Evening star., 1940-10-04
Threat, to Defense

The controversy between the Steel
Workers Organizing Committee and
the Bethlehem. Shipbuilding Cor
poration and the Bethlehem Steel
Company, involving the possibility Of
strike by employees working on
nearly 81 900 900 900 Of national de-
fense projects, is most serious
threat to the American rearmament
program.
Broadly speaking, the dispute has
two main aSpectS-firSt, contention
by the employees that Bethlehem has
violated the Wagner Act by refusing
to bargain collectively with the
unions of it's workers and, second,
that the industry has not complied
in good faith with minimum wage
rates for steel workers set under the
Walsh -Healey Act for firms receiving
Government contracts.
These allegations, of course, are
matters of dispute and it is not pos
sible for an outsider to form an
intelligent opinion as to the merits
of the respective claims. But GER
tain facts are clear.
One is that the steel workers, in
considering strike action at this crit
ical time, have not fully avalled
themselves of the statutory remedies
at their disposal. Under the Wagner
Act Bethlehem Is required to
bargain collectively with its en-
ploves. If that is not being done
and if the fact can be established,
the employees have a complete rem
edy under the Wagner Act, which
was enacted to guarantee the right
to bargain collectively. Certainly
there can be no possible justification
for a strike at this time, when the
employees have at hand an orderly
means of enforcing their rights.
A somewhat similar situation ex-
lists with respect to the complaint
that Bethlehem is evading the
Walsh -Healey Act, if by that it Is
meant that the concern is paying
less than the minimum wage rates.
Bethlehem has agreed to pay
these minimums as a condition OF
obtaining the defense contracts. II
it is not doing so, the statute gives
the employees the privilege OF asking
the Department of Labor for an
investigation and hearing. Should
the department officials find, as a
result of their inquiry, that the mini
NUNS have not been paid, the Gov
ernment is authorized to compel the
employer to make restitution to
the employees, but as yet the steel
workers have made no request for
such an investigation or hearing.
And until they have exhausted this
remedy. there can be no justification
for a strike based upon an alleged
failure to pay the minimum wage
rates.
In a matter Of this kind, however,
there is no place for hasty action
or premature judgments. Philip
Murray, chairman of the S. w. o. c.,
presented the matter in somewhat
different light yesterday, when he
said that Bethlehem is paying
the minimum rates to common
laborers, but that it has done so by
pooling" common, Semi-skilled and
skilled workers, with the result that
the higher rate for the common
laborers is being paid at the expense
of the skilled and Semi-skilled
employees.
II that is the case, 1t is undoubt-
edly an evasion of the spirit, If not
the letter, of the act, and Is inde-
fensible from any point OF view, but
the remedy Of the steel workers at
this time lies in an appeal to the
Labor Department rather than by
calling a strike from which they
could benefit only at the expense of
the Nation as a whole.
These are times which call for
patience and fair play by both labor
unions and industry. Neither should
seek to take advantage Of the exist
ing emergency to gain selfish ad-
vantages, and both parties should
realize that any manifestation OF a
contrary spirit would receive short
shrift at the hands of public opinion.