Evening star., 1941-09-30

ed and camouflaged by the use OF
other terms so as to give misleading
impressions. He is particularly crit
ical of Chairman William Davis OF
the National Defense Mediation
Board. Says Mr.. Bridges:
"Mr. Davis is experiencing good
deal of difficulty in trying to remove
the bad odor from the closed shop
clause. First, he and certain other
fellow board members tried to con-
Ceal the fact that they were pro-
noting the closed shop by calling
1t union maintenance and other
sweet-smelling names. This did not
20 so good because a closed shop
clause under any name proved just
as odoriferous as ever. In fact, an
official Labor Department publica-
ton says all closed shop clauses are
identical.
I'm the Monthly Labor Review Of
October, 1899, under the general sub
ject of Closed Shop and Checkoff
in Union Agreements, on page 1872,
an article describes membership
maintenance as a modification of
the closed shop and says: This ar
rangement insures the union against
membership losses. AS in the closed
shop, union members who lose their
standing with the union would be
discharged"
Official TerminOiogy.
Senator Bridges, in quoting from
the Department of Labor's descrip-
ton of terms, gives what might be
called the official Technology. Yet
many of the press reports from
Washington do not speak OF mod
flied closed shop" at all, but insist
on using the c. I. O.'s own term
''union shop" 1t is important that
the use of the phrase union shop"
be noted as not in the vocabulary of
the Department Of Labors own bull
letins describing these agreements.
The words union shop" in the
headlines about strikes gives the i'm
preston that recalcitrant employers
are refusing to recognize or bargain
with unions. In the case of the
Kearny On. j. shipbuilding plant,
the union had been formally recog-
nized as the exclusive bargaining
agent of the employees more than
year before and no question concern
ing union recognition was involved.
Senator Bridges makes the inter-
esting point that neither the CLOSED
shop" nor the modified closed shop"
ere necessarily legalized by the Wag-
ner law and furnishes numerous
extracts quoting reports and state
ments made by sponsors of the law
when 1t was passed and reported
from congressional committees to
the effect that the closed shop
agreements were not specifically
sanctioned except In cases where
the employer voluntarily assented
Senator Walsh, Democrat, of Massa-
chusetts, who piloted the Wagner
bill through the Senate, said at the
time:
"The provision in the bill makes
1t possible for an employer to say:
7 will hire only company union
men, but the agreement must be
voluntarily entered into and not
forced upon him. If there were
not this exception, what we should
do by this bill would be merely to
pass law allowing closed shops
However, 1t is provided that the en-
ployer must give his consent. Even
though nine-tenths of his men insist
on their demands, the agreement
must be voluntary, and it can be
made only if he voluntarily gives
consent"
Forced on Employer.
The modified closed shop was
forced on the Federal Shipbuilding
& Drydock Co. in direct violation of
the Wagner law, and when the COM
pany refused to violate the law, the
National Defense Mediation Board
persuaded the President to issue an
executive order taking over the
plant.
Senator Bridges, Republican who
has supported the defense program
of the administration from the be-
ginning, suggests that the Canadian
practice be put into effect in the
United States, namely, that strikes
would be prohibited in any defense
plant "unleS approved by major=