GROUNDHOG DAY[FEB 2, 2019]

MY SECRET WORLD

Taft-Hartley defined six additional unfair labor practices, reflecting Congress' perception that some union conduct also needed correction. The Act was amended to protect employees' rights from these unfair practices by unions.

I remember Dad harping on the damage done to the Labor-Movement by this legislation; I was still in grammar school, and wrote a 'research-paper' on Labor Law[using excerpts from our dated set of encyclopedias.

The amendments protected employees' Section 7 rights from restraint or coercion by unions, and said that unions could not cause an employer to discriminate against an employee for exercising Section 7 rights. They declared the closed shop illegal, but provided that employers could sign a union shop agreement under which employees could be required to join the union on or after the 30th day of employment.

The amendments also imposed on unions the same obligation to bargain in good faith that the Wagner Act placed on employers. They prohibited secondary boycotts, making it unlawful for a union that has a primary dispute with one employer to pressure a neutral employer to stop doing business with the first employer.

Unions were prohibited from charging excessive dues or initiation fees, and from "featherbedding," or causing an employer to pay for work not performed. The new law contained a "free speech clause," providing that the expression of views, arguments, or opinions shall not be evidence of an unfair labor practice absent the threat of reprisal or promise of benefit.

Several significant changes were made for representation elections. Supervisors were excluded from bargaining units, and the Board had to give special treatment to professional employees, craftsmen and plant guards in determining bargaining units.

Congress also added four new types of elections. The first permitted employers faced with a union's demand for recognition to seek a Board-conducted election. The other three enabled employees to obtain elections to determine whether to oust incumbent unions, whether to grant to unions authority to enter into a union shop agreement, or whether to withdraw union shop authorization previously granted. (The provisions authorizing the union shop elections were repealed in 1951).

Dick Walsh was still President, in 1969, when I joined IATSE Local 41

Walter Diehl was a Boston-projectionist/IA-rep until 1957, when he was appointed Assistant to the International President, a position he held until 1974, when he was elected International President of the IATSE by the delegates to the 52nd International Convention.

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Dick Walsh entered the entertainment industry as an apprentice electrician at Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue Theatre in 1917; elected President of Local No. 4 in 1925, and again in 1938, serving in that position through 1959; Business Agent of the same local in 1926; in 1941, he became International President of the Alliance, a position he was re-elected to through 1974, when he retired from office and was succeeded by Walter F. Diehl; Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Will Rogers Memorial Hospital, Inc., and Director of the Union Labor Life Insurance Company[ULLICO]; Richard F. Walsh passed away on August 13, 1992, at the age of 92; before his retirement[1974], he attended IA-Conventions, but often was unable to stand/speak[Diehl spoke @Convention[s] with full authorization; effectively running the entire organization

https://www.iatse.net/leadership/past-international-presidents