The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1939-08-10

American Federation of Labor which would COM
pei the Labor Board to certify craft union as a
legitimate bargaining unit when majority of it's
members so voted. The amendment is aimed at
the present power of the board to designate what
ever bargaining unit it chooses whether craft,
plant or employer unit-a power which it has used
almost invariably, and most conspicuously in the
case of the Pacific Coast longshoremen, to boost
the G. l. o. type of organization over that of the
A. F. of L. The amendment would implement the
confessed object of the Wagner act, which is to
permit workers to bargain collectively through
representatives of their own choosing as distinct
from those chosen for them by the Labor Board
under the political pressure exerted by Lewis. But
Mr.. Murray says it would break up the industrial
unions in favor of the various crafts and conflict
with the democratic principle of majority rule"
What it would break up is simply the conspir-
acy that has existed between the Labor Board and
the c. |. 0. to promote the atter's domination of
labor Perhaps under modern conditions of pro-
more logical form of organization. Certainly, in
the mass industries, where the workman what
ever his craft, is little more than cog in the
chine, the argument for organization along indus
trial lines seems conclusive. But even here hu-
man nature interposes with it's obdurate desire
for differentiation All men, including workmen,
are proud of their individual skill, and the more
specialized it is the prouder they of it. Thus,
when they can claim a craft as their own they
much prefer to be identified with it, and to or
game ana ngnC IOf IL, tnan 10 SuDmerge Lnenl-
selves without distinction in a vast army of op-
eratives. Call this snobbery if you WISH it is,
none the less, an ingrained human trait so tough
that any attempt, bureaucratic or other, to break
it down must result in either defeat or tyranny.
That such an attempt is at the bottom of the
Lewis Labor Board partnership who can doubt?
Mr.. Murray evidently considers this attempt
a contribution to democracy. But which is the
more democratic-to recognize and safeguard the
right of workers who want to organize and bar
gain by crafts to do so, or, by an arbitrary Sc
lection of the bargaining unit, to force upon them
representatives without interest in or very pos
sbly hostile to, their particular demands and prob
lens?
Mr.. Murray says that "there have been oc-
casions when an A. F. of L. affiliate has acted like
a company union" and he adds that ''to an alarm
ing degree certain A. F. of l.. unions have begun
to offer themselves to employers as antidotes to
the c. l. o." So another undemocratic feature of
craft organization is it's greater willingness to un-
derstand and cooperate with the employer in MAX
ing go OF their common enterprise. Apparently
his conception of democracy precludes not only the
self-organization of labor but any approach to
class determination. Rather obviously it is the
same conception which the Labor Board has
been acting, and it constitutes the best reason in
the world for thorough revision both of the law
and the board.