Montana labor news., 1933-05-04
A. F. OF L. COUNCIL APPROVES
PRODUCTION CONTROL UNDER
3O-HOUR WEEK, WAGE OPPOSED
President William Green Tells House Labor Com
mittee Pay Regulation Should Be Limited to
Women and Minors-Fears Minimum Wage to
Become Maximum Wage-Labor's Right to Or
game Must Be Protected and Wages Increased.

mum wage boards, except that such
boards shall be created for the pur-
pose of fixing minimum rates for
women and minors.
"We believe that they are so help
less, and that the turnover as a rule
among that class is so great in in
dustry, that society could with pro-
priety protect them through the es-
| adjustment of minimum wage rates.
Menace of LOw-Wage Employers.
Taking the mining and textile in
dustries, as examples, Mr.. Green said
the Executive Council justly feared
that low-wage employers in districts
where the workers are unorganized
and consequently helpless would be
able to have wages fixed by the au-
| thority of the Government so low as
to je~opardize the high wage standards
established by the organized workers
in the same industries in other To-
calities-that the minimum rate in
low-wage sections would in all prob
ability become the maximum rate paid
i n that industry.
"We want to be Free" he said, 'to
exercise our economic strength. We
believe that we can develop a pur-
chasing power if we are free to use
that organized strength, to unite and
organize"
Minimum Wage Employers Oppose
Unions.
With regard to employers who have
advocated a minimum wage, Mr..
Green declared:
"They are the employers who will
not permit a union in their plants.
The one stabilizing force that could
develop a decent wage is prohibited.
And yet they are willing to subscribe
to a minimum wage. Why? Because
they see that the minimum wage will
be fixed at a level which they believe
will be permanent and which will
place every employer practically up
on the same labor cost level. But if
you would ask those employers to ac-
cord their workers the right to or
ganize, they would Immediately deny
that right.
eve cannot organize the workers in
some of the mills in the South be-
cause the employers discharge them
Immediately when they organize, they
drive them out, they discriminate
against them, they eject them from
their homes, and they terrorize them.
As a result, you cannot establish an
organization under those circum-
alances.
Right to Organize Essential.
"The one force necessary to main
tain wages is the organization of
workers into unions where they can
exercise their economic strength. If
the employers of the nation will with
draw their opposition to organization,
if they will give the workers Of
America the right to organize-as
they, employers, organize-if they
may be permitted to freely exercise
that right, we will build up a wage
scale through organization that will
be commensurate with the require
ments of American citizenship.
"That is the opportunity we would
like to have and | wish that we might
make it impossible for an employer
to deny the workers the right to or
ganize when they wish to organize.
That, we think, is the solution of the
question.
Risky Adventure.
Il think you understand pretty well
our position. We believe that this
would be a risky adventure for labor,
the fixing of wages by law through
minimum wage boards, the pegging of
labor at a price. We fear that it
would be the maximum, hat it would
handicap us in our endeavors and in
our efforts to build up wage scales;