Senate Votes 60-Day Notice for Closings : Trade Representative Sees ‘No Chance’ That Bill Can Escape Veto

WASHINGTON — The Senate, rekindling a labor agenda stalled for seven years by the Reagan Administration, voted today to require employers to give workers 60 days’ notice of plant closings or large layoffs.

On a 60-40 vote largely along party lines, Democrats defeated an attempt by Republicans to eliminate the mandatory layoff notices sought by unions from a massive 1,013-page trade bill.

However, U.S. Trade Representative Clayton K. Yeutter said there is “no chance whatsoever” that the trade bill, in its present form, could escape a presidential veto.

Yeutter also said the plant-layoff measure will do nothing to advance efforts to make U.S. manufacturers more competitive abroad and accused Congress of losing “its sense of direction” on the trade issue.

‘Tunnel Vision’ Charged

“Congress is failing to abide by its own declared objectives. This started out as a competitiveness package,” said Yeutter, who accused lawmakers of developing “tunnel vision.”

Sen. Dan Quayle (R-Ind.) described the mandatory notices as an attempt by unions to “allow the government to insert itself in the collective bargaining process.”

“This legislation is not going anywhere, we all know that,” Quayle said. “It’s veto bait.”

But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, said: “The days of feudal barons are over. The question is are we going to treat people like people or like chattels in corporate America.”

Bill Had Been Tougher

Kennedy and Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), the measure’s primary sponsor, had pushed a much tougher AFL-CIO-endorsed package through the Labor Committee, requiring up to 180 days’ notice on closures.

Since then, however, Kennedy and Metzenbaum have been overwhelmed by opposition from business groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Assn. of Manufacturers.

In a succession of weakened versions, the 180 days’ notice was cut to 60 days and provisions requiring businesses to provide unions and local communities with financial data to justify a plant closing were eliminated.

In addition, faltering companies struggling to stay in business were excluded from the notice requirement and the exemption for small businesses was raised to those employing fewer than 100 employees, instead of 50 as originally provided.