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AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland says federal labor laws do...

WASHINGTON -- AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland says federal labor laws do more harm than good for workers and that unions might be 'better off with the law of the jungle.'

In a Wall Street Journal interview published Wednesday, Kirkland said labor might be better off without such basic protections as the right to strike without being fired, the right to organize and the right to bargain collectively.

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If the laws were repealed, Kirkland said, workers would flock to unions for protection from unscrupulous employers. He called federal labor laws a 'dead letter' that give workers little real protection.

'Let us go mano a mano,' Kirkland said. 'I think we could organize very rapidly.'

If deregulation was good for industry, Kirkland said, 'maybe it would be good for us.' He added: 'We're the only exception to industry craving deregulation.'

The labor leader's call for a radical reworking of the nation's labor laws stems from frustration with what he called the National Labor Relations Board's recent 'anti-union decisions.'

Kirkland said one out of every 20 workers who joins a union is fired in retaliation and that present-day labor-management relations are as confrontational as those during the labor movement's early days.

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