees. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States to climinate the causes of certain substantial obstructions to the free flow of commerce and to mitigate and eliminate these obstructions when they have occurred by encouraging the practice and procedure of collective bargaining In the normal situation, labor disputes and the right to strike fulfill a healthy purpose. They lead to agreements upon terins which the The employer has the additional right to hire permanent replacements for economie strikers. |