The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-09-01

dormant for some years, has risen from it's ashes.
 In addition to all these, entire ly independent unions have sprung up claiming utilization with no other organization, and number ing. according to conservative es- innate, at least 250,O00 members
 Probably 6.000,OOO of Ameri- ca's 35,000,000 gainfully em- ployed workers are organized to- day-more than ever before.
 GIVEN TONIC BY MIRA
 The MIRA presented a challenge. When it ordered the organization and cooperation of employers, it could do no less than guarantee the right of labor to organize if and as it wished. Organized la bor was not long in picking up the challenge.
 New conditions called for new methods. The rise of mass pro- duction industries in which a worker may performe single operation, such as tightening a bolt on an auto body as it passes him on the assembly line, has brought up new kind of labor.
 It is not exactly unskilled, nor is it highly skilled in the sense that a carpenter: machinist, or printer is skilled. These mass production workers are the "bat. tleground" of organized labor to- day.
 There is only one way to or ganize such workers: that is, Vertically" by industries, rather than horizontally" by trades, the traditional method. That is, for instance in the rubber industry, you have unions of all rubber workers in a single plant regard less of the kind of worok they do, instead of a national union of machinists or molders with only a few members of that trade in each rubber plant.
 VERTICAL UNIONS RISE Automobiles, rubber, alumi- mum, clothing, mining, power and equipment, textiles-those are the fields in which the new vertical or industrial unions are rising. The A. F. of L. has recognized this trend and has chartered more than 1900 such vertical unions since the MIRA went into effect. It had fewer than 300 before that. Such local organizations are affili- ated directly witht he federation, without membership in one of the great international trade unions.
 And the next step has already been taken in several cases. After large number of federal unions in single industry, say automo- piles or aluminium, are established in different towns, the next thing is to unite them in a council or what amounts to a national indus trial union.
 MINERS FORM LARGEST UNIT
 Such national federal unions are large enough to compete in influence with the old-established trade unions, many of which are slipping, due to the, inrOads in their membership made by auto matic machinery. In fact. such an industrial union, the United Mine Workers, newl y risen to 6OO,O0O members, is the largest single unit of the A. F. of l..
 Yet the same MIRA "charter of labor" which gave labor its best opportunity to organize has also brought on the most disastrous wave of strikes in recent years, and brought many labor leaders bitter disillusionment. These lead CTS thought that the famous Sec ton "A of the MIRA would hand over the workers to the union organizations without a struggle. They did not expect the resist ance from employers in promptly launching a counter-offensive of company unions, nor the competi- ton from radical and independent l unions.
 Section "A seemed clear. It gave every employe the right to join any organization he chose without interference from the em- pioyer. And it bound employers to bargain with representatives of the employees, once chosen. VIKING PROBLEM RISES But in practice, Section "A proved to be far from clear.
 If there are 100 men in a shop and 51 of them choose the x. Y. z. Union as their representative, shall that union bargain for all, or only for the 51?
 At first the National Labor Board said the majority bargains for all. But in the auto strike settlement, a proportional system was set up. Each union or group chose representatives for bargain ing in proportion to its member ship. The majority rule" ques- tion is yet to be settled.
 If employees choose the union business agent as their repre- sentative in bargaining, does he speak for that union, or merely for the employees who have chosen