George W. Taylor: industrial peacemaker

Monthly Labor Review, Dec, 1995 by Edward B. Shils

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Dr. Taylor to an 8-year term as member of the President's Advisory Committee on Labor Management Policy, to serve with such notables as James Reynolds, Walter Reuther, Ralph McGill, Clark Kerr, Arthur Bums, Henry Ford II, David MacDonald, Stuart Saunders, Joseph Block, David Cole, George Meany, Walter Heller, Luther Hodges, and W. Willard Wirtz. President Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson also would use Taylor's mediatory talents on many critical occasions. Under President Kennedy, he became chairman of the President's Board of Inquiry in the Aerospace Industry in 1962, to settle problems with nonunion shop arrangements that had been dragging on since World War 11. Taylor became a presidential mediator under President Johnson during the 1964 national railroad dispute and during the railroad-shopcraft unions dispute of 1967. In 1968, he served as chairman of the presidential panel in the copper dispute, which saw one of the longest national strikes in history. President Johnson further honored Dr. Taylor with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in White House ceremonies on December 3, 1963.

Preserving Taylor's name is the famed "Taylor Law," developed during his work for New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller as chairman of an advisory Committee on Public Employment Relations: in 1966, Taylor accepted an invitation from Rockefeller to head a five-member panel to study the State's Condon-Wadlin law, which, in a limited way, governed labor relations for New York's State and local government employees. New legislation proposed by the panel was christened the "Taylor Law" by Governor Rockefeller when he signed it into law on April 25, 1967, and is currently regarded by labor experts as a model for public sector labor legislation on the State and local levels. The law recognized the right of public employees to organize and provided procedures for resolving bargaining impasses, but did not permit public sector strikes. Professor Taylor's sense of humor was in evidence when he would say that "the reason it was known as the Taylor Law was that its provisions were so controversial that the politicians didn't fight to have their own names on it."

Throughout the 1960's, Taylor could be expected to shuttle off to Washington to settle a steel, copper, or airline strike after a desperate midnight call from a U.S. President. However, he would plan to return, perhaps the next day, to meet his classroom at his beloved University of Pennsylvania or to counsel with the Mayor of Philadelphia or the Governor of Pennsylvania, each of whom might have had pressing labor problems. He returned during this period to traditional roles as impartial chairman in the regional contracts in clothing and women's apparel. He also made a major contribution to collective bargaining in public education, serving as chairman of a special commission to determine whether collective bargaining might work for school teachers in New York City.

After retirement in 1971 as the Gaylord P. and Mary Louise Harnwell Professor of Industry, which the University of Pennsylvania had named him in 1964, he returned often, as professor emeritus, to lecture in multi-section classes and to speak to student groups. To the end, he displayed enormous loyalty and love for his wife Edith, his Nation, and his university.