A Political Science View of National Emergency Disputes

Abstract

Adequate regard for basic liberties and the values of self-determination in labor-management relations requires a major modification in the usual approach to the problem of the national emergency dispute. Excessive con cern with the emergency threat has dominated thinking about this problem, has produced "emergencies," and has impaired values essential to a free society. The national emergency strike inevitably assumes a political character, generating strong political pressures which result in an undesirable politi cal settlement. This tendency is seriously aggravated by the unsophisticated notion that the strike is exclusively a un ion weapon. Progress toward solution of the problem must proceed from a recognition that the emergencies are essentially political and that preservation of free collective bargaining should be the primary objective in any policy that is formu lated. A fundamental approach requires depoliticalizing the emergency dispute, reducing the pressures on the government, and increasing the pressures on the disputants. Toward this end it is suggested that use of the partial injunction should be explored.