Labor's Merger Will Bring About More Political Power, Healy Says

Merging of the C.I.O. and the A.F. of L. into one federation will not greatly affect the bargaining powers of labor but will cause an increase in its political significance, James J. Healy, associate professor of Industrial Relations, said yesterday.

Regardless of whether there are two big federations or one, the different individual unions will continue to operate as separate unions, Healy said. In politics, however, he thought that the merger would give labor a more consolidated front. The increase i political power "would depend on how well the federation leaders can bring the members of their unions to follow one policy," Healy continued.

The merger, which was worked out by the Joint A.F. of L.-C.I.O. Unity Committee, has been in the making for a long time. In June, 1954, the committee recommended as the first step toward its goal, a no-raiding agreement. Then, last Wednesday the charter for the new federation was completed, but it must still be ratified by both the A.F. of L. and the C.I.O. at their conventions next fall.

"The problem is much more difficult than one of mere ratification," Healy said. "After ratifying the merger the new federation will have to join together individual unions from the old organizations which have been operating in the same field." As an example of this problem he cited the electrical workers, who are at present represented in both the A.F. of L. and the C.I.O.

Healy thinks, however, that the larger organizations, such as the steelworkers, will be able to put pressure on the smaller unions and force them to merge.

Pressure on Independents

More pressure will probably be placed on independent unions to join the federation, but probably without effect. Healy thinks. "I see little prospect of the independents coming under the umbrella of the federation," he said. "With a change in their administration, however, the United Mine Workers might be interested in joining. As for the four operating rail-road brotherhoods, there is little possibility of their being assimilated."

The C.I.O. originally split off from the A.F. of L. in 1935, when the main issue was whether to organize along craft or industrial lines. The charter prepared for the new federation, however, recognizes that industrial and craft unions are "appropriate, equal, and necessary as methods of trade union organization."