
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 27, 1993                   TAG: 9306280251
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

RESTORE BALANCE TO LABOR RELATIONS

IN RESPONSE to the editorial on May 20 ("Strike out the striker bill"), I disagree that our nation would be better off if the legislation dies before it reaches the president's desk.

The 1938 Supreme Court ruling created a serious loophole in labor law by allowing employers to hire permanent replacement workers during a legal economic strike.

The current legislation is not a matter of entitlements to workers during an economic dispute. Workers have the legal right to strike. The legislation would simply restore balance and fairness to labor-management relations. For the past 12 years, in the anti-union climate created by the Reagan and Bush administrations, the right to strike has become the right to lose your job.

Talking about U. S. competitiveness: Our No. 1 trading partner - Canada - does not allow permanent replacement for strikers. Japan and German prohibit the firing of striking workers. U. S. employers who use permanent replacements are hurting their companies and our country.

Why is this legislation so important? Fairness, pure and simple. Balance and stability would be restored between labor and management. Collective bargaining is a time-tested, democratic way of settling differences through compromise.

PHILLIP J. HAWKS\ DUBLIN

by CNB