Show thE fHE NE VOICE OF BUSINESS How to save 20 million a y year dear ar By L Lecher Ires Chamber of 01 Commerce of 01 the United States Sta tes An Important deadline arrives on November 5 5 That's the date for tor the US U.S. to honor Its year two-year-old pledge to withdraw withdraw with with- draw from the International Labor Organization At this point whatever action we take with respect to 00 the ILO will wilt have a significance far tar greater than Its Immediate effect First because our International international International In In- credibility U is on the theL L line And second because some of ot the ILOs ILO's most serious problems are typical of ot other international organizations Including the United Nations Nation itself The ILO was formed in 1919 to establish labor standards in such areas as hours of work discrimination and pensions It became a specialized agency of ot the UN In 1946 ILO standards when ratified by a member country have the same force as domestic law Each member country Is entitled to four tour official delegates two from its government and one each from business and labor Theoretically the business and labor dele delegates ates represent the Interests of or their separate constituencies and are free to speak and vote vole Independently regardless of the position of their government This principle of or in independence independence In dependence is honored in the theUS US U.S. delegation Our labor delegate is selected by the CIO and the business delegate is named by the US U.S. Chamber of or Commerce But Hut the principle of tripartite representation becomes a sham when the delegation Is from Crom a totalitarian regime particularly a communist communist com com- m ne government then has four votes voles and the workers and employers are arc not represented at al all The Increasing disregard for forthe forthe the tripartite principle is one of or orthe the serious objections objection to current ILO ILa practice raised by the US U.S. delegation There are arc three others 1 The ILO is growing more political and less concerned about the welfare of or the workers as such That is is matters mallers like the tensions in the Middle East Kast occupy more and more mOle of the time of this specialized agency to the exclusion of Its chartered responsibilities 2 Although the ILO is supposed to Investigate ate allegations allegation of or improper I labor bor before condemning them It increasingly Ignores this procedural safeguard To put that in American terms accused nations nation are arc not accorded accorded ac ac- corded due process of law by bythe bythe bythe the ILO 3 2 The ILO is quick to protest violations of workers' workers rights In Western democracies but it is strangely silent about affairs in communist and Third World countries There is In short a blatant double standard The reasons for these problems are not hard to ascertain The ILO like the UN UNit it itself elC has suffered from a population explosion of new nations most of them small and few of them democratic Thus Thu 72 countries now pay percent of or the ILO budget but hut control 53 percent of the votes voles while the major industrial nations nation of or the Free World pay 68 66 percent of or the bills and have only 15 percent of or the votes voles The US U.S. alone pays 25 percent of oC the total ILO ILL budget or about 20 million a year Our own Secretary of Labor Hay flay Marshall has asked If we couldn't do more for labor by spending that tha 1 20 million ourselves rather than sending it to the ILO U It His is a Very good question In the words of the longtime business delegate to the ILO Cleveland Industrialist Charles Smith Goodwill common commonsense commonsense commonsense sense and logic even diplomatic skills skill arc are of little avail as al long as power Is available without respond Two years ago the US U.S. gave the required years two-years notice for quilting the ILO a move favored by both the National Chamber and the CIO We warned that we would follow rollow through unless substantial progress was made in redressing the four major objections mentioned above We have seen little or no progress in that direction The question now bec becomes are we as good as our word Withdrawal would constitute a ashot ashot ashot shot across the bow of or all International international in In- terna lional organizations guilty of or the sins sin of the ILO It is probably the biggest favor we could do them |