Union Welfare Funds

Report Outline
Demands of Organized Labor for Welfare Funds
Position of Congress on Welfare Funds
Development of Union Health-Welfare Funds

Demands of Organized Labor for Welfare Funds

Establishment of health and welfare funds in industries where they do not now exist, and expansion of welfare plans already in operation, are leading postwar objectives of American trade unions. Welfare fund demands will receive steadily increasing emphasis from organized labor as the ground is cut from under demands for cost-of-living wage boosts by the expected downward movement of prices.

The union movement for welfare funds results in part from the failure of Congress to act upon administration proposals to expand the Social Security System by providing sickness and disability insurance for the general population. But the new labor-management relations bill shortly to be sent to the White House will contain provisions to outlaw most, if not all, types of welfare funds sought by trade unions for the protection of their own members.

One of the reasons given by President Truman for vetoing the Case strike-control bill last year was his objection to a provision which would have prohibited contributions by employers to welfare funds administered solely by labor organizations. A veto of the new labor bill, if sustained in Congress, would leave the way open for trade union pressure on employers to establish new welfare funds through collective bargaining if possible, through strikes if necessary.