The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-10-29

0OSA1 COuQuCIcU SlIlC6 6SpLs 10 to settle the closed shop issue affecting 44,000 coal miners in the steel com- pany captive mines of Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, and calling for a strike effective Satur- day midnight, October 25. The rec ord of the efforts to settle this dis- pute gives an Illuminating picture of what labor negotiations have gone through in trying to work out agreements.
 The case is, of course, hangover from the big coal strike of last 1 spring. When the new agreement was signed to cover the commercial mines, there remained the agree ] ment to be worked out with the captive mines, following custom. Direct negotiations between the operators and the miners dragged through the summer, and on Sept. 15, the United Mine Workers called their men out on strike.
 NOME stepped into the picture and recommended 30-day truce the men to return to work and re- main at work thereafter until the expiration of a three-day notice in writing given by the parties on either side. This was agreed to, and negotiations began on Sept. 17 be- fore three board members, Chair man William H. Davis, Walter Teagle representing employers, and Hugh Lyons representing employees. The truce was ratified in two days, and the mines started production Sept. 9.
 HUNG UP ON ONE POINT
 Some 60 representatives of the miners and the operators sat in on the powwows. Arguments were re- stunned Sept. A and were continued three days. They were resumed again Oct. for another three days, then recessed with no definite date for further hearings. The truce ex- pired on Oct. IT. Four days later Lewis served notice mad called the strike. All the Mediation Board could do under such circumstances was issue its recommendations and hope for the best, as 1t has no au- thority to enforce its findings.
 The foregoing log is presented in detail not because the dates are exciting in themselves, but to show how one of these labor cases can get hung up for eight days of arr gument during period of six weeks, all over one point. If any progress at all had been made dur ing the arguments, the case would have been settled. Everything was all agreed to except the one most agreed to except the one moot point of whether or not captive coal mines should be operated on the closed shop basis, and there the case was stuck.
 It was the contention of the captive mine operators, largely steel companies, that since none of their other union contracts in the steel mills proper were closed shop con- tracts, tthy should not be expected to grant the closed shop privileges to one group of employees, the coal miners. It was the miners conten- ton that, since all other coal min CTS in the commercial mines were operating under the closed shop, there was no reason why the min- CTS working in captive mines should not have the same wrking cnditid. not have the same working coildi- tior1S.
 BOARD SURE OF BLAME
 In a case of this kind, neither side gives an inch. And when men get to beating their chests, ex.. pounding about their principles and expiating on the dire consequences to be expected if the principles aren't stuck to, there isn't much that can be done with them. The Mediation Board, in such a case was caught right square In the middle. !.
 No matter what 1t might do, 1t was sure to be blamed. If 1t recom- mended closed shop, 1t could count on being banned as a labor stooge. If 1t recommended that the captive mines go on working as they have worked up to now, without the clos ed shop, the charge would come from the Lewis labor. crowd that the board was nothing more than a tool of capital. And it,would take a strike, with maybe some broken bodies and certainly a lot of lost production of defense steel. before the two sides could come to tneE senses and reach an agreement.