The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-12-29

In that mouthful of words is commandment number one of la bor's policy today. It will battle to the last ditch to put the closed shop or ;'e union shop provision In every labor contract negotiated from here on, as long as the war lasts and then some.
 The 12 representatives of indus try sitting in on this 24-man con- ference, you'll recall, proposed a freezing of the open shop-closed shop conditions as of today, for the duration of the emergency. Or ganized labor would accept none of that idle if 1t could possibly be avoided.
 The reason given for this attitude on the part of labor is that the union shop contract Is necessary for organized labor to survive the postwar period. Professional la- bor organizers remember what hap pened to their movement after the last war. Ore of the policies adopt cd by the old War Labor Board in 1917 was the freezing of the open shop-closed shop conditions for the duration. Organization drives by the unions were not restricted and they could sign up as many new members as they could get, New contracts could be negotiated, too, but If particular plant had an open shop labor policy before the war, the management of that plant could rest securely in the knowledge that 1t would stay open shop till the war was over,
 HARD HIT AFTER WAR
 When the war did end, things went along all right for a time, but when the postwar recession really set in, organized labor took beat ing, It lost number of important strikes. Efforts to organize in some of the major open shop industries failed miserably. It was not until the 1929 boom and the New Deal period of pro-labor legislation that the unions really got going
 Remembering that experience, tho labor leaders of today are playing their cards so that they won't lose Q trick when the present tiff with the totalitarians is through. Labor organizers fele that as long as they have closed shop or union shop con- tracts in force, they can weather any postwar depression. On the other hand, with open shop con- tracts in force. the organizers feel that management would have labor over a barrel and that most of the ground gained in the last 10 years would be lost by the unions in the slippery and uncertain times of peace and readjuStment.
 UNITED ON ONE POINT
 A. F. of l.. and c. I. O. repre- sentative5 at the Presidents con- ference were apparently united on this stand. They showed no in- clination to want to wreck the con- ference, but the inside story of the long sessions of argument revealed the l2 representatives of manage ment lined up solidly for freezing the open shop conditions, while the 12 labor representative were lined up just as solidly for maintaining their right to drive and bargain for closed shop conditions in every defense industry throughout the war.
 Caught In between these two forces were the government mod orators, William Fl. Davis of the National Defense Mediation Board which the c. I. o. now calls near ly defunct," ard Senator Ebert Thomas of Salt Lake City, Utan, chairman of the Senate Committee on Education and Labor which will settle the fate of anti-strike legis- lat!on after the labor policy recom- mendations of the conference are accepted by the President These two gentlemen have lacked any au- thority in these negotiations and aS a matter of fact, when the Presi- dent talked to the conferees after the first session, he told them that he had dug up the name mod erator"--a good Word-beeause he didn't think they would have to yield any big stick.
 DRIVE WILL GO ON
 In insisting on the closed shop principle, the labor representatives have taken the position that they are sincere in their assertions that they will Cive up the right to strike during the war. In return for that concession, they have maintained that the issue of closed shop or open shop Is a question for negotiation between employer and employe. Citing the captive mine case as precedent, where some 90 per cent of the employees belonged to the union anyway, a union shop con- tract was in order. If union mem bership had been only 50 per cent then the case for union shop con- tract would not have been so good.