Imperial Valley press., 1941-04-15

WASHINGTON, April Is - Oh,
the life of a member of the new
National Defense Mediation Board
is not a merry one, as the IL men
and most of their II alternates have
discovered.
When the board first met, a week
after it was appointed, 1t conducted
routine organization and then op-
timisically adjourned for two weeks
and two days, waiting for the first
case to be certified to it by the
Labor Department.
Then the members scattered to
their regular jobs, and since the
Presidents order specified that
they were to get S25 day plus
expenses while actually on the job.
they thought they were off the
payroll. Instead, they're all worked
every day including Sundays and
at such hours as would bring the
blush of shame to any advocate of
the eight-hour day. or even the l2-
or-l6-hour day.
LEFT WITH
JANITORS
On the weekend that they tackl-
ed the Allis Chalmers case, their
first session ran through to am.
Sunday morning and except for
scrub women and janitors, they
were practically the only occupants
of the big Social Security build
ing which is OP.M.-Ordnance
headquarters.
The negotiators nearly caved in,
though the negotiations fortunately
didn't and the basis for agreement
was reached in % hours Of dicker-
ing. Then, after the terms were an
nounced Sunday night, the employe
representative were flown back to
Milwaukee by a navy transport
plane, so that the agreement could
be ratified without delay.
The small staff includes Ernest
P. Marsh, loaned by the Concilia-
ton Service as temporary cxecu-
tive secretary. the good Mrs. Alb
bott who is Chairman Dykstra's
secretary, a press relations man
and a few stenographers recruited
from O.P.M.
As the full board met April 10
for its first regular session at
tended by the entire membership
it therefore had behind it two
weeks of strenuous experience in
which three and four member
panels had tackled half a dozen
important cases, but it still had no
policy. To adopt that policy and
formulate its rules of procedure
were the two things the board
hoped would come out of this
meeting-if it could just find time
off from its practice long enough
to establish principles. Its two
rules now are: QGo back to work,
t2)Come to Washington and talk
it over
In the last war. in addition TO a
National War Labor Board, par
alleling the present National De-
fense Mediation Board. there was
a War Labor Policies Board. This
board set up standards of working
conditions, like the 3-hour day,
many of which are now accepted
provisions of existing labor law
In return for these guarantees in
the last war. organized labor
agreed that there should be no
strikes during the war, and did not
extend organizational activities TO
plants where there were no unions
LEADERS
DIVIDED
Whether concessions such as
these could be obtained from la
Dor today is extremely doubtful.
If 1t came TO a showdown, official
Washington would probably split
right down the middle.
Congress apparently would be in
decided favor of limiting the pow
ers of unions for the duration of
the emergency. The administrative
side OF government, insofar as it
has shown its hand, favors riding
ON labor law and labor administra-
ton as now constituted. In other
words, keep the so-called Wagner
act, the fair labor standards law,
wages and hours guarantees, NIL
RIB. and the existing machinery
of the Labor Department, includ-
ing Cancellation Service backed UP
by the National Defense Mediation
Board
In the last war there were nnlv