Evening star., 1933-12-31
n. R. A. DRIVE GIVES
UNIONS BIC CHANCE
TO BROADEN SCOPE
Federal Government Spurs
Labor Organizations in
All Industries.
CBy Cambridge Associates)


OF all the vast changes which have
come over the field Of American life,
none. at least in its potentialities for
the future. is more profound than the
altered outlook for organized labor. For
| the United States alone, among modern
industrial nations. seemed to have
passed the necessity of unioniSm: collec-
tive bargaining. which had never made
much headWay, was no longer an i'm
portant faction in many industries, and
into others 1t never penetrated at all
And then along came the national in
dustrial recovery act.
Never had the labor movement in
the United States received such en-
! couragement from government. In
what amounted not only to mandate,
but to downright urging. to 60 ahead
and organize all of industry which had
not previously been included in those
fields of activity in which unions had
! been a factor, the N r. A. came into
being.
A. F. of L. Steps In.
! Obviously the role of organizer fell to
the American Federation of Labor. Re-
spending more aggresSively than had
been supposed to the stimulus of the
| N. I. r. A, the heads of this amalga-
nation of labor bodies proceeded to
order q campaign, the objective Of which
was. as President Green announced, the
ultimate inclusion of the Nations u.s.
| 900, 900 workers in the A. F. of l. More
Immediately, 10000 900 were to be taken
into the fold.
At first these efforts were crowned
with considerable success. But even
tually the labor leaders apparently fell
into that state of mind in which one
| is unable to see the forest for the trees;
instead Of concentrating on unionizing
the induence luz % Of the the Unions, Union jurisdice dc
| tiona1'' disputes broke out, and much
internecine warfare between leaders of
the various schools Of thought within
the organization did much to destroy
the effectiveness of the campaign. In
addition, the federation's intransigent
| attitude toward other labor organiZa-
tionS not affiliated with 1t antagonized
fairly large section of labor. At the
present time the campaign has slowed
/ somewhat, but new members are trick
ling in, although the mass organization
which had been anticipated is far from
realization. 1t is thought that the
| younger blood in the A F. Of L. is dis
| tinctly dissatisfied at the present time.
Minimum Wage Efforts.
Now let us shift the spotlight to an
! other phase OF N R. A. activity. Al
| though it is but half a year behind us.
many of the reasons which prompted
the Blue Eagle temporary codes, just
now expiring. have been forgotten. But
the most important was that wages did
not mount due to the slow rate at which
the permanent codes went into effect
Consequently, the need for blanket
code became urgent. That it was not
altogether effective was, in large part,
| due to the emergent nature of the pact
However, we swing into 1884 we
are faced with an entirely different
situation. The permanent codes are
now in effect. They cover virtually all
industry. Activities of the N. r. A.
have boosted wages somewhat-but
from now on the situation will be diff
ferent, for the Government will give
less support to wage demands on the
part of workers. Just as business is
| being given a somewhat more free ha-- i
to adjust its costs, under Government
supervision. so will labor have to be
more self-reliant in the future.