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122660128
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Memorandum, Reasons for Not Utilizing Taft-Hartley Procedures
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doc
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document
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1
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id
122660128
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document
title
Memorandum, Reasons for Not Utilizing Taft-Hartley Procedures
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David H. Stowe Papers
Subject Files
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Labor disputes
Labor laws and legislation
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122660128
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1952-01-01
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1952
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795112272df2edff
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REASONS FOR NOT UTILIZING TAFT-HARTLEY PROCEDURES 1. It would be eminently unfair to the workers to compel them to remain at work for an additional 80 days in view of their voluntary continuance at work for a longer period than that provided by the Taft-Hartley Act. 2. The Selective Service Act may offer a more effective alternative proce- dure. Justice Clark's concurring opinion points out in this connection: Apparently the Government could have placed orders with the steel companies for the various types of steel needed for defense purposes, and instructed the steel companies to ship the materiel directly to producers of planes, tanks, and munitions. The act does not require that Government orders cover the entire capacity of a producer's plant before the President has power to seize. Our experience during World War I demonstrates the speed with which the Government can invoke the remedy of seizing plants which fail to fill compulsory orders. The Federal Enameling & Stamping Co., of McKees Rocks, (no companies Pa., was served with a compulsory order on September 13, 1918, and seized on the same day. 3. There is no certainty that the individual workers would return to work in accordance with the provisions of the injunction. Even if the workers return production would probably suffer by reason of resentment and low morale because of the coercion involved in the use of the injunc- tion. Inasmuch as the procedure offers no long-term solution the country may be faced with the same crisis at the end of the 80-day period. 5. It is likely that the resentment which will be caused by the use of the injunction will thwart any effective collective bargaining during the 80- day period. As the President has already convincingly stated, resort to the Taft-Hartley Act would prove futile and can only aggravate the tensions rather than promote voluntary solution by collective bargaining. 6. The delay occasioned by utilization of the Taft-Hartley procedures might tend to weaken the bargaining position of the union. 7. If the President believes the Taft-Hartley procedures would be ineffec- tive, he could send a special message to the Congress requesting it to provide adequate remedies since the Supreme Court indicated that it is within the ambit of the Congress' jurisdiction to provide such.