YOUR

YOUR

CONGRESSMAN

REPORTS

Hy Rep. Burr P. Harruom <

v Last year’s Congressional revelations of high living, corruption and outright theft and violence among certain unscrupulous labor bosses brought widespread demand for tighter laws to prevent such flagrant abases of the interests of working peojlle and the general public. / * , The sordid Congressional testimony made evident that the hierarchy of the Teamsters’ Union, for example, disporting themselves in their union-bought mansions or on union yxpense accounts at Florida resorts, held the average truck driver in the utmost contempt. It' , was that poor fellow’s lot to wres' tie his big vehicle each day, pay his union dues and assessments on time and keep his mouth shut at union meetings, or, better still, stay away "from the meetings and let “the boys” handle things. A union member who became . uppitv and began asking questions about how his dues money, was being spent could be expected to get • the same rough treatment! as an uppity .employer who did not ucijuiescc promptly in the union s dcmands. v * * The disclosures produced a clamor for legislative action. .Many responsible labor officials acknowledged that die testimoriy would give all organized labor a black py^ if these unions did riot clean house In addition to public reporting of union finances, the proposals • for legal reforms included making big unions subject to the provisions of the anti-trust laws, as big corporations already are. and a federal right-to-work law to insure that union membership not be * **• quirement for employment, but a J matter of the worker's free choice.. > More recently, however, Secre-. tary of Labor Mitchell, addressing the national convention of the \ AFL-CIO, made evident dial