How to Clean House

WE . . . must resort to all sorts of stratagems, artifices, illegal methods, to evasions and subterfuges . . . to get into the trade unions, to remain in them, and to carry on Communist work within them at all costs."

So wrote Lenin, and Communists obediently burrowed deep into U.S. labor unions in the '30s. Since then, the A.F.L. has cleaned house; by 1950, eleven Communist-run unions had been thrown out of the C.I.O. But Communist labor bosses, despite exposure of their Red ties by congressional committees, have managed to keep control of seven independent unions and of scattered locals within the C.I.O. and A.F.L. Altogether, these little Politburos still control some 500,000 members, or about 3% of all union members, some of them in the nerve centers of U.S. industry.

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The largest Red-run union, the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (U.E.), has contracts with hundreds of plants, including such giants as Westinghouse and General Electric, and has about 100,000 members. More than a third of the workers in plants of International Harvester, which makes Garand rifles and Army trucks, are members of the Communist-bossed Farm Equipment-United Electrical Workers. The Red-dyed Mine, Mill & Smelter Workers Union has a strong hold on U.S. production of defense metals, from copper to uranium. Party-liners are in control of the American Communications Association, bargaining agent for 5,000 Western Union employees in New York, and Communist Harry Bridges' 75,000 International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union could tie up West Coast and Hawaiian ports.

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Few of the members of these Red run unions are Communists themselves; only the bosses are. Why then do loyal American workers keep them in power? The chief reason is that rank & filers really believe that their leaders deliver the goods. Attacks on their loyalty are brushed off as union-busting propaganda.

Why do employers recognize a union if they know that it is Communist-controlled? Labor leaders have charged that some employers play ball with Communists in jurisdictional disputes to keep their workers divided, and General Electric once publicly stated that "we do not [have a] preference" between a Communist union and a non-Communist one. But the big reason why Communist labor leaders stay in power is that, under the law, employers must treat Red-run unions exactly as they would any other. Employers can fire workers for Communist activity, as General Electric announced last week that it intends to do, but such a policy does not touch the Red labor leaders.

The Taft-Hartley Act attempted to break Communist control of unions by requiring officers of labor unions to sign non-Communist affidavits before their unions could be certified as bargaining agents. This section in the law has been a flop. Officers of Communist-run unions have simply resigned formally from the party, signed an affidavit, then continued their Red activities as before. Nevertheless, the NLRB has been ordered by the courts to take the affidavits at face value and to certify the unions.

Two bills have been introduced into the Senate to enable the NLRB to decertify Red-dominated unions as bargaining agents. Under both bills, if the Subversive Activities Control Board decided a union was Communist-dominated, the NLRB would withdraw its certification. But Board action against Reds in the past has proved to be a cumbersome procedure.

Moreover the C.I.O. is against any such law for fear it might some day be abused and be used to decertify almost any union.

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The Justice Department is also considering 1) putting the names of Communist-run unions on the Attorney General's list of subversive organizations and barring companies with defense contracts from employing anyone who belongs to them, and 2) broadening the Government's personnel security program to cover workers in defense plants. But both procedures would penalize union members, most of whom are not Communists, but not touch their leaders.

The best and simplest way to strip Communist labor bosses of their power would be to empower the NLRB to look behind their affidavits and to withhold or revoke certification of their unions. The NLRB could also be empowered to determine to its own satisfaction whether a union's nominal officers are its actual leaders, decertify it if the officers are only front men for Communists. The great virtue of this method is that it would limit the issue to the real truth or falsity of a union leader's affidavit. All workers would have to do to get back their union's bargaining privileges would be to elect new officers who are not Communists or Communist tools.

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