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Show ' " Garn fr om (SX'-Washington (SX'-Washington . . . MJi By Senator Jake Gara One of the most controversial contro-versial pieces of legislation to come before the 95th congress will be the subject of a hard-fought battle in the next few weeks. It is Senate Bill 1553, the so-called "labor reform re-form act." The bill is chiefly aimed at speeding up procedures proce-dures for conducting union representation elections, settling challenges, penalizing persistent violators of labor laws, and giving stronger remedies and enforcement powers to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). While some reform of the NLRB may be justified, I cannot support these proposed pro-posed changes because they favor labor over management. If true reform is to be obtained, ob-tained, both labor and management man-agement must be considered equally. Fortunately, some of the original proposals, such as the section to repeal the right to work laws, were dropped. But the bill is still far from satisfactory and there are other provisions that should be either dropped or amended. amend-ed. One such provision is the section that would deny government contracts for three years to labor law violators unless the government govern-ment cannot obtain the supplies sup-plies or services elsewhere. It is the worker that will suffer the most from this as employees employ-ees will be laid off due to a loss of government contracts. Other objectionable provisions pro-visions would grant union organizers access to employees employ-ees on company property during work time to solicit union membership, and would expand the NLRB from 5 to 7 members. Another would award 150 per cent back pay to employees unable to work because of unfair labor practices prac-tices that may have occurred during a given period of time. Because of the unbalanced nature of this bill, I have co-sponsored S. 1855 which has been introduced as an alternative. This bill would be truly beneficial to the workers rather than union leaders. It would recognize the employees em-ployees right not to have mandatory union contributions contribu-tions used for political purposes. pur-poses. Furthermore, it would protect workers from union fines that are frequently levied as punishment for exceeding ex-ceeding work quotas or exercising exer-cising freedom of speech, and it would make it unlawful for a union to call or continue a strike if the workers vote against it by secret ballot. The labor reform legislation in its present form should not be passed by Congress. The bill will be argued point by point, but the real issue is additional rights and power for organized labor or more freedom for the individual workers. There is no doubt that unions have a right to exist. By the same token, workers ought to have the right to choose whether they will or will not join a union. S. 1855 would better reflect labor reform by representing the workers and protecting their freedom of choice. . Until provisions like those contained in S. 1855 are adopted, I will not give my support to this labor reform bill. |