BROWNSVILLE, TEX (AP) – James Hoffa Tuesday threatened a nationwide strike of all labor if Congress harnesses unions with antitrust laws.
            “They talk about a secondary boycott,” the short husky Teamster president said in scorn. “We can call a primary strike across the nation that will straighten out the employers once and for all.”
            The antitrust proposal came from Senator John L. McClellan (D-Ark.) in a recent Senate speech, Hoffa said. Some business interests have proposed in congressional hearings that all unions be put under antitrust laws.
            In Washington, AFL-CIO President George Meany made it clear Hoffa could not count on AFL-CIO Unions in any such protest strike. Meany said “Hoffa’s threat is a pretty good indication, if any indication was needed before, that we were perfectly right in kicking the Teamsters out of the AFL-CIO.” “When legislation is enacted and we don’t like it, then it is our policy to seek out change through the legislative system and not through revolution,” Meany said.
            McClellan denounced Hoffa’s remarks as a threat against Congress and the people. “Don’t minimize or underestimate the danger to our free economy and internal security that are involved in this threat,” he said. “Such dangers do exist. They are real and sometimes something must be done about them.”
            The 300 delegates of the South Atlantic Coast District Convention of the International Longshoremen’s Union cheered Hoffa’s remarks should such a law be passed. “The only answer is that if such a law passes, we would have all our contracts end on a given date,” the turbulent Teamster Chief declared. From the context it was clear that he referred to all unions, just not the Teamsters. “Such a uniform contract expiration would permit all unionized workers to strike at the same time.”
            Hoffa also alluded to the possibility of a nationwide strike in the current issue of life Magazine. Hoffa is quoted as saying, “We may eventually have to do what labor unions do in Europe and call for general strikes. We are organizing all transportation fields. We are trying to create a conference of transportation unions. So we are now in the position to control the strike issue. If Congress is stupid enough to pass a bill banning secondary boycotts, we will fix it so all our contracts expire on the same day.”
            In Washington, Sen. Pat McNamara (D-Mich.), himself a onetime Teamster official said, “Any such strike would be suicidal, just crazy.”

 

           

Raleigh (AP) – A proposed law to prohibit union membership for law enforcement officers and firemen passed the halfway mark Wednesday in its legislative journey.
            The House completed action on the bill with an overwhelming third reading vote after a supporter painted a picture of firemen pressing demands while cities burn down.
            The name of Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa also entered the debate on the need for bill sponsored by Rep. Frank Snepp of Mecklenburg as an outgrowth of a Teamster’s organizing drive among Charlotte policemen. The bill now goes to the Senate.
            Rep. Wayland Spruill of Bertie raised the prospect of idle firemen in the case of fire in arguing for the measure to outlaw union membership. “Supposed they call a strike and said, “we won’t pick up a hose, we won’t put out fires unless you do what we want.”

 

 

RALEIGH (AP) – A ban on union membership for law enforcement and firemen became law Wednesday. Bitterly fought by labor officials and spokesmen for firemen, its passage through the legislature echoed with the name of Jimmy Hoffa, Teamster’s National President. Sponsors called it a needed bulwark against union bids for power.
            Fiery debate before the Senate enacted the measure with the voice interjecting the name of Charles Cannon, Tar Heel textile magnate. “I’ve got a belly full of Charles Cannon telling the General Assembly what to do,” cried Sen. James Simpkins of Craven who lost an effort to send the bill back to committee. He called it a “hate bill” which he claimed would soil the state’s national reputation.
            Sen. J. Carlyle Rutledge, whose county of Cabarrus embraces the Cannon textile empire, demanded Simpkins apologize “for such an uncouth statement when it refers to one of the foremost citizens of this state.” The young Craven Senator refused.
            Rep. Frank Snepp of Mecklenburg introduced the bill as an outgrowth of unionizing drive on the Charlotte police force.
            After the formality of ratification, the measure will prohibit state government agencies from entering into contract with labor unions. It will spell out the power of government agencies to forbid their workers from joining labor unions.

 

 

 

 

 

The opinion resulted from a hearing last November in U. S. District Court. The Charlotte Firefighter Assembly and the International Association of Fire Fighters, a labor Union, challenged the state law.
The opinion called the antiunion law “void on its face as abridgement of freedom of association protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States.”
“The flaw is an intolerable overbreadth unnecessary to the protection of valid state interests,” said the opinion.
The judges said freedom of association is “an aspect of liberty protected by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and by the rights of free speech and by peaceful assembly explicitly set out in the First Amendment.”
“There is no valid state interest in denying the firemen the right to organize a labor union – whether local or national in scope.”
They found “nothing unconstitutional” about the law which “simply voids contracts between units of government within North Carolina and labor unions and expresses the public policy of North Carolina to be against such collective bargaining contracts.”
“There is nothing in the United States Constitution which entitles one to have a contract with another who does not want it,” the panel said.
Should either side take exception in drafting the judgment an appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court would follow.
The court declined to provide the injunction Charlotte firemen had sought to prevent city officials from enforcing the state law banning unions and providing criminal punishment.
The court said there “is no evidence that the solicitor….has sought indictment against any firemen or that he intends doing so.”
The judges asserted they “think it unseemly” for a federal court to take action against state or local officers “except in situations of the most compelling necessity.” They said a judgment striking down the state laws “seems to us, on the facts of this case a fully sufficient remedy.” J. LeVonne Chambers, the lawyer who led the fight for the firemen, said the “next step along the line would be repeal of the statute banning cities from dealing with unions or some judicial challenge of this section.”Charlotte city officials had no comment.