Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 17, Number 19, DeMotte, Jasper County, 4 April 1947 — HOPE FADES FOR AVERTING OF A WALKOUT [ARTICLE]

HOPE FADES FOR AVERTING OF A WALKOUT

Head O f Union In Belligerant Frame Of Mind Assails Company Attitude ** ' Washington Congress abandoned hopes yesterday of enacting antistrike legislation in time to head off a nation-wide telephone walkout next Monday and the union chief said “the way things look now” the strike will occur. .Joseph A. Beirne, president of the o National Federation of Telephone Workers, said the stoppage will take place at-6 p.m. Monday, according .to the various time zones, unless the trend of negotiations changes for the better. Beirne gave that word to rek; porters after a 2¥2-hour conference on .company-union negotiations with Edgar L. Warren, head of the U. S. Conciliation Service, and John W. Gibson, Assistant Secretary of Labor.. Warren also called the outlook gloomy, “There is no change in the picture whatsoever,” Beirne said. “The companies have offered nothing whatsoever. If there is no change there will be a strike.” The strike deadline is 6 a.m. Monday, according to the various time zones. , Beirne’s independent N. F. T. W. represents 287,000 employees in 39 N. F. T. W. affiliates from coast to coast. A short time before Beirne spoke, the House Labor committee approved legislation designed to give the government power to head off or stop the strike. Chairman Hartley (Rep., N. J.) said he would press for House action on the measure, but conceded there was no chance of its passage '• before Monday. Hartley said the anti-strike legislation" was not merely designee? to prevent a walkout But could be used after it starts. The measure provides that when the ‘President finds that a labor dispute has resulted in or threatens substantial curtailment of public utility, transportation or communication services, he shall direct the Attorney General to pbttain a court order to prevent a strike. Just prior to the labor committee’s action the N. F. T. W. had asked'for a congressional investigation of what it called “the monopolistic labor policy of the 801 l system.” Beirne declared that A. T. & T., parent firm of the Bell system, is insisting that the union’s barbgain locally with its Subsidiary companies but is itself acting nationally. o “We believe,”' Beirne said, “that a congressional investigation of the labor relations policy of the Bell system will show that A- T. & T. is clinging to a fiction that ' that each of the Bell system Campanics is an entity free tb make its own decision. "This is the company’s publicly announced position and while maintatining it, the Bell system is operating as a unit and is denying free and full reflective bax gaining authority for its local companies.’’