Public Regulation of Trade Unions

Report Outline
New Demand for Regulation of Labor Unions
Lack of Union Responsibility to Rank and File
Anti-Social Effects of Arbitrary Rules
Legislation to Enforce Union Responsibility

New Demand for Regulation of Labor Unions

Legislation for public regulation of trade unions has been pressed with renewed vigor at 1943 sessions of state legislatures and may shortly receive attention from the National Legislature at Washington. A growing public impatience with any group, whether of workers or employers, which is thought to be hampering the war effort is responsible for the present widespread demand that legal checks be imposed upon the conduct of labor organizations.

Public concern over the activities of trade unions has been heightened during recent weeks by the threat of a stoppage to coal production which is inherent in the present deadlock between the coal operators and the United Mine Workers. Chairman May (D., Ky.) of the House Military Affairs Committee said at Washington, March 30, that if the miners resorted to a strike to enforce their demand for a $2 a day wage increase, there would almost certainly be “a wave of anti-labor legislation brought to the House floor.” Rep. Ramspeck (D., Ga.) warned the miners that Congress might write both anti-strike and regulatory provisions into the Bituminous Coal Act when that measure, now scheduled to expire on April 26, is taken up for renewal.

Equal Responsibilities for Labor and Employers

Beyond the immediate factors giving rise to demands for legal restraints on trade unions is the long-standing opinion of many persons that the increased power which labor organizations have gained under New Deal legislation must be balanced with a corresponding degree of union responsibility. It is contended that big business has been forced to submit to regulation for the public good and that the trade union movement has become as much “big business” as any combination of industrial corporations. Moreover, earnest supporters of the labor movement, including some leading trade unionists, advocate legislation which will increase the responsibility of unions to their members by extending democratic processes within the unions themselves on such matters as election of officers, use of disciplinary powers, and control of trade union funds.