Evening star., 1941-03-14

different to the DaVa Lawrence
true theory of collective bargaining
C.. I. o. union of $500 workers
has become in New York City and
how widespread is the misunder-
standing on the part of labor ex-
ecutives concerning their alleged
right to ignore the convenience OF
the public.
Congress has legislated in the
field of transportation to prevent
arbitrary tieups of railway service,
and there are some observers who
think a motor bus line, even within
the confines of a city, could be
made subject to the national
statutes. But there can be no
doubt that the principle established
in the national railway mediation
law-namely, a cooling-of period OF
several months while negotiations
are in progress-applies to the bus
strike in New York City.
C. I. o. States Case.
The C. I. o. union in widely
distributed circular issued on the
streets of New York during the last
48 hours says under the signature
of Austin Hogan, president, the
Transport Workers Union of Greater
New York, c. I. o.;
THE facts in the controversy
between the Transport Workers
Union and the Fifth Avenue Coach
and New York City Omnibus COM
panies are relatively few and fairly
simple. Our contracts with these
companies expired on February 28,
1s4l. A week before the expiration
we submitted to the two companies
proposals for new contracts which
would provide for increased wages
a uniform eight-hour day and i'm
proved working conditions. These
PROPOSALS were submitted not as an
ultimatum, but as basis for nego-
tiations. -.
THE companies assert that we
rejected their offers of mediation
and arbitration. Our answer is that
under the law it was and is the
duty Of these companies to bargain
in good faith with. the Transport
Workers Union of America, which is
the collective bargaining representa-
tive of their employees. Mutual under
standing and cooperation cannot
be achieved by substitutes for the
collective bargaining process. There
can be no propriety in a suggestion
for mediation or arbitration until
the parties have exhausted every
reasonable effort to arrive at an
agreement through the process OF
bona fide collective bargaining"
What are the facts? A labor
union waits until a week before an
important contract expires and
presents its demands. The company
SAYS it will have to take a few days
to figure out the effects Of these
sudden demands and within a week
gives it's answer. Two or three con-
ferences are held in which counter
proposals are made by the company
which are unacceptable to the union.
An impasse is reached. The COM
pany suggests that the existing con-
tract be extended for 80 or so or 30
days pending the working out OF a
satisfactory solution by further
negotiations and proposes, II this Is
not acceptable that there be media
ton or arbitration. But the union
leaders refuse on March 7 and sum-
marily call the strike for March 10,
and 900, 1000 people are thus deprived
of customary public service.
Labor Monopoly" Uncontrolled.
Less than two weeks is thereby
consumed by the entire negotiation
and without waiting for every "rea-
sonable effort to be exhausted" the
union exercises its tremendous eco
nomic power to interrupt the serv-
Ice to the public.
Bus lines are regulated by gov
ernmental bodies with respect to
rates and routes and franchises.
They are considered public utili-
ties in every sense OF the word, but
there apparently is as yet no cor
responding regulation of the mo-
nopolies of CLOSED shops" which
govern the conduct of the workers
who have it in their power to
start or stop service at will.
The distortion of what collective
bargaining really means, as is evi-
denced by the transport workers
circular, is directly traceable to the
erroneous impressions which Sem
ator Wagner and others who spon-
sored the collective bargaining doc
trine have innocently stimulated.
The notion that collective bargain
ing means that the employer must
always yield no mater what the
demands are or that If he fails to
accept demands he is not bargain
ing "in good faith" is currently
held by many unions. Perhaps
those who wrote the Wagner law
didn't intend such an unfair in
depreciation or such a destructive
one to be applied as that which
excludes mediation, but the Trans
port Workers Union in New York
City furnishes conspicuous ex-
ample of the way arbitrary action
and inconvenience to the public
are camouf1aged under the term
collective bargaining"