Evening star., 1941-04-17

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collectively cannot say that about
the soft coal situation. For here
not only Is the United Mine Workers
Union. the principal unit of the
C. 7. O., recognized as the exclusive
bargaining agent of the miners, but
the rule of the employers has been
to grant a union shop"-a form of
monopoly or closed shop-and also
the "check-off," by which the en-
ployer deducts dues from the pay
roll and turns them over to the
union.
Again it has been urged that if
only employers would sit around
the table" with employees, all would
be well. The coal operators from
the Southern States have been
sitting around the table not only
with the C. I. o. leaders but with
Northern operators for five weeks,
and still there's a deadlock.
The Southern operators have ap-
pealed to the Secretary of Labor to
certify the dispute to the National
Defense Mediation Board. These
operators also have conferred with
25 members of Congress from their
respective States and have pleaded
with them to go to the Labor De-
partment and the President and get
the controversy before the National
Defense Mediation Board.
1t would seem that all this effort
would not be necessary in order to
get such a dispute before the proper
authorities, but it has happened just
that way.
Approved by n. II. A.
The Southern coal operators
broke away from the conference
with the Northern operators because
the latter tried to force their South
ern competitors to wipe out the 40
cent wage differential that has
existed ever since 1888, when it was
approved by the N. r, A. and Presi-
dent Roosevelt. The Southern COM
panies say they have a freight
differential against them as 1t is,
and that they cannot operate If
forced to pay the same wage scales
as in the North.
Now negotiations have been going
on in New York between the North
ern operators and the United Mine
Workers, and the public has been
given the impression that an agree
ment was near. 1t is near so far
as the Northern operators and the
c. 7. o. are concerned, but there's a
joker in the contract. 1t Is one of
those contingent affairs whereby
the Northern operators agree to
the increased wage demands of the
United Mine Workers only If the
Southern operators agree to wipe
out the differential on present wage
scales-something the Southerners
have vowed never to do.
So America faces a serious coal
shortage soon and national defense
industries will soon feel the pinch
of reduced production. The South
ern operators mine about one third
of the total tonnage, the Northern
operators another third, and the
Western States a third. But all
the mines are closed down. Under
the peculiar wording of the rulings
of the Labor Board and the Wagner
Act. there is nothing to require COL
lective bargaining on the part of
the Western miners with their own
operators or by Southern miners
with their employers, but whenever
the unions want TO do so, the law
compels employers to bargain. In
the present instance the West and
South remain idle while the United
Mine Workers Union negotiates
separately with a Northern group of
operators.
Proposals Called strange"
The demands of the C. I. o. in
clude some strange proposals. Not
only Is 1t demanded that there be
vacations with pay, but that the
mines be closed down altogether
during the vacation period SINH
larly the union now asks for the
arbitrary right to declare mourn
ing" periods in which to mourn the
loss of those injured in mine acci-
dents. The union wishes to decide
when and for how long these
mourning" periods with full pay
shall be ordered.
The Southern operators have Of
fered 60-cent-a-day increase in
wages or 8 to 10 cents an hour and
did not even stipulate, as did the
Northern operators, that the Guffey
Coal Act Commission should per-
NIT higher prices.
The Southern operators used to