The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1939-01-26
Bargaining Unit
(Continued From Poqe One)

and demands of the C. 1. O. to favor
c. l. o. unions in an effort to destroy
American Federation of Labor unions" :"
Taking up the decisions of the Board
to prove the charge of maladminis
tration of the appropriate bargaining
provision so as to discriminate against
American Federation Of Labor unions
and favor c. l. o. unions, the Execu-
tive Council declared
First and foremost is the case of
the Allis Chalmers Company, wherein
Board member Edwin Smith dissented.
He held that maintenance electricians
and firemen and oilers affiliated with
the American Federation of Labor
have not the right to vote as separate
units and that the majority in these
groups should be denied the right to.
select their bargaining agent. He held
that all workers should be fused into
one unit and an industrial organization
set up. In discussing the majority
opinion wherein the craft groups were
accorded the right to select their bar
gaining agent he said: "By this
pseudo o-democratic method determn-
alton of the greatest consequence to
the other employees in the plant is left
in the hands of groups known to be
hostile to industrial organization" F"
Board members, Chairman Madden
and Donald Wakefield Smith wrote the
majority opinion which was contrary
to the contentious of Board member
Edwin Smith. Since then, however,
Board member Edwin Smith has won
over Board member Donald Wakefield
Smith and these two wrote that por-
tion of the opinion in the Serrick Cor
poration case dated July 27, 1888.
-. Furthermore, for the purpose
of this Act, and under the circum-
stances of the present case, the divis-
ion Of the respondents employees by
the International Association of Ma
chinists into two locals for organiza-
tional purposes must be deemed arti-
fetal. Since the |. A. of M. sought to
organize the tool room employees sep
arately and at approximately the same
time, solicited and carried on organ
national activity among production
employees and continued to do SO up
to the time of the hearing, in fact, it's
methods of organization must be re-
garded as an attempt to enroll all the
respondents production employees in
direct competition with the United
Automobile Workers, which was or
ganizing on an industrial basis. There
fore, the |. A. of M. cannot be heard
to maintain that the craft unit is ap-
propriate.
The foregoing decision of Board
members Edwin S. Smith and Donald
Wakefield Smith elected the following
dissenting opinion from Chairman
Madden:
concur in the decision and in all
of the opinion except that part,
beginning with the words "Futher-
more, for the purposes Of the act"
and ending with the words chat the
craft unit is appropriate" | think
that this language is unnecessary for
the decision Of this case and that
therefore no opinion should be ex-
pressed upon this subject.
From the foregoing it will be seen
that the insidious attempt to destroy
American Federation of Labor unions
through the perversion Of the unit
provision in the National Labor Re-
lations Act is definitely on its way to
accomplishment by the Board unless
strong and determined measures are
taken by the American Federation of
Labor to prevent it,