Staking the Claims

Meeting in Washington last week, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s executive council was clearly happy with the results of the 1964 elections. "The will of the people has never been more clearly evident," said the council in the preamble to its statement of 1965 legislative goals.

"They gave their mandate to the program of progress President Johnson has called the 'Great Society.' " Labor itself could--and did--claim a major share of the credit for helping the people evidence their will. During the campaign, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s Committee on Political Education staged a massive voter registration drive, distributed some 65 million pieces of propaganda, endorsed 354 congressional candidates, giving special attention to 89 marginal House seats, reported spending $894,000, although the actual figure for organized labor was probably closer to $20 million. In the aftermath, the investment looked good: the Administration is beholden to labor, and among the 91 new Congressmen to be sworn in on Jan. 4, more than 50 are considered more favorably inclined to organized labor than their predecessors.

In its legislative recommendations, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. gave top priority to the repeal of Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley law. The clause gives states the right to enact right-to-work laws, banning union shop contracts. Big Labor has been fighting it since 1947, when Taft-Hartley was enacted. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. figures that next year it will have at least 225 votes for the repeal of 14(b), provided of course that the Johnson Administration does not interfere. That seems unlikely,, especially since Lyndon Johnson ordered a repeal proposal included in the Democratic Party platform.

Other than that, labor asked, among many other things, increased unemployment compensation, a hike in the minimum wage from $1.25 to $2, double time for overtime, and a 35-hour week. While it will not get everything it seeks, the chances are that the next Congress will be more amenable to labor's claims than any since the early Roosevelt years.

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