The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1918-09-13
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING FIRST
AID OF INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY
Pertinent LabOrs Chairman the United States
National War Labor Board

last four months, involving in the
aggregate hundreds of thousands
of wage-earning men and women
And in every case where collective
bargaining has been denied the work.
ers heretofore, it has been installed
by order of the Board.
In the Pittsfield, Mass, plant OF
the General Electric Company, fol
example, no form of group represen.
tation of the employees had ever beer
permitted by the company, and mer
were hired under an individual con-
tract which in effect prohibited union
membership. The Board ordered
these contracts abolished, at the
same time protecting the employees
IN their right to join the union OF
their trade. Further, the Board
itself installed, through represen-
tative, the machinery for collective
bargaining in form acceptable to
the men, a form which they will
make their own and improve upon
in the future as their experience
suggests. The system introduced
provides not only for collective bar
gaining in the restricted sense, but
also (what is still more importantly
for securing to the men voice in
the technical operation and day-to-
day routine of the shop.
The Board ordered that "the cleo
ton by the workers of their rep
resentative department committees
to present grievances and mediate
with the company shall be held,
during the life of this award, in
some convenient public building in
the neighborhood of the plant to be
selected by the examiner of this
Board assigned to supervise the exc
cution of this award, or, in the case
of his absence, by some impartial
person, a resident of Pittsfield, to
be selected by such examiner. Such
examiner, or his substitute, shall
preside over the first and all sub
sequent elections during the life of
this award, and have the power to
make the proper regulations to Sc
cure absolute fairness"
Duties of Department Committees
"The duties of the department
committees shall be confined to the
adjustment of disputes which the
shop foremen and the division su-
perintendents and the employees have
been unable to adjust"
And this scheme of democratic CO.
operation has been introduced by the
War Labor Board in plant after
plant where an autocrat has here
tofore reigned supreme.
These department committees, to-
gether with the representative of the
employer with whom they meet,
might we'll be called the two houses
of the local or State legislature OF
this new industrial democracy.
Here is the provision for the "Fed-
eral Congress-:
"The department committees shall
meet annually and shall select from
among their number three employees
who shall be known as the commit
tee on appeals. This committee
shall meet with the management for
the purpose of adjusting disputes
which the department committees
have failed to adjust" :"
In practice this committee on ap-
oeals will deal with many of the
broader questions of policy which
affect the shop as a whole. Per-
haps this Federal legislature" might
be better likened to the English
Parliament, with it's House of Com
mons representing the citizenry and
It's House of Lords representing vest
ed privilege, than to our American
forums of legislation. But it is
we'll here to remember that the
English House of Lords recently lost
is veto power over those measures
most vitally affecting the welfare
# the people.
The War Labor Board, by proc
'amation of the President, must in
stitute collective bargaining in ev-
cry case which comes under its jur-
isdiction, for its first principle
reads.
Fright to Organize" Affirmed
"The right of workers to organize
n trades-unions and to bargain col
iectively through chosen representa-
lives is recognized and affirmed.
This right shall not be denied,
abridged, or interfered with by the
employers in any manner whatso-
aver"
Moreover. the Government does not
wish the workers to be unrepre-
sented; it realizes that the national