Evening star., 1939-11-02
Western Union Given
Order 10 Disestab|ish
EmpIoye Association
N. 1. R. B. Also Directs
X to Return Dues
Placed at $500,000
~ the Associated Press

~ the Associated Press.
The Western Union Telegraph
Co. was under orders from the Ma
tional Labor Relations Board today
to disestablish its Association of
Western Union Employees as a bar
gaining agency and reimburse en-
ployes for dues deducted from pay
envelopes since July S, 1885.
The board order, issued last night,
was based on a finding that the 90
year-old association was supported
and dominated" by the company.
The board ruled that the COM
pany had discouraged membership
OF its employees in labor organiza-
tions other than the Association of
Western Union Employees by giving
employment preference to those
who were willing to join the asso-
citation.
Western Union officials declined
to comment pending receipt of the
official text of the order.
May Return s5o0.ooo.
The boards decision did not dis
close the amount of dues to be re-
paid, but Joseph P. Selly. vice pres
ident of the American Communica-
tions Association, the c. I. o. afn-
late that filed the case, said it
would be more than $500,000. It was
said to affect more than $4,000 en-
ployes, whose dues ranged upward
from Is cents monthly.
Along with the order to disestab-
1ish the employees association, the
board directed the company to post
notices in all its Offices in the United
States informing employees that
agreements and arrangements en-
tered into with the association were
no longer in effect.
The board reviewed the company's
labor policy for more than two dec
AIDES, and asserted that as far back
as 1915. company officials executed
q policy of hostility to all outside
labor organizations"
Good Faith Doubted.
The board said the company con-
tinued its policy of supporting the
association after the Wagner Act
was passed in 1885, and provided as
sociation officers with free passes
for railroad transportation.
r. B. White, Western Union presi-
dent, testified at one hearing, the
board said, that the company's "op-
position" to all unions employing the
strike weapon remained unchanged
as late as the summer of 1897.
The board said the company acted
In August, 1887, to eliminate practices
held to be in violation of the Wagner
Act, but asserted that such action
failed Ito emancipate the associa-
ton" from domination by the en-
ployer.
1--WE are unable to find" the board
said, that the instructions of Au-
gust II were intended in good faith
to purge the association of the
respondents (company's) domina-
ton and to release the respondents
employees from the company-in-
spired compulsion to join the as
sociation as necessary incident of
their employment"
Bound Hand and Foot.
Daniel Driesen, legislative agent
for the American Communications
Association, commented here that
the board decision opened the way
for organization of $4,000 Western
Union, employees throughout the
country who have been bound hand
and foot by the company union"
The decision, he said in state
ment, wipes out the last remain
ing argument" of company officials
in San Francisco where a strike
has been in progress over the COM
pany's alleged refusal to bargain
with the c. I. O.
Frank B. Powers, president of the
Commercial Telegraphers Union "a.
F. L., also announced an immedi-
ate drive to enroll Western Union
employees in the A. F. L. affiliate.
Thousands of Western Union
employees in New York, Chicago and
other large cities" Mr.. Powers said
in statement, have assured our
organizers for the past two years
that they would Immediately turn
to the Commercial Telegraphers'
Union in the event of the disestab-
GShment of the cOmpanv union"