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