Evening star., 1934-07-22
West Coast Strikes Show Weakness
OF Federal Power to Meet Crisis

| Washington. The answer given by
/ officials is that a large proportion of
labor disputes have grown out of
section Ia OF the national industrial
recovery act. That act gives to en-
ployers the right to organize into trade
groups and TO form combinations that
previously would have been in viola
| ton of the antitrust laws. Section Ia
also seeks to give to labor the right
to organize. The law says that workers
shall be permitted to form organiZa-
tions for purposes of bargaining COL
lectively with their employers. To
| carry on the bargaining they can Sc
lect representatives, and this selection
is to take place free from any interfer-
ence or restraint on the part of en-
ployers.
Labor took this invitation and the
country ever since has witnessed a
wave of union organization. There
was difference Of opinion over just
what the law meant, or just how much
power the Government had to enforce
it. so that in many instances employers
resisted the spread of unionism. This
resistance led to disputes and the dis
putes turned quickly into a country
wide wave of strikes
While the Federal Government had
made declaration of the right of labor
to organize, it had provided no ma
chinery to protect labor in that right.
This situation led first to the creation
of the National Labor Board by execu-
tive order. The N. L. B., headed by
Senator Wagner of New York, de-
veloped the idea of an election of em-
ployes to determine who should rep
resent them in bargaining Then it
sought to enforce the results of that
election.
But gradually the effectiveness of
the board was undermined by en-
ployer opposition. There we're ques-
tions as to its power. So Congress
adopted resolution on its closing day
providing definite statutory basis for
new group of boards, with actual
power to order elections and to enforce
the decisions reached in those labor
elections. The new law concerns only
those disputes that grow out of section
4 Ia of the recovery act, except when
interested parties want to refer the
issues for settlement.
X
Now, however, there are evidences
that the labor situation is pushing out
beyond the mere question of the right
to organize or the form that employe
organization shall take. On the Pa
ciflc Coast the longShoremen's strike
had nothing 10 do with the recovery
act. The shipping industry, in fact,
is not under a code. In the South the
strike of textile workers was over queS-
tions of wages and hours and not over
organization. Up in Minneapolis the
truck drivers went out during the past
week because they said employers had
not carried out a previous agreement.
They already have a union that is
recognized.
These late developments have led
some responsible officials to express
the view that the labor problem in
this country may be pushing out be-
yond the question Of whether there
is to be a company-controlled union
or an outside union, probably affili-
ated with the A. F. OF L. Their idea
is that labor is opening a fight for a
larger voice in the affairs of American
industry.
Some of the highest-placed officials
in Washington rather expected a
period of strife when workers and
employers fought out the question
Of whether or not there was to be
partial shift in the control of indus
try. But their hope was that adjust
ments could be worked out without
a great deal of open labor warfare
Settlements in the automobile in
dustry, the coal industry and the steel
industry came rather peacefully. The
President had thought that they would
serve as model agreements for ADJUST
ing other disputes.
But more and more the younger and
more radical element among the
workers is found gaining control. That
is exemplified in nearly all Of the vio-
lent strikes. Also, more and more,
organized unemployed are being
thrown into disputes on the side of
the workers That happened in Mil
waukee. with reports here showing
that the thousands of unemployed
really determined the outcome of the
strike Of street car and power COM
pany workers.
tCopyrtght. 1934O