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APRIL 11, 1947.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. HARTLEY, from the Committee on Education and Labor, submitted the following

REPORT

To accompany H. R 3020]

The Committee on Education and Labor, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 3020) to prescribe fair and equitable rules of conduct to be observed by labor and management in their relations with one another which affect commerce, to protect the rights of individual workers in their relations with labor organizations whose activities affect commerce, to recognize the paramount public interest in labor disputes. affecting commerce that endanger the public health, safety, or welfare, and for other purposes, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with amendments and recommends that the bill as so amended do pass.

The amendments are as follows:

Page 4, line 20, before "labor dispute", insert "current".

Page 5, in paragraph (5) before "dealing", strike out "or" and insert "of".

Page 9, line 20, strike out "Procedures and practices relating to”.
Page 11, line 7, after "who", insert "by the nature of his duties".
Page 15, line 15, strike out "$15,000" and insert "$12,000".
Page 16, line 24, strike out "$15,000" and insert "$12,000".

Page 19, before the period at the end of section 7 (a), insert the following:

and shall also have the right to refrain from any or all of such activities: Provided, That nothing herein shall preclude an employer from making and carrying out an agreement with a labor organization as authorized in section 8 (d) (4).

Page 21, in subsection (b), strike out "thereof" where it first appears and insert "of a representative".

Page 22, strike out “2 (ii)" and insert in lieu thereof "2 (11)".

Page 24, after "the overthrow of the United States Government by force", insert "or by any illegal or unconstitutional methods".

Page 25, after "to direct or call a strike", insert "or make any request to the Administrator under section 2 (11) for a strike ballot."; and in the same paragraph strike out "strike" where it appears the second time and insert in lieu thereof "action".

Page 25, at the beginning of subsection (d), strike out "The" and insert in lieu thereof "Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, the".

Page 29, strike out "(c)" at the beginning of the subsection designated "(c)" and insert in lieu thereof "(e)".

Page 33, in the phrase "that believe in or teaches" strike out "believe and insert in lieu thereof "believes".

Page 33, after "United States Government by force". insert "or by any illegal or unconstitutional methods".

Page 42, in the phrase "certification complained of was entered and the findings and order on certification of the Board", strike out "on" and insert "or".

Page 44. in the phrase "at any designated place or hearing" strike out "or" and insert in lieu thereof "of".

Page 46, strike out the paragraph designated as paragraph (6). Page 49, after subsection (e), insert a new section reading as follows:

"SEC. 13. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to invalidate any State law or constitutional provision which restricts the right of an employer to make agreements with labor organizations requiring as a condition of employment membership in such labor organization, and all such agreements, insofar as they purport to impose such requirements contrary to the provisions of the law or constitution of any State, are hereby divested of their character as a subject of regulation by Congress under its power to regulate commerce among the several States and with foreign nations, to the extent that such agreements shall, in addition to being subject to any applicable preventive provisions of this Act, be subject to the operation and effect of such State laws and constitutional provisions as well.

Page 50, renumber sections 13 and 14 as sections 14 and 15, respectively.

In section 201 (c) strike out ", and utilize the facilities and personnel of such agencies when adequate and when available without cost".

In section 204 (a) strike out "United States Conciliation Service of the Department of Labor" and insert in lieu thereof "Director of Conciliation".

In section 204 (b) strike out "National Labor Relations Board" wherever appearing therein and insert in lieu thereof "Administrator of the National Labor Relations Act".

In section. 204 (c) strike out "Secretary of Labor" and insert in lieu thereof "Director of Conciliation".

After the first sentence in section 204 (c) insert a new sentence reading as follows:

If for any reason the Chief Justice is unable to serve he shall appoint another Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to act in his place and stead.

In section 204 (d) strike out "National Labor Relations Board" and insert in lieu thereof "Administrator of the National Labor Relations Act".

After section 205 insert a new section reading as follows:

SEC. 206. Until the transfer of functions under section 201 (e) becomes effective, the functions of the Director of Conciliation under section 204 shall be

performed by the Secretary of Labor. Until the Administrator of the National Labor Relations Act first appointed qualifies and takes office, his functions under section 204 shall be perforined by the National Labor Relations Board.

In section 303 (a) strike out "thirty" wherever appearing therein and insert in lieu thereof "sixty", and before "every labor organization" insert "the principal officers of".

In section 303 (a) (2), before "the name and address of the organization" insert "a detailed financial report including a balance sheet and ar operating statement and showing".

At the end of section 303 (a) insert a new sentence reading as follows:

In the case of a report required under this section prior to the expiration of one year from the date of the enactment of this Act, if any of the required information is not available an answer "no information" shall be sufficient.

In section 304 strike out "1935" and insert in lieu thereof "1925". The committee's recommendation stems from an exhaustive investigation made by the committee of the causes and effects of industrial strife. In the hearings before the committee, extending over a period of more than 6 weeks, 137 witnesses appeared. They came from all parts of the country, from many walks of life, and represented all points of view.

The committee acknowledges the vast amount of work done on the subject by the many Members of Congress, who prepared and introduced bills for consideration by the committee. They, as well as countless private citizens by correspondence with members of the committee, have made contributions of inestimable value to the formulation of the bill herewith reported.

The committee also had the benefit of the studies of committees of previous Congresses-and particularly that of the Special Committee To Investigate the National Labor Relations Board, created in the Seventy-sixth Congress, many of whose recommendations are included in the bill herewith reported.

NECESSITY FOR LEGISLATION

During the last few years, the effects of industrial strife have at times brought our country to the brink of general economic paralysis. Employees have suffered, employers have suffered-and above all the public has suffered.

The enactment of comprehensive legislation to define clearly the legitimate rights of employers and employees in their industrial relations, in keeping with the protection of the paramount public interest, is imperative.

The bill herewith reported does just that. It prescribes the rights of all parties having a stake in harmonious industrial relations, and requires that each party respect the rights of the others.

The committee believes that the enactment of the bill will have the effect of bringing widespread industrial strife to an end, and that employers and employees will once again go forward together as a team united to achieve for their mutual benefit and for the welfare of the Nation the highest standard of living yet known in the history of the world.

During the 6 years preceding the enactment of the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, the United States had an average of 753

strikes a year, involving an average of 297,000 workers; during the next 6 years 2,541 strikes per year involving an average of 1,181,000 workers; and during the next 5 years-that is, through 1944-3,514 · strikes a year involving an average of 1,508,000 workers.

In 1945 approximately 38,000,000 man-days of labor were lost as a result of strikes. And that total was trebled in 1946, when there were 116,000,000 man-days lost and the number of strikes hit a new high of 4,985. The resulting loss in national wealth is staggering.

The above figures do not take into account the man-days lost as a result of the indirect effects of these strikes.

In the face of this record there are few who would have the temerity to assert that labor relations in the United States are today satisfactory. The American people, and their representatives of both parties in Congress, are insistent that some means be found by legislation to reverse this alarming trend and to bring about industrial peace.

In approaching the problem of general labor legislation, the committee was impressed by the absolute necessity of steering a course which would recognize the rights of all interested parties in labor relations and which would be scrupulously fair to each-the employer, the employees, and the public. While the right of the public must, in the last analysis, be treated as paramount, it was the belief of the committee, that, except in extraordinary. circumstances, the right of the public will be adequately protected if in turn adequate protection is afforded to employers and employees in the exercise of their legitimate rights.

Accordingly the bill herewith reported has been formulated as a bill of rights both for American workingmen and for their employers. For the last 14 years, as a result of labor laws ill-conceived and disastrously executed, the American workingman has been deprived of his dignity as an individual. He has been cajoled, coerced, intimidated, and on many occasions beaten up, in the name of the splendid aims set forth in section 1 of the National Labor Relations Act. His whole economic life has been subject to the complete dominatior. and control of unregulated monopolists. He has on many occasions had to pay them tribute to get a job. He has been forced into labor organizations against his will. At other times when he has desired to join a particular labor organization he has been prevented from doing so and forced to join another one. He has been compelled to contribute to causes and candidates for public office to which he was opposed. He has been prohibited from expressing his own mind on public issues. He has been denied any voice in arranging the terms of his own employment. He has frequently against his will been called out on strikes which have resulted in wage losses representing years of his savings. In many cases his economic life has been ruled by Communists and other subversive influences. In short, his mind, his soul, and his very life have been subject to a tyranny more despotic than one could think possible in a free country.

The employer's plight has likewise not been happy. He has witnessed the productive efficiency in his plants sink to alarmingly low levels. He has been required to employ or reinstate individuals who have destroyed his property and assaulted other employees. When he has tried to discharge Communists he has been prevented from doing

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so by a board which called this valid reason for the discharge a mere pretext. He has seen the loyalty of his supervisors undermined by the compulsory unionism imposed upon them by the National Labor Relations Board. He has been required by law to bargain over matters to which it was economically impossible for him to accede, and when he refused to accede has been accused of failing to bargain in good faith. He has been compelled to bargain with the same union that bargains with his competitors and thus to reveal to his competitors the secrets of his business. He has had to stand helplessly by while employees desiring to enter his plant to work have been obstructed by violence, mass picketing, and general rowdyism. He has had to stand mute while irresponsible detractors slandered, abused, and vilified him.

His business on occasions has been virtually brought to a standstill by disputes to which he himself was not a party and in which he himself had no interest. And finally, he has been compelled by the laws of the greatest democratic country in the world-or at least by their administrators-to treat his employees as if they belonged to a different class or caste of society.

This sordid story was unfolded before the committee in its hearings. Those hearings demonstrate the need for action by Congress—and action now.

The bill attacks the problem in a comprehensive-not in a piecemeal-fashion. It is neither drastic, oppressive, nor punitive. It does not restrict or in any manner interfere with employees' rights to organize and to bargain collectively when they wish to do so. It does not restrict in any way employees' rights to engage in lawful strikes. It does not take away any rights guaranteed by the existing National Labor Relations Act.

It does, however, go to the root of the evils and provides a fair, workable, and long-overdue solution of the problem. In brief outline, the bill accomplishes the following:

(1) It abolishes the existing discredited National Labor Relations Board, and creates in lieu thereof a new board of fair-minded members to exercise quasi-judicial functions only.

(2) It establishes a new official to exercise the various prosecuting and investigative functions under the National Labor Relations Act, to be entirely independent of the Board.

(3) It requires the Board to act only upon the weight of credible legal evidence, and it gives to the courts of the United States a real, rather than a fictitious, power to review decisions of the Board.

(4) It outlaws the closed shop and monopolistic industry-wide bargaining.

(5) It exempts supervisors from the compulsory features of the National Labor Relations Act.

(6) It imposes on both parties to labor disputes the duty of bargaining and requires that the employees themselves be given a voice in the bargaining arrangements through the device of providing for a secret ballot of the employees on their employer's last offer of settlement of the dispute.

(7) It protects the existence of labor organizations which are not affiliated with one of the national federations.

(8) It prohibits certification by the Board of labor organizations having Communist or subversive officers.

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