Murray Bans United Steelworkers From Striking for Next Two Years; Congress May Restrict Union Fees

WASHINGTON, May 21--A Senate-House committee was reported informally agreed tonight on putting a ceiling on initiation and membership fees of unions.

Senator Tuft (R-Ohio) told reporters that while no final action had been taken, Senate conferees seemed in the mood to accept a provision of the House labor disputes measure which would limit the fees to be fixed by unions.

The House voted a $25 limitation, but there apparently was no final agreement today on the amount as the committee worked steadily ahead in attempts to compromise the differences between Senate and House labor bills.

The fee provision is regarded as the only section of a so-called workers' "bill of rights" in the House measure which the Senate group may accept. Senators contended that several other provisions are covered in other sections of their bill.

As passed by the House, this section specifies that it shall be an unfair labor practice for any labor organization to coerce individual members, charge excessive fees, force contributions to benefit funds, deny the right of a member to resign, expel a member without hearing, levy discriminatory fines, force the firing of a member for other than failure to pay dues, refuse a secret ballot, spy on mem- hers of fail to keep adequate financial records.

Taft told reporter he and his Senate colleagues "would prefer not to try to regulate unions to the extent that every instance of a fight between a union and an individual member becomes a case for the National Labor Relations Board to settle.