Imperial Valley press., 1941-05-29
by Peter Edson...
The Inside Track in washinqtol1

WASHINGTON, May 90 Diff
CultieS in settlement of two recent
major labor disturbances, the Cen
eral Motors and Pacific coast ship
building cases. have brought out
sharply some of the fundamental
weaknesses of the American labor
situation today and the weaknesses
of mcst of the remedies now un-
der consideration to cure what alls
us.
Take the General Motors case
first Management and labor both
admitted privately that this was
one strike that would not be al
lowed to happen. Inside story is
the Clio. filed its five-day notice
of intent to strike, as called for
by Michigan law. purely as IA
precautionary measure, with the
idea. perhaps, that it would speed
up negotiations and settlement.
What happened, however, was that
the cooling off period became a
heating-up period and before lead
ers knew it, their unions were all
steamed up and ready to walk out.
1t took 16 days of the National
Defense Mediation Boards best
lickS to effect settlement. Even
then, on the day before agreement
was reached, $4,000 workers in De-
troit and Flint, unaware that the
negotiators had agreed to a fur
ther 24-hour truce, walked out.
Flint workers simply ignored the
order of UAW. President John R.
Thomas that they return TO work.
Fortunately, the walkout was end
ed after one day by signing of the
new agreement.
WATERFRONT STEAMS UP
Take the coast shipyards case
On April % in Seattle, master
contract was agreed to at Office
of Production Management in
stance, providing Slip an hour
with time and a half for over
time. A short time later, however,
uptown" San Francisco machinists
not working in the shipyards made
an agreement for S1l5 an hour
and double time for overtime.
This steamed up 1900 waterfront
machiniSts, 1900 of them A.F. of L.,
TOO of them CLIO. Taking the
stand that the master contract had
not been approved by the rank
and file membership, they went out
on strike for Sl.l5 an hour, and
double time, forming picket lines
that kept 10000 men off the job.
Union leadership was powerleSs to
prevent this clearly unauthorized
strike. OPM appealed to the ma
chinists to go back TO work, but
without effect.
Here is the interesting compli-
cation: Because OPM had handled
this case from the first. the Con-
ciliation Service of the Depart
ment of Labor was not called in
and because Cancellation Service
was not called in, the secretary of
labor could not certify the case to
the National Defense Mediation
Board.
WHAT THE DOCTORS THINK
Chief panaceas that Congress has
been able to think up for these
mixups follow the general formula of
the Vinson bill now under considera-
ton, providing Ior a cooling off
period In neither OF these cases,
labor experts in Washington be-
lieve. would the cooling off period
have done any good. Rank and
file union membership, when it
takes matters into its own hands,
has all too frequently run away
from its leadership
Reorganization of all federal Ia
Dor relations agencies under one
head has been proposed since there
has been confusion in the eight
headed OPM-Mediation Board
Cancellation Service Department of
Labor Wages and Hours -NLRB-
Maritime Board Railway Labor
Board setup. These organizations
really have different functions and
they are now co-ordinated thru
Cancellation Service Of
flee.
Too much pressure has been put
on the Mediation Board Because
it has been at the top of the heap
and was created TO be the last
word in cure-alls, there has been
a great rush to get cases certified
to the board for handling.
This tendency has been partly
corrected now. Only the most cru