AIRLINE DISPUTE

WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1966

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE, Washington, D.C. The committee met at 1:30 p.m., pursuant to call, in room 4232, Senate Office Building, Senator Lister Hill (chairman of the committee) presiding.

Present: Senators Hill (presiding), Morse, Yarborough, Clark, Randolph, Williams, Pell, Kennedy of Massachusetts, Nelson, Kennedy of New York, Javits, Prouty, Dominick, Murphy, Fannin, and Griffin.

Committee staff members present: Stewart E. McClure, chief clerk; John S. Forsythe, general counsel; John Bruff, counsel, Subcommittee on Labor; and Stephen Kurzman, minority counsel.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please be in order.

Secretary Wirtz, we appreciate your being here to advise us whether a national emergency exists due to the present airline strike. We will be happy to have you proceed in your own way.

STATEMENT OF HON. W. WILLARD WIRTZ, SECRETARY OF LABOR; ACCOMPANIED BY JAMES J. REYNOLDS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS; CECIL MACKEY, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF TRANSPORTATION POLICY, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE; AND WILLIAM J. HARTIGAN, ASSISTANT POSTMASTER GENERAL, BUREAU OF TRANSPORTATION AND INTERNATIONAL SERVICES

Secretary WIRTZ. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I have filed with the committee a statement which I expect, Mr. Chairman, would probably be best for me to follow fairly closely, but with your indulgence, to move rapidly past or to skip over those parts which I think not completely essential to the development of the statement.

The statement, Mr. Chairman, covers the advice which has been assembled by the administration from the Department of Commerce, from the Department of Defense, from the Post Office Department, and from the other agencies.

We have, in what I think is the service of the committee, combined it in a single statement. There are representatives of the other agencies here. If there should be questions in detail, I would want to turn to Mr. Mackey from the Department of Commerce, to Mr. Moot from the Department of Defense, to Mr. Hartigan from the Post Office Department.

I should like the record to show the presence, which will shortly be a fact, with me, of Assistant Secretary Reynolds, who will be very helpful to the committee in connection with testimony on this matter, who will be here momentarily.

Turning then to the statement, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, you have asked for testimony directed to the issue of whether an emergency exists, set forth in Senate Joint Resolution 181 and in the related bills.

I have in my statement set out the language of that resolution. It is my understanding that there has been some change in that particular language. That won't effect my testimony. It is my impression, however, that the change is in the direction of the language in section 10 of the Railway Labor Act, to which I have also made reference here, with that language appearing in my prepared state

ment.

Senator MORSE. Mr. Secretary, I think it would perhaps be well if someone read the change that was introduced in the Senate this morning. It reads as follows, in Senate Joint Resolution 181:

Joint resolution to provide for the settlement of the labor dispute currently existing between certain air carriers and certain of their employees, to be amended as follows:

Strike out all of lines 9 and 10 on page 1, and lines 1 and 2 on page 2, and insert in lieu thereof the following:

"Aerospace workers, a labor organization threatens substantially to interrupt interstate commerce to a degree such as to deprive any section of the country of essential transportation services, and such essential transportation services must be maintained."

The Secretary is right that that is a direct quote from the language of the Railway Labor Act.

Secretary WIRTZ. There are, of course, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, many other considerations which are relevant to the problem in this case. I would refer particularly to the desirability, of course, of a settlement in the country's interest, and to the elements of economic stabilization which are involved. I shall, however, limit my opening statement, at least, to the particular area to which the committee has referred.

We did, immediately upon the advice of the committee hearing, assemble that matter which, as a matter of fact, we had been in the process of collecting even as this situation developed.

I shall try to summarize from the information I have at hand the situation as it affects those interests which are involved in the work of the various departments of Government.

In general, and before going into detail, as fairly as I can, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I would sum up this situation in this way, and this is from the prepared statement :

First, this strike has, of course, a direct and unquestionably serious impact on the companies involved and on their employees.

Second, it has caused extensive disruption and inconvenience in air travel and transport generally.

Third, it has hurt particular businesses in particular areas quite badly.

Fourth, it has had a marked but not large-scale effect on the economy generally.

Fifth, it has slowed up part of the postal service significantly.

Sixth, it has not affected the defense or military effort materially. Seventh, there are definite signs of increasing loss, cost, inconvenience, and possible danger.

I should like to make this point: A report of this kind is necessarily cast in general terms. I am not sure how accurate a picture of this particular situation cast in those terms may be. So, in addition to consulting the statistics which have been assembled, we have made overnight-yesterday and through the night-a complete check of all of the communications which have been received by the Department of Labor, and most of those which have been received by the White House, some 2,000 telegrams and letters from Senators and Congressmen, Governors, mayors, other officials at the State and county level, and so forth.

I have a good many of the representative communications of that kind at hand. It is very hard to generalize about them, but there are telegrams from the mayors of the various cities involved. There are indications of the impact of this situation on particular communities and on particular businesses.

It is from a certain growing, if I may say so, concern about the validity of overall statistics in a country this large that I say to you I shall be glad to supplement the general statements which are made here which are going to show an impact of less dimension than I think most of us had expected by reference to specific situations in specific

areas.

In somewhat more detail now, the most direct effect, of course, is on the five airline companies which are tied up, and on the 35,400 striking employees. Then there are between 35,000 and 40,000 nonstriking airline employees who have also been laid off. They are without pay.

The impact in terms of passengers who are grounded by the strike is suggested by a single statistic. There are about 150,000 passengers each day who would be flying on an airline if it were not for this strike, who would be flying on one of these airlines, if it were not for this strike. We have tried to break that figure down. One-third of that is probably personal travel. Most of this is a matter of comfort and convenience, and yet thousands of lost trips are a matter of hardship ranging from the soldiers delayed in returning home on furlough to the loss of opportunity to visit an ailing relative.

About two-thirds of the travel interrupted to this extent involves trips of a business nature, for such purposes as selling goods, buying material, bringing in consultants, and so forth. There is no way to estimate how the loss or circuitous pursuit of these trips crimps business efficiency.

I turn next to suggest the impact of this situation on the military program, and the short of that is that it has had virtually no impact on the military program. The Department of Defense reports little direct impact on the movement of military personnel except for those service personnel traveling on leave status.

It is very important to an appreciation of this situation to recognize the extent to which arrangements have been made for the meeting of crises of one kind or another, particularly of this kind.

At the inception of the strike, an arrangement was worked out involving the Department of Defense, the Department of Labor, and the officials of the Machinists Union. This was to provide for the

orderly and expeditious clearance of all commercial charter flights which were requested by the Department of Defense.

As a result, group movements of military personnel have been accomplished with little delay, and in numbers, frankly, we just about are comparable to those transported by commercial air carriers before the strike began.

The Department of Defense has at the same time encountered some adverse results from the strike. Official travel within the United States has been reduced by something between 25 and 50 percent. It is hard to tell. The military training programs requiring use of National Guard and Air Force Reserve aircraft have had to be adjusted to accommodate the withdrawal of aircraft for project combat leave.

The use of alternative means of transports and escalated operations of military aircraft to move duty and leave passengers has increased costs. Added chartered U.S. contract cargo capability has not been obtainable since a large portion of supplemental air carrier capability is being employed to supplement regular airline services.

There is difficulty being experienced by defense contractors in moving personnel on a timely basis. So it is a matter, as far as the defense or military program is concerned, of no diminution of basic required essential services, but of interruption of some of the supplementary services, some of the side services which are quite important. Next, with respect to the effect of this situation on business and commercial interests, these are the overall figures:

The air transportation system in the United States consists of 11 trunk carriers and 13 local service carriers. In addition, there are 13 supplemental carriers. There is a fleet of more than 90,000 general aviation aircraft, and there is a fleet of 3 all-cargo carriers.

The five struck airlines normally account for approximately 60 percent of the scheduled trunk carrier passenger service and approximately 57 percent of the aircargo.

From the standpoint of the Nation's total transportation system, air transportation accounts for about 6 percent of the total intercity passenger miles, and approximately one-tenth of 1 percent of total freight

movements.

It is clear that the five airlines involved in the strike account for a substantial portion of the airline traffic in the United States in terms of passengers, cargo, and mail. It is also important to note that only 5 of the 100 top city pairs in terms of traffic generation are without direct one-carrier service as a result of the strike.

At the time the strike started, the trunk carriers as a group were operating at load factors ranging generally from 50 to 60 percent systemwide. Local service carriers were operating 45 to 50 percent.

Senator DOMINICK. Mr. Chairman, I wonder if I can interrupt at that point.

I wonder if the Secretary can tell me where he got those figures from? My own personal experience is that every plane I have been on has been jammed to the eyeballs before the strike started.

Secretary WIRTZ. Before the strike started?

Senator DOMINICK. Yes.

Secretary WIRTZ. That hasn't been mine, Senator. If I were testifying from personal experience, my experience not being important, but these figures are from the Department of Commerce and from the