Antitrust and Labor

The thirteen-page treatment of the subject of “organized labor” in the Report of the Attorney General’s National Committee to Study the Antitrust Laws shows that the committee approached the subject gingerly, and that the counsel of moderation prevailed. The views of those who would change the national policy favoring (or at least tolerating) the existing institutions of trade unionism and collective bargaining by subjecting unions to “monopoly” standards are not discussed in the Report. The result is a limited and generalized approach, which holds that some kinds of union practices “aimed directly at commercial market restraints” run counter to our national antitrust policy and should be prohibited by some law.