Evening star., 1941-10-26
j. ). Steel Faces
New Troubles in
Union Drive

Ney 1OOS IIeo Up
At Cory in Efforts
To Force Closed Shop
Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, Oct. 25.-With the
worlds biggest steel mill in Gary,
Ind, it is a defense center If ever
there was one; yet there is unem-
ployment in this one-industry town.
according to the current issue of
Business Week.
The reason is that, at the mo-
ment. United States Steels mills
are the proving ground for a new
kind of C. I. o. strategy in drive
for a closed shop. If that strategy
can be effective enough to make
the company offer a union shop in
order to get relief. then union
unemployment" Is In store for a
great many other steel mills and
a great many other mass-produc-
ton industries.
Although United States Steel en-
ployes some $4,000 workers in Gary
at the present time-an all-time
high-steel workers are idle. Steel
men call it union unemployment
because despite the number on the
pay roll, they can never be sure
how many are going to be at work
Thus. for example, if six crane
men fail to report for work in one
department, 1t may mean that 1000
men will have to be sent home be-
cause steel can't be moved. If half
a dozen other key men don't appear,
a second thousand must leave their
jobs undone And within the last
month that has happened so often
that United States Steel realizes
that something beyond coincidence
is involved
Evidence Is Lacking.
Big steel knows, in fact, that it's
up against a resolute movement to
make its Gary works and other
plants a closed union shop. But,
in the orthodox sense, no labor dis
pute exists in Gary.
- At least, there is none which
Washington has precedents for con-
ciliating: nothing which can be
written up as case" threatening
defense production and referred to
the National Defense Mediation
Board for "settlement''-this, despite
the fact that national defense is
being impeded. A fortnight ago,
men who did not come to work were
responsible for a loss of steel pro-
duction at Gary which would have
built 1000 medium tanks or 40 sub
marines.
Some OF the men who did not ap-
pear said they were kept away from
the plant gate by "a bunch of guys"
who asked to see their union cards.
others who got in found their de-
partment down because key workers
had stayed away That bunch of
guys is an organized group COM
posed Of members of C. I. O.s Steel
Workers Organizing Committee, and
1t looked to every one who saw it
much like a well-planned picket
line. S. w. o. c. officials, however.
simply explain that the bunch"
was made up of good union men
who were tired of seeing non-
members get the benefits of organi-
zation without helping to pay the
costs One S. w. o. c. representa-
tive identified the crowd" as vol
unteer dues collectors"
Union Keeps Silence.
But the union will admit to no
dispute with the company. It's men,
bers in strategic jobs will stay home
from work GIVE got a right to stay
home once in a while'D: some will
refuse to work with non-union men:
some will leave their posts early to
hurry out and keep non-union en-
ployes from checking in.
United States Steel claims it is
poWerless to do anything about the
situation. When company spokes-
men remind union representatives
that contract is in force which
provides that "the union agrees not
to intimidate or coerce employees into
membership" union men shrug and
say that they are not coercing any,
body. that they can't assume respon-
sibility for the acts of all the COM
pany's workers. When the company
raises objections to the bunch of
guys at its gates, suggesting that
they constitute a picket line en-
gagged in strike operations. the union
counters by citing another contract
clause which gives the company
permission to discharge Offending
parties" after "48 hours of partici-
patton in work stoppage." Need
less to say, the picket lines recess
after 3e or a hour stand.
There are only two courses of ac-
ton which will free big steel from
It's dilemma. 1t can either invoke
the Today clause" in its contract
with the C. I. O., which will void
the entire agreement after a l0-dav
notice, or 1t can grant the union a
closed shop. To do the first would
give the union an opportunity to
insist formally on a closed shop,
threaten a strike to get it. To do
the second would be to revise a
traditional policy, so strongly held
that it induced big steel to let the
Government take over its Federal
Sh1pbuilding and Dry Dock subsidi-
ary at Kearny rather than accept a