Evening star., 1939-09-23

Dor board which HOG
could conceiv- s'''S'''S'
ably transform David Lawrence.
the whole labor picture in America
by compelling employer groups to
negotiate industry wide agreements
with national labor organizations
For it has just decided that an en-
ployer who has plant in each o.
six different cities must recognize
union as bargaining agent for all
six, even though the union has a
majority in only five out of the six
plants.
Not long ago the board ruled that,
with respect to longshoremen, the
employer group as whole had to
recognize the unions in the Pacific
Coast region. This case will be car
ried to the Supreme Court of the
United States and there are many
well-informed lawyers who think
the court will sustain the power OF
the board to prescribe the "appro-
pirate unit" as the phrase is used
in the Wagner law, to apply to an
employer group or an employer
company irrespective of how many
plants are covered or where they are
located.
1t is true that the labor board has
divided on the latest case involving
the six plants under one employer,
but the differences between two
board members. on the one hand
Chairman Madden and E. S. Smith,
and w. M. Leiserson, new member,
on the other, are fundamental.
Think Law Pro- Union.
It is not a question of one men,
Der being pro-employer and the
others pro-union They are all pro-
union because they think the law
Is pro-union. Like many other de-
cislons, the difference in interpre-
tation comes from sincere ap-
proacheS to what may or may not
be done with wide discretionary
powers. The theory that the only
thing wrong with the labor board
is its membership and that a new
personnel would make everything
right for the employers is as falla-
cious as the belief that the G. I. O.
would be satisfied if the A. F. of l..
Is. The fact remains that Congress
has passed a law with such discre-
tionary authority vested In a board
OF three that the attack in the
courts thus far has concerned itself
primarily with alleged arbitrariness
OF specific orders. and hardly at all
with the broad question of delega-
ton of legislative power.
There has also been a reluctance
on the part of employers to ask the
courts to pass on the constitution
ality of other sections of the Wag-
ner law than those interpreted in
the Jones & Laughlin case. Labor,
too, has not seen fit to question the
power of board to decide the zap
propriate unit" for itself without
being given legislative standards by
Congress for such determination
The tendency has been to 60 back
to Congress to try to redress the
grievances arising out of operations
OF the Wagner law, and there is an
investigation of the board going on
now by 10000 questionnaires to be
followed by testimony before a
House committee about October Is
under the Craftsmanship of Repre-
sentative Howard Smith of Vir-
ginia.
Law Weaknesses Overlooked.
The opposition thus far has been
mostly against the board itself, with
relatively little attention to the
weaknesses in the law, and espe-
cially to the blank check given b.
Congress to the labor board to de.
eide how appropriate units" for
collective bargaining may be made
up. The latest case, showing that
the board can, under the law, order
an employer to group all his en-
ployes irrespective of location geo.
graphically is one of the most i'm
portant that has developed. 1t is
not the kind of board, but the law
which makes possible such a ruling.
The Wagner Act virtually orders
the board to decide what is the
Inappropriate unit" but sets forth nc
legislative standards by which the
decision should be made. Hence,
precedents and previous rulings by
the board constitute a quasi-legis-
1ative record comprising the exer-
else of intimate powers over busi-
ness and workers which, it will be
argued, was never intended that the
Congress itself should delegate, to
say nothing of legislating on such
a point without direct constitu-
tional mandate The criticism of
the operations of the labor law in
the last year or more have empha-
sized dissatisfaction with the board
much more than with the organic
law itself. The latest appropriate
unit" case draws attention once
more to the fact that the Congress,
by law, has delegated wide power
to a three-man board without pre-
scribing specific legislative stand
ards.
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