The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-08-08
COAL BARONS
BACK DOWN IN
LABOR BATTLE
Company Union Provisions
Will Be Withdrawn
From Code.
ACTION UNDER PROTEST
Warning Will Be Sounded
by Gen. Johnson When
Hearings Start.
BY RUTH FTNNEY
Times stan Writer

WASHINGTON. Aug. Goal
companies will withdraw the COM
pany union provisions in their NRA
codes as steel men did at the first
session of coal code hearings
Wednesday.
The recovery administration is
understood to have received as
surance that this action will be
taken, but the coal men. like the
steel men. insist that their
surrender comes in response 10 a
public demand by Administrator
Hugh S. johnson, not as voluntary
action.
Accordingly. when the coal hear
ings begin. Johnson will warn the
coal men that the codes submitted
by Northern Coal Control ASsocia-
ton. SmokeleSS and Appalachian
Coal Association, and other groups
which have not recognized labor
violate the national recovery act.
After a recess and a quick con-
ference, the coal men will agree TO
omit wording in conflict with the
law. though probably they will an
nounce their intention. as did the
steel men. of doing all in their pow
er TO retain company unions in
their mines.
Reservation Is Made
The code submitted by the biggest
operating group in the industry,
Northern Coal Control Association
and Smokeless and Appalachian
Coal Association, says, after reciting
collective bargaining provisions of
the recovery act:
The foregoing shall apply to each
employer in his relations TO his own
employees. but no employer shall be
required to deal jointly with other
employers. or with representatives
of any employees other than his own,
and any collective bargaining shall
be on behalf OF only those employees
participating therein. the employer
being free to deal separately with
any other of his employees not so
participating
The recovery act itself provides
that employees shall have the right
to organize and bargain collectively
through representatives of their own
choosing and shall be free from the
interference, restraint or coercion of
employers of labor, or their agents,
in the designation of such repre-
sentatives or in self-organization or
in other concerted activities for the
purpose of collective bargaining or
other mutual aid or protection"
Miners Are Baking
Elimination of all clauses in con-
flict with this provision will remove
the most serious barrier to agree
ment on code or codes for the coal
industry. The most bitter oppo-
nents of labor unionization IN the
coal fields have been the coal
company subsidiaries of United
States Steel. and it was for that
reason that the recovery admins
tration arranged steel code hearings
in advance of coal codes.
This background of Steel Corpora
ton opposition to coal miners
unionization is responsible for re-
fusal of employees of the H. c.
Prick Coke Company and ether
mines in Fayette county, Pennsyl-
vania, to return to work under the
truce arranged by President Roose-
welt and the recovery administra-
ton.
The Prick company, instead of
signing the general agreement sub
scribed to by all other affected cp-
orators and John l.. Lewis of The
United Mine Workers. signed
separate statement. in which United
Mine Workers was not mentioned
at all
Employees of this company suspect
that they are being asked to go back
to work on terms somewhat less gen.
erouS than those accorded workers
in other mines. and it is for that
reason that Edward F. McGrady.
assistant administrator and himself
an organized labor man. is flying to
Uniontown today to give the work
ers direct assurance from the gov
eminent that their rights to collec-
tive bargaining are being protected.