Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Statement by the President on the Failure To Enact Legislation To Curb Abuses in the Labor-Management Field.

August 20, 1958

I AM MOST DISAPPOINTED that the Congress has thus far failed to enact legislation to curb the racketeering, corruption, and abuses of trust and power which Senator McClellan's committee has found to exist today in the labor-management field.

Last January I recommended to Congress that comprehensive legislation be enacted so that the rights of the American worker would be safeguarded. The bill passed by the Senate in June, the so-called Kennedy-Ives bill, fell far short of these recommendations.

For example, it failed to provide adequate machinery to enforce the standards necessary to the proper handling of labor union funds. further, the bill's failure to deal with the problems of boycotting and blackmail picketing would have given greater impetus to abuses the American people want to curb. It would have weakened certain aspects of the Taft-Hartley Act. It did not move at all toward recognition of appropriate State responsibility in labor matters.

In sum, it did not meet the Nation's needs because it did not deal effectively with many of the evils which need correction.

On August 18th the House voted on the bill under a procedure which permitted no opportunity to amend it and thus to correct its deficiencies.

I still hope that before adjournment the Congress will pass a labor bill which will effectively protect the working men and women of our country.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Statement by the President on the Failure To Enact Legislation To Curb Abuses in the Labor-Management Field. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/233869

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