Evening star., 1941-09-02

being negotiated which have the
effect of unsettling what little sta
bility there Is.
The truth about the labor situa-
tdon somehow is being suppressed
either because of tinidity on the
part of the politicians in Govern
ment or because the offenses of labor
against the defense program are
soft-pedaled as much as possible
by those who normally do not hesi-
tate to expose the offenses of man
agement.
Testimony Tells Story.
The story of how the American
Federation of Labor and the Con-
eress of Industrial Organizations
refused few days ago to sit down
together with Government officials
present to work out q stabilization
agreement in the aircraft industry
might have been the subject of
public condemnation on Labor Day
by the President of the United
States. But it wasn't. The facts
are best stated in the language of
official testimony given last week
before the Senate Committee in
vestigating defense contracts which
has been visiting the West Coast.
The testimony is that of Donald w.
Douglas, head of the Douglas Air
craft Co, who acted as chairman
of a committee of West Coast air.
craft manufacturers, Here is the
verbatim record:
The chairman (Senator Truman) !;
How about the labor situation?
Mr.. Douglas: Well. the labor
situation, Senator, has been under
going quite a scanning here re-
Gently. After the strike at North
American Aviation and the findings
of the Defense Mediation Board,
which resulted in quite an upping
of the minimum wage group and
some upping of the more skilled
men, the industry started, as a unit
here in Southern California. to
examine the whole situation, feel
ing that we would have to equalize,
and hope to stabilize, although we
would have some labor trouble here.
Factions Wouldn't Meet.
Their first problem, they felt,
toward equalization and stabiliza-
ton were to come to some standard
job classification 50 that each shop
talked about the same thing, meant
the same thing when they gave the
same name to a certain grade of
mechanic. About two weeks ago
that Job Classification Committee
finished their study and produced
O fine volume.
The o. P. M. came into the pic
ture. We made, as an industry
group here, certain suggestions to
o. P. M, particularly to Mr.. Hill
man, suggesting steps to equalize
and attempt to stabilize the condi-
ton that has been caused by the
finding OF the Defense Mediation
Board in the North American Avia-
ton case. That has been very
unsatisfactory situation. The War
and Navy Departments apparently
had no part in that and referred
all Of those questions to the o. P.
M. and. rather imagine, rightly.
Mr.. Hillman was never too clear
IN his answers to our queries. We
shortly found it seemed impossible,
under the present-day circum-
stances, to stabilize in accordance
with the War and Navy Depart
ments' wishes in the matter of Ia
Dor relations here. The War and
Navy Departments stated that their
idea of stabilization was that we
should get from those labor organi-
cations, where there were any, a
durable sterilization agreement. /
never was able to get a definite
definition of what they meant, and
the nearest I came to that was q
statement by Mr.. Bard, Assistant
Secretary of the Navy, that he con-
sidered the type of durable stabili-
zation agreement that was arrived
at in the matter of the shipyards
was the thing that we should get
That, gentlemen, If you will remem-
Der, was a two-year agreement, with
fixed wages and provision foi
some variation of wages based or
the cost of living
well. we met out here. and the