Evening star., 1936-07-06
Labor Board Declares Its
Function Must Be Up.
Held to Keep Peace.
100000 UNION MEMBERS
is GOAL OF ORGANIZERS
Relief if Job Lost Promised Work.
ers by Lieutenant Governor
of Pennsylvania.

Doted to attempt organization in
steel field, but plans failed to ma
terialize. Group of A. F. OF L.
unions. tavoring industrial union
ization rather than craft unioniza-
tion, last Fall formed Committee
on Industrial Organization. 1t de-
cided to test oiDn strength on dripe
to organize steel on industry lines.
Proceeding on theory that attack
is best defense. industry immedi-
dtely Joined in denuncidtion OF
labor motives and pledged all re-
sources to fight organization drive.
by the Associated Press
Warning that industrial warfare
threatens, the Government stepped
into the steel picture today as the
struggle over unionization in the S.
000, ,000,0 900 industry headed rapidly
into its first crucial phases
With John L. Lewis squirting the
drive to organize all 100000 steel
workers into one big union in defiance
OF the bitter opposition of employers,
the National Labor Relations Board
reopened fight in the courts to force
steel companies to accept the national
labor relations act as . means Of
keeping peace
The board announced it was petit
tioning the Federal Circuit Court Of
Appeals at New Orleans today in a
new effort to enforce the act against
the big Jones g. Laughlin Steel Corp.
The petition said the need for
remedial legislation such as this act
is now being amply illustrated by the
threatened strife in the steel industry
which will, by its nature, directly bur-
den - interstate commerce"
Employer" Unions Hit.
The act, among other things, guar
antees the right Of collective bargain
ing, seeks to outlaw employer -domi-
mated unions and lists unfair prac-
tices" for which employers could be
penalized. 1t Is now the subject of
court battles In which its constitu-
tionality Is being challenged and
defended.
The Labor Board some time ago Is
sued an order directing Jones g.
Laughlin to cease alleged interfer-
ence with its employees attempts at
self-organization and to take back
10 discharged employees at its Aliquip-
pa, Pa, plant.
The board asked the court at New
Orleans to enforce this order. The
court refused, declaring the steel la
borers were engaged in manufacture,
not interstate commerce, and that the
Constitution gives the Federal Gov
ernment no power to regulate labor
relations in manufacture.
The court pointed to the Supreme
Court decision which struck down the
labor provisions of the Guffey coal con-
troll act on the ground they were an
invasion of State rights.
Rehearing Cites Difference"
The Labor Board, in its petition
today for rehearing, argued that
the Guffey acts type of regulation '1s
different from the employment of
means to protect commerce itself pro-
vided in the national labor relations
act"
Unless "the threat Of industrial war
fare Is alleviated," the board argued,
workers may directly and Intention
ally interrupt interstate commerce.
1t said the express purpose of Con-
gress to prevent such direct and in
territorial burdens to commerce itself,
and to provide means of settling dis
putes which lead thereto, distinguishes
this statute" from the Guffey act.
Congress, the board added. has power
to protect commerce" by removing
the causes of strikes.
The boards move was the latest
major development with a bearing on
the struggle over unionization which
is fraught with potential Importance
for the future history of the American
labor movement.
With employers reiterating their in
tention to maintain the "open shop"
John L. Lewis, United Mine Workers
leader and head Of the Committee for
Industrial Organization, planned to
strike the keynote of the unionization
drive at $50 o'clock tonight in q radio
(See STEEL. PAGE A-40