Items of interest February 13, 1915 Issue

Items of Interest

Employers may require employees to sever their connection with labor unions as a condition to employment, if they so desire, according to a far-reaching decision just handed down by the United States Supreme Court. The case came before the court from Kansas, where a switchman was threatened with dismissal if he did not withdraw from the Switchmen's Union. That the superintendent who made this request was within his right, is the sum of the decision, which makes unconstitutional a Kansas law known as the coercion statute. The legitimacy of labor unions was not questioned by the court.

One may become a member of a union if he desires, but "the individual," so reads the decision, "has no inherent right to join the union and still remain in the employ of one who is unwilling to employ a union man any more than the same individual has a right to join the union without the consent of that organization. Just as labor organizations have the inherent and constitutional right to deny membership to any man who will not agree that during such membership he will not accept or retain employment in the company with nonunion men, and just as a union man has the constitutional right to decline proffered employment unless the employer will agree not to employ any non-union men, so the employer has the constitutional right to insist that the employee shall refrain from affiliation with the union during the term of employment. There cannot be one rule of liberty for the labor organization or its members and a different and more restrictive rule for employers."

The decision is said to affect laws in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Porto Rico.

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