The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-06-29
By ARvID HANSEN.

4 sorry courts OF Arb1tratlon and penal
Legislation against the trade unions,
have now been made law by the Nor
wegian Storting. According to these
enactments, council of five, APP
pointed by the government, will have
authority to establish the detailss of
wages, working hours, etc, which
means that it will be able to decree,
at least approximately, the wage edu-
cations demanded by the employers.
If the workers organized in trade
unions fail to submit to the verdict,
i.e., to the lower wage rate, they fall
under the prescriptions of the penal
law, i.e., the trade unions are respon-
sible for any such illegal strike and
are exposed to all sorts of economic
and penal reprisals, "if they cannot
prove that they are not to blame or
if they have not employed all means
at their disposal to prevent the breach
or the continuation Of the unlicensed
conditions or the Illegal stoppage of
work"
Fine Strikers.
If the trade unions cannot prove
such an attitude or manner Of pro-
cedure, paragraph 40 of the new law
enacts that any one participating in
a resolution to "effect, continue, sub
sidize, or approve of" such an illegal
strike, and any one "inciting such
strike, or supporting it, or collecting
funds therefore or distributing funds
collected for the effectuation or con-
tinuation of the strike" shall be liable
to fines ranging from to $4,000
crowns or to Imprisonment not ex-
ceeding three months or to both.
The same penalties apply to those
that threaten the freedom of the
workers, i.e., the freedom of the black
leg.
These are the main points of the
laws which have already been passed
by the entire bourgeois bloc. An adj
ditional paragraph is still in prepare
ton. It was suggested by the Con-
servatives and the Peasant Party and
aims at making the hbelling of strike
breakers in general (even in the case
Of illegal" strike) and the publica-
ton of the names of strike-breakers
punishable by Imprisonment not ex-
ceeding one year. This paragraph is
at present under discussion by the
parliamentary Committee for Public
Justice.
The new paragraphs already passed
are highly characteristic of the en-
tire trend of present-day legislation,
for they enact that, firstly, the trade
unions shall be bound to report to
the government not only their num-
Der of members but also all the cir
cumstances connected with the men,
bers in question; while, secondly, the
new laws are to apply not only to the
existing trade unions but also to any
groups or executive committees
formed by members Of the trade
unions; and, thirdly, the so-called
working regulations" which were
hitherto limited to the purposes of an
arbitration body, may in case of need
give the authorization of lockout,
ie., conference.-the on the part of
the employers.
Slash Wages.
How is it that just this year should
see the passage of new reactionary
trade union legislation in Norway?
Firstly, as result of the situation
in Norwegian class relations. After
lockout of several months in four
industries, the Norwegian employers
were still unable to come to terms
with their workers, and the bour-
geoisie began to reckon with the pros
pect of the workers being supported
by the trade unions Of the Soviet
Union. The effectuation of the wage
reductions (by II per cent? in the
year 1925 entailed six lengthy lock-
outs. A repetition of the conflicts on
such scale would have endangered
the stability of the currency and 9th
er achievements of the capitalists.
The employers found themselves I'M
able to carry out a further wage re-
duction by Is per cent on their own
account, and they therefore had re-
course to the Legislative means Of
their labor-exploiting state, the en-
tire apparatus Of which is at present
in the hands of the Conservative
Party.
Open Shop LOCALIZED.
During the social semi-pacifism Of
the former Liberal government, the
employers association was opposed
to the compulsory arbitration law, as
was also the Conservative Party, but
since in view of the readiness Of the
workers to fight they could find no
other solution Of the conflict despite
many attempts in various directions,
the employers and their government
have had recourse to the old panacea
Of the Liberals, which they did all the
more readily as they were in posi-
ton to combine the passing Of this
law with the establishment Of the
"stabilizing' enactments of the no