ALTERNATIVE TO STRIKES

WHEREAS, labor's experience in recent years with the strike weapon has been disastrous in several highly visible instances; and

WHEREAS, the Bush administration continues the basically anti-union policy promoted by the Reagan administration; and

WHEREAS, union-busting techniques practiced by expert law firms are becoming more effective; and

WHEREAS, "merger mania" continues to threaten the livelihood of many workers; and

WHEREAS, Congress has refused to adopt the necessary labor law reform packages supported by AFT and AFL-CIO; and

WHEREAS, air controllers, pilots and mechanics, paper mill workers, bus drivers, miners (coal, zinc and copper), telephone workers and meat packers, among others, have all suffered from the effects of unfair labor laws and prolonged management-provoked strikes; and

WHEREAS, the penalties and pain of striking are increasingly and almost totally borne by labor; and

WHEREAS, the law governing the use of "replacement workers" permits a wide, quasi-legal, latitude to break unions during strikes; and

WHEREAS, the spirit of the Wagner Act is continuously violated; and

WHEREAS, the Eastern and Greyhound experiences demonstrate the extraordinary power of irresponsible owners and managers to disregard the intent of the labor laws:

RESOLVED, that AFT urge AFL-CIO to convene a special expert task force on negotiation tactics in an anti-union era; and

RESOLVED , that such task force consider and develop innovative and sophisticated alternatives to traditional strike (no contract/no work) response; and

RESOLVED, that AFT and AFL-CIO continue to make labor law reform a major priority in labor's legislative program to protect workers in the 1990s.