Education and Labor Committee Approves NLRA Amendment

The House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor has approved a bill amending the National Labor Relations Acts (NLRA) to permit interns, hospital residents and other medicaltrainees to employ collective bargaining techniques in labor disputes.

The measure, sponsored by Rep. FrankThompson (D.N.J.), chairman of theSubcommittee on Labor Management and Relations, clarifies the wording of theHospital Act of 1974, which gave hospital workers the right to collective bargaining,an aide to the subcommittee said yesterday.

The aide, who wished to remain unidentified, said yesterday, "The bill's primary function is to reaffirm Congressional intent to include hospital staff under the NLRA." He added underthe original Hospital Act, residents and interns could participate in collective bargaining, but a 1974 decision by the National Labor Relations Board reversed this intent.

In a position statement circulated to members of the House and the Senate, Daniel C. Tosteson, dean of the Faculty of Medicine, stated that giving residents andinterns the power of collective bargainingwould "threaten the quality of the educational environment, and consequently the quality of patient care."

According to the statement, interns and residents work at hospitals in order tofurther their education, and not to meet professional staff requirements. Tostesonfurther wrote that unionization of thehouse staff would "undermine the faculty's capacity to provide the besteducational mix."

The committee will file the final reporton the measure by the end of the week, andthe bill should reach the floor of the Housewithin the next few months.

A similar bill is now under committeeconsideration in the Senate.