The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-08-24
Crisis Impends in Trouble
Spots Of Pennsylvania
and West Virginia.
SHOWDOWN IS FACED
Prick Company Asserts II
Never Will Recognize
Labor Organization.
BY III. O. THOMPSON
United Press stan Correspondent


cisive test of organized labor's status
under the National Recovery Act
impended today. after an official
Interpretation" OF the collective
bargaining provisions of the act
was made by Administrator Hugh
S. johnson.
Johnson's statement erased the
words open shop and closed shop
from the dictionary of the NRA."
Smolderfng discords in the BIZ
luminous coal fields we're expected
to flare into situations demanding
an immediate showdown on issues
which have come down through the
decades without adequate solution.
Two trouble spots stand out in
the coal industry. They are in
Pennsylvania and West Virginia
and both involve the United States
Steel Corporation.
Defiance Is Hurled
The Pennsylvania strike situation
has been mediated. but not settled
definitely. 1t was reported here to-
day that representatives of the H.
c. Prick Coke Company had in
formed an agent of the national
labor board that the company. a
United States Steel subsidiary. never
would consent TO recognition of the
United Mine Workers of America
and never would operate under an
NRA code.
While the Pennsylvania dispute
held this potential dynamite. new
signs of trouble appeared from Lo-
gan, Wingo and Mcdowell counties
in West Virginia. Those districts
have been closed counties" so far
as the United Mine Workers are
concerned. and many heated bat
ties over unionization have been
fought through their rugged noun
tains
The national labor board has
been asked TO investigate reports
that employees of the United States
Coal and Coke Company. also a
subsidiary of the United States
Steel. has discharged workers be-
cause of activities in behalf of the
United Mine Workers. The reports
said scores of workers had been
evicted from company owned
houses.
Deny Union Involved
The labor board asked the COM
pany for a report on the situation
and was informed that no workers
had been evicted, but that notices
of dismissal had been given in some
cases. The company declared the
dismiSsals had no connection with
union activities.
The labor board must decide
whether to send investigators into
the West Virginia coal districts. ira
ditionally hostile to outside inter-
ference. The boards decision will
be an indication of how far it is
prepared to GO in preserving indus
trial peace during the period of
economic reconstruction.
In his official statement. johnson
said:
THE law can mean only one
thing, which is that employees can
choose any one they desire TO repre-
sent them, or they can choose to
represent themselves. Employers
likewise can make collective bar
gains with organized employees. or
individual agreements with those
who choose to act individually: pro-
vided, Of course, that no such coll
lective or individual agreement is in
violation Of any state or federal law.
But neither employers nor employees
are required by law TO agree TO any
particular contract, whether pro-
posed as an individual or collective
agreement.
Freedom for Employees
THE law provides that employees
shall be free from the interference,
restraint, or coercion of employers
in the exercise of their rights estab-
lished by the law.
Employers are forbidden to re-
quire as condition Of employment
that an employe eithe. shall 'join
a company union or 1efrain from
joining, Organizing. or assisting a
labor organization OF his own
choosing
The law does not prohibit the
existence Of a local labor organiza-
ton. which may be called a COM
pany union and is composed only
of employees Of one company. But
it does prohibit an employer from
requiring. as condition of en-
ployment. that any employe join
a company union. or any other or
ganization, by the interference, re-
straint or coercion Of an employer"