Imperial Valley press., 1941-02-05
STRIKE AND WAGNER
ACT, POINT BY POINT

Sklllful propaganda has sold the W ag-
ner act, otherwise known as the National
Labor Relations Act, to the working men
and women of the United States as a
sort of Magma Carta of labor. What a
pitifullv tragic Job of overSelling has
been done is demonstrated by such dis
turbances as the lettuce strike in lmpe-
rial Valley.
Properly revised and divorced from
its step-child the National Labor Rela-
tions Board, the Wagner act would in
deed be of boundless potential good for
the laborer. In its present vague form
in which it cannot possibly be considered
aside from the labor board it created
it imposes upon the laborer a worse serf-
dom than he has ever before known IN
this country. 1t makes him the slave OF
dictatorial racketeerS whose first consld-
Grafton is his money and whose last con-
sideration is his welfare.
There has never been a better demon
stration of the inequalities and Unjust
ices of the Wagner act than the valley
lettuce strike. For the purposes of the
following compilation, the Wagner Act Is
considered as including executive and
administrative findings and rulings Of
National Labor Relations Board, because
the orders of that board, under the act
have the effect of law and should be
considered in reality part of the Wag
ner Act. On that basis, the following re-
lationships exist between the valley let
tuce strike and the Wagner Act:
The Wagner Act provides for elections
among industrial employees at which a
ma iority of the vote cast shall determine
the collective bargaining agent. 1t has
been so construed that if only six en-
f,1 yNf- l1tI,, ,l,.aI
cast ballots, and four of those actually
voting ballot in favor of the CIO. ther
the CIO will be recognized as bargaining
agent for every one of the several hun
dred. That actually happened in Imperial
Valley shed elections last year.
The Wagner Act allows the so-called
bargaining agent to proceed in so-called
bargaining without consulting the labor
ers for whom it is supposed to be bargain
ing Laborers in valley lettuce sheds
We're not consulted about demands pre-
sented to shippers, supposedly on their
behalf
The Wagner act recognizes the right
of the bargaining agent to call a strike
if negotiations fail, and makes it possible
for this strike to be called without Civ
ing the laborers any choice in the matter.
That happened in the valley lettuce
strike
The Wagner act does not impose any
responsibility on labor union. Not one
shed worker in Imperial Valley could
sue the union and collect damages, in
spite of the huge losses suffered by Ia
borers in a strike they did not authorize,
which they have disapproved by gen
eral vote, and to which great majority
of them are bitterly opposed.
The Wagner act makes it possible for
the so-called bargaining agent to act en-
tirely upon his own desires There is no
way in which Imperial Valley shed la
borers can enforce their own wishes upon
the agency which, farcically, is called
their representative.
Machinery set up by the Wagner act
with the announced purpose of giving
the laborers a voice in their own affairs
defeats its own ends I'm the valley last
year, the CIO won She right to bargain
for workers in many sheds The results
of that election are binding for year, or
until new election is petitioned for.
Thus, even if the AFL this year had a
100 per cent membership in every one of
those sheds where the C1O won last year.
the C1O would still be bargaining agent
There could be no new election for sew
eral weeks, and by then the lettuce deal
would be over.