Evening star., 1939-10-12


ards for the guidance OF the board
itself.
When the Wagner law said the
7 board was to decide whether the
unit appropriate" for collective bar
gaining should be "the employer
unit, craft unit, plant unit, or sub
division thereof" no set of prece-
dents was available and no specific
standards were set forth. In effect,
the Congress abdicated the legisla-
-making power to the board and
this, of course, meant that each
member would view the facts and
circumstances and principles in his
own way.
Since the board consisted until
recently of Messrs Madden, Donald
Smith and Edwin Smith, one set of
precedents was proclaimed. Now,
with the substitution of w. NJ Lei
serson for Donald Smith, some diff
ferences in construction of the law
have crept in This does not mean
that previous precedents have been
scrapped. On the contrary, the de-
cisions being handed down today are
largely in conformity with those
which were made before Mr.. Leiser-
son came to the board. 1t is in
narrow group of cases-possibly in
10-that deviations have occurred.
These changes, to be sure, are fun
damental and of great Importance,
but they indicate how shift in
personnel affects the boards rulings
because such wide discretionary pow
ers have been bestowed by Congress-
Workers Often Differ.
The basic purpose is to find the
unit which will permit the maxi
mum benefits of collective bargain
ing to the workers, but the latter
often differ among themselves as to
whether a craft unit or plant unit
or even a system of plants should
be the basis for bargaining.
The record does not bear out the
assertion that the c. l. o. is on one
side all the time urging an indus:
trial unit. and the A. F. of L. is
always in favor of craft unit. A
more accurate statement is that
each of these two big labor organi-
cations fights hard to get a unit
which happens to fit in with their
respective membership campaigns
and opportunities for victory.
The labor board, on the other
hand, is trying to keep to consist
ent set of precedents so that its de-
cisions will become a guide. Ac-
tually, however, the failure of Con-
gress to settle primary points leaves
the board members up tree Thus,
all of them agree that the history of
the collective bargaining in a given
case should be given great weight.
If the divisions have been along
craft or plant lines, the future
should be governed accordingly, in
the opinion of the board, though
this tends to freeze an existing sit
uation which may be unsatisfactory
to the workers.
The board has also taken the view
that where the interests of a group
of workers sharply diverge from
others in a plant, they may we'll en-
joy craft status with their own
machinery for bargaining. When
all things are equal, the board has
shown tendency to let the wishes
OF the men for craft unit prevail.
Failed to Prescribe Limit.
Mr.. Leiserson, the new member,
has been inclined to allow the ex-
istence of contract covering
previous relations to be the govern
ing factor. Even if the other factors
are present, he leans toward, a rul-
ing that goes along with the pur-
pose Of the contract previously in
force. Other members disagree on
this point, but it is inaccurate to say
these differences represent any
serious departure from the original
idea of giving the men the collec-
tive bargaining machinery they
want if they can establish them
selves in definitely recognizable or
identifiable groups. 49,
What has been forgotten in the
present controversy is that Chief
Justice Hughes said on May 27, 1885,
on behalf OF a unanimous Supreme
Court, five of whose members still
are. sitting on that tribunal, the fol-
lowing:
1--WE pointed out in the Panama
Company case that the Constitu-
tion has never been regarded as
denying to Congress the necessary
resources of fexibility and prac-
ticality, which will enable it to per-
form its functions in laying down
policies and establishing standards,
while leaving to selected instru-
mentalities the making of subordi-'
nate rules within prescribed limits
and the determination of facts to
which the policy as declared by the
legislature is to apply"
SiH mt Hy,roSoritoc tho