LABOR

White House Won’t Push for Striker Replacement Ban: The Clinton administration dropped legal efforts to revive its executive order banning most government contractors from hiring permanent replacements for striking workers. Officials at the Labor and Justice departments said the White House won’t seek Supreme Court review of a lower-court ruling that threw out President Clinton’s controversial striker-replacement policy. The administration had until today to file an appeal. The ban was struck down earlier this year when a Washington-based appeals court said Clinton overstepped his authority by trying to override U.S. labor law, which allows the replacement of striking workers. In a statement, Labor Secretary Robert Reich said the administration “has concluded that further litigation on the validity of the executive order is not productive.” Though Reich said the president still “believes that permanently replacing workers who exercise their right to strike makes labor disputes worse for all concerned,” the administration won’t explicitly promise to push for a new striker-replacement law in Congress. Clinton issued the executive order after an earlier congressional proposal died on Capitol Hill.