"The Right to Quit"

Last April's steel crisis brought screams from businessmen that the U.S. Government under President Kennedy and Labor Secretary Arthur Goldberg is meddling too much in labor-management matters. But there is another side to that coin. And last week A.F.L.-C.I.O. President George Meany sat down at a lunch with Washington newsmen and criticized the Administration in terms remarkably similar to those voiced by many corporation presidents.

"I don't think the Administration is the keeper of the public interest," declared Meany. "It represents Government interest. When the Government buys something itself, it has the right to make clear its stake in the negotiations." Meany leaned across the table to point a thick finger at his goblet. "It can say, 'We've only got so much money for glasses, and we hope you'll keep the price level where we can buy glasses.' But it shouldn't go asserting the Government's interest in cases where the Government is not directly involved."

Meany opposed any Administration action--even the practice of suggesting wage guidelines--that might hamper collective bargaining. What Meany feared most was that the Government's interference in labor-management negotiations might in time evolve into restrictions upon the right to strike. Said he: "We've got to maintain the right to quit work. Sometimes it's good to have a strike. We've had cases where there have been bus strikes and everybody said the strike would paralyze everything. Well, it didn't happen. Sometimes a strike shows both management and labor that they're not as important as they think they are."

Meany went out of his way to attack compulsory arbitration. "The only ground for compulsory arbitration is when the paramount public interest is involved," he said. "If that's the case," he went on, purposely exaggerating his point to show his complete contempt for the practice, "then the Government ought to go all the way and nationalize the industry. If the railroads are so important to the nation that the Government can't permit a strike, then the Government should take over the railroads."

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