Plant-Closings Bill Moves Ahead; Amendment Fails

Labor-backed legislation to regulate plant-closings and layoffs by companies with more than 100 employees moved a step closer to passage Monday as Senate Democrats, reinforced by several industrial-state Republicans, easily defeated an amendment to strip control over layoffs from the proposal.

The 64-32 vote disposed of what had been considered the key GOP challenge to the plant-closing proposal, which had been attached to the omnibus trade bill and was the main reason for President Reagan’s successful veto of that massive legislation. Three weeks ago, the Senate was short of the two-thirds majority needed to override Reagan’s veto on a 61-37 vote.

Sen. Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-Kan.) failed in an attempt to limit the bill to plant-closings alone and to remove the bill’s mandate to regulate layoffs, but Senate Republicans are ready with at least a dozen further amendments in a bid to delay passage of the plant closing bill before the July 4 recess.

Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) had wanted to push for a final vote on the plant-closing bill Monday night or today but the main sponsor of the proposal, Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), late Monday warned him that a filibuster is likely. A cloture vote that would shut off debate needs 60 votes.

Labor Wish List

On the labor wish list for some 15 years, the plant-closing bill always has been vulnerable to filibuster in the Senate and for the first time it is standing alone as a separate piece of legislation. But the proposal to require 60 days advance notice of plant closings and large-scale layoffs has emerged as an election year issue and Democrats are trying to make the most of Republican opposition to a proposal polls show most Americans favor.

With the plant-closing bill virtually certain of passage in the Senate as separate legislation, meanwhile, the House is ready to push through a stripped version of the trade bill, minus the plant-closing proposal, perhaps this week.

Passage later this summer in the Senate is less certain.