Evening star., 1941-11-30
The Closed Shop and Defense
Writer Gives Elementary Facts Underlying Vital Controversy
BY Charles G. Ross


by the National Industrial Conference
Board in summarizing the results of a
QUESTIONABLE among employers to con-
troll the local labor market to their own
advantage land against the interest of
both employers and many employees"
The unions maintain that the en-
ployers solicitude for the welfare of nom
union workers is often merely cloak
for the real reason behind opposition
to the closed shop-the desire, namely,
to weaken or even to destroy the unions.
In reply, the National Industrial Con-
ference Board points to statements by
some employers who "are otherwise we'll
satisfied with the closed shop but are
against 1t because of its interference with
the worker liberty Of decision.
The unions contend that the closed
shop heightens the responsibility of the
unions; enables them to resist pressure
to keep on seeking new concessions from
management; wipes out the friction
caused by the presence of union and
non-union workers in the same plant;
makes for the Standardization of wage
costs-in general that the closed shop
tends to produce smooth and stable re-
lationship between workers and man.
agement.
The unions say that since all the work.
ers in plant receive the benefits won
by collective bargaining, all should share
in its burdens. They object, in other
words. to the free ride" of the workers
who nav no union dues
100000 Workers Covered.
Probably about 100000 workers are
covered today by closed or union shop
contracts. This represents a substantial
increase in the last two years, due partly
to the success of the United Automobile
Workers &C. I. o. in winning union
shop contract last spring from the Ford
Motor Co.
Ninety per cent of the $4,000 employees
in tire coal mining industry are under
the union shop Other large groups
having closed or union shop contracts
are truck drivers, building trades workers
and employees in the clothing and brew
ing industries.
The closed-shop issue, then as now
threat to the national welfare, was
frozen" during the World War. This
came about through the adoption OF
set of principles by the National War
Labor Board, under the joint chairman
snip of William Howard Taft and Frank
P Walsh, declaring in effect that closed
and open shop conditions should remain
in status quo during the war.
The board held, In other words, that
labor should not be permitted to exploit
the emergency by pressing for additional
closed shops. and that management
should not be permitted to exploit it
by attacking the closed shops then in
existence.
The boards statement was embodied
in proclamation by President Wilson
and thus became the official labor policy
of the Government for the duration of
the war.
One of the alternative suggestions Of
President Roosevelt in the captive mines
case was that the dispute over the
closed shop between the United Mine
Workers and the steel companies be
frozen or left in status quo, for the
period of the war
There is considerable sentiment in
Congress for statutory freezing" of the
closed and open shop issue, with respect
to the whole of industry, for the period
of the war, and bills designed to effect
this result have been introduced.
No Permanent Settlement.
If Congress should decide to freeze
the cloSed-shop issue for the term of
the emergency, this action could not be
regarded as step toward permanent
settlement of the issue. The issue is a
part of the perennial conflict between
capital and labor as that conflict has
developed under the conditions peculiar
to this country. Each side is motivated
by its own economic interest. When free
of the restraints put on them by the
emergency, capital and labor will resume
the contest, and the outcome will be
determined in any given industry by
tests Of economic strength between the
parties.
The President told the mine workers
that Congress will not order "a so-called
closed shop" That is true It is equally
foreseen will Congress outlaw the closed
shop. The unions strength is too great
for that. Congress will continue to rest
on the Wagner Act formula which gives
the unions the right to get the closed
shop if they can do so through their
own efforts.
1t should be kept in mind, among the
o&l,
said to the mine workers was not a
condemnation of the closed shop 1t was
condemnation of their strike for the
closed shop at this particular time He
put the right of the Nation to defend it
self above the right to strike.
Defense Issue Clear Cut.
The issue between him and John L.
Lewis was wholly separate and distinct
from the quarrel between John L. Lewis
and the steel companies over the closed
shop.
All that the President asked Lewis and
his mine workers to do was to accept
the recommendation of the Mediation
Board and, as the board said suspend
for the duration of the national emer-
gency their unquestionable right to
match their economic strength against
that of the operators"
The issue between the President and
Lewis was simple and clean-cut, and
the vast bulk of public opinion sup
ported the President. Clearly, the right
of the Nation to take all necessary
measures in its own defense is para
mount.
The closed-shop issue, where right"