Show Keep Government Neutral Public assistance to strikers such as food stamps welfare welfare wel wel- fare b benefits and other payments is mounting so rapidly that it is expected to cost the taxpayers more than million annually this fiscal year and in the future What's more this use of tax funds is a threat to the survival of true collective bargaining When management and union representatives sit down at the bargaining table during a strike economic pressures pressures pressures pres pres- are always present on both sides loss of wages by employees and loss of income by the employer as production production production tion and sales decline or are cut off completely Eventually these pressures induce a meeting g of the minds But the striker is less inclined to go back to work when working taxpayers are providing food for his table and money for the other necessities of life And strikers put less pressure on union officials to settle the strike because the availability of tax funds lessens the strain on the strikers striker's pocketbooks Where tax dollars are used or merely are available to support strikers the obvious result will be higher wage settlements than otherwise might be expected Taxpayers and the public in turn are forced to pay higher prices withstand diminished production and might even be faced with a loss of their own jobs if their employers curtail operations because of a strike The use of public aid to enlarge union power is morally unjustified detrimental to the viability of free collective bargaining and makes suspect the national policy that government should remain neutral in labor disputes |