1 - American Memory

m
it into law. On February 10 the strike was settled, so the provisions
of the legislative settlement which was included in that bill did not
take effect.
If the Education and Labor Joint Resolution had become law, we
would not be here today. We would have liad by its enactment congres-
sional recognition of the unique status of Hawaii justifying a special
e.xemption which future Pi-esidents would have to be guided by. Since
the House did not pass this resolution, it is now imperative that this
be legislated to provide an opportunity for Hawaii to have this kind
of protection.
H.R. 7189 provides the basic kind of protection that I sought in
legislation I had introduced earlier in February 1973. It provides 160
days of automatic exemption for Hawaii from a west coast shipping
dispute.
Mr. DixoELL. 160 or 180?
Mr. MATSUNAGA. 160.
Mrs. MixK. 160 days, I believe. This would be at the behest of the
Grovernor of our State. We would not have to wait for a finding by the
White House. I think this is very important and the past illustrates
how important this is. It is essential to note that H.R. 7189 does not
make any change in the basic approach to labor-management disputes
now on the statute books. It is precisely the same as in Taft-Hartley
Act, which as you know provides a cooling-off period while the nego-
tiations are proceeding.
The only difference that we are seeking is the application with
respect to a third party, totally innocent, not involved in the dispute,
whose commerce is almost 100 percent shut off as a result of a
dispute and work stoppage on the west coast. H.R. 7189 simply pro-
vides that the Governor be allowed to seek this injunction in court
and it would apply only to Hawaii and other third party territories
innocent to the dispute itself. It does not affect in any way parties to
the labor-management negotiation.
I believe that labor and all other interested parties would be
amenable to legislation which would only provide an automatic Taft-
Hartley-type injimction with regard to Hawaii in the case of the west
coast. We have injunctive remedy provided by law already with re-
spect to the entire strike. We are simply saying that we should not
be required to wait for a complete injunction before the initiation of
an injimction. With respect to third parties like Hawaii, the Governor
should be given the authority to seek from the court an injunction to
provide specific relief for Hawaii under those circumstances where the
Taft-Hartley Act is invoked.
The Committee on Education and Labor having already recognized
that Hawaii is in a unique situation and that this uniqueness justifies
an exemption of this kind. I would hope that this committee likewise
would recognize the seriousness of this concern. It is not a matter which
we lightly put before this committee. We understand the seriousness
of the measure that we propound, but by the same token we cannot
understate the tragedy and the circumstances which face our con-
stituents during those many, many long days in 1971 and 1972 which
affected the economy of Hawaii. I sincerely believe that some of the
effects still affect the prosperity of our community.