Evening star., 1939-12-18

lIlOSt Ol tIle IllelllDelS VI lllC 1AouoC
committee as having been a direct
invitation to Mr.. KRISTEN to partici-
pate in a boycott of hosiery COM
pany then engaged in a dispute with
4 minority of its employees.
The letter in question said In part:
''1 do not know whether you will
care to make any approaches on this
matter to the Berkshire management
nor do I know what volume of busi-
ness Filene's does with Berkshire.
I do most certainly feel that any
stand which you might adopt would
be listened to with greatest respect
by the Berkshire company. I am in
closing a letter from John Edelman,
research director of the hosiery
workers federation. which gives
some interesting facts regarding
this company"
The material inclosed related to a
boycott. Mr.. Smith insisted on the
stand that his sole purpose was to
get Mr.. KRISTEN to mediate, but he
admitted that he did not approach
the Berkshire company at any time
about getting the dispute settled by
mediation.
The record shows that Mr.. Smith
followed up his correspondence with
Mr.. KRISTEN by keeping him in
formed what the union was doing
and reported by letter to him on a
conversation he had with the head
OF the hosiery workers union, who
said that they had been meeting
with some success in the way OF
pressure by customers of the Berk-
shire company
Smith Justifies Efforts.
Although the National Labor Re-
lations Act does not permit the
board members to act as mediators,
nevertheless Mr.. Smith justiles his
informal efforts as something done
to settle the dispute in big indus
try.
His references to economic pres
sure by customers" and "the volume
of business" done by Filene's with
the Berkshire company were, he in
sists, merely incidental to his effort
to persuade Mr.. KRISTEN to intervene
as q mediator. Yet the record also
shows that Mr. Smiths efforts in re-
letion to economic pressure were
successful in principle. for Mr..
KRISTEN himself writes less than a
month after the corresponds
began:
I'm my opinion forward-looking
retailers will take into consideration
the attitude of manufacturers of this
type whose policies are not entirely
unknown to them"
Just why a member of the Ma
tional Labor Relations Board, who
Is supposed to sit in judicial ca
pacity on labor cases should interest
himself in the matter of economic
pressure on an employer through
sources outside the Government, or
why Mr.. Smith should have failed
to eliminate himself from sitting as
judge subsequently in the Berk-
shire case that came before the
board Is not at all clear to commit
tee members.
Complaint Sought.
Also 1t is evident from a reading
OF the record that again and again
the boards staff tried to get some
thing on the Berkshire company so
as to start a complaint case before
the board, but the union itself hesi-
tated to prefer charges. A month
after the correspondence between
Mr.. KRISTEN and Mr.. Smith, the
files Of the labor board show that
its regional director had confer
ence with the officials of the hosiery
union, and then reported to the
board as follows:
They (the union officials) stated
that while some of the officials of
the union thought facts might war
rant intervention by the board, it
was the opinion of President Rieve
Of the hosiery workers union and
of themselves that there was no un-
fair labor practice involved upon
which they could base charge of
violation of the National Labor Re-
lations Act, nor did they feel it wise
to press a charge that there was
refusal to meet for the purposes of
collective bargaining, since the COM
pany would undoubtedly raise the
point that they did not represent
majority of the workers and this
was true"
In other words. though the COM
pany was obeying the law and the
union admittedly did not have a ma
jority, the board members and stats
were consulting or comforting with
the minority or their representatives
and looking for opportunities to
trump up a charge under the law so
as to assist them in their efforts to
get majority in the Berkshire
plant.
Accusations of this sort have been
freely made by employers against
the board and its staff in the last
three years, but the board members
and the administration have denied
this sort of abuse Of the law and
OF the boards powers. Based on the
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