The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-06-13

WkV bNEUNVBHCu g. The future of 0. I. 0 in the air, craft industry. 3. The partlculal status of Harry Bridges, stlll undel investigation for possible deporta, ton from the United States as ar undesirable alien, {. Passage of new legislation by Congress for contro Of labor relations, 5, Establlshmen of new presidential, War Depart, ment, 0PM, Mediation Board, Dc, partment of Labor, and other exec, utive department procedure In sim, liar defense labor cases.
 To get the full significance of thi, North American situation, you hay, to look at the general aviation in. dustry picture and It's labor rela, tons. There are in the Unltee States today more than 60 alrplanI manufacturers, i6 aircraft engln, companies, 10 propeller makers ant no one knows how many plant, making parts on sub-contracts. To. tai employment runs somewhere be. tween 100000 and Q million men, NO UNIONS
 AT TWO FIRMS
 Of the plane makers, there arc about Q dozen leading companies with 5000 or more employees each Two of those companies, Douglas and Martin, are unorganized. Doug las, with perhaps 26,000 employees has Q few A, F. of L. and 0. I, O members but an abortlve slt-down in one Douglas plant in 1897 rather queered the unions there and the company has kept its wage scale up discouraging organization. Martin with i6,00O employees, had 0 strike of about 70 men Q few months ago but 1t went bust.
 There have been about iB strikes in plant with aircraft contracts since the defense effort began. The Vultee-C. I. o. seven -day strike at Downey, Calf, last November was the worst, up until the present North American dispute. Other ma jor o. I. o. contracts are held at Bell Aircraft in Buffalo and Ryan in San Diego A. r. of L. International Association of Machlnists ma for contracts are held at Boeing in Seattle, Consolidated in San Diego, Lockheed at Burbank, Vega at Bur- bank and Vultee at Nashville.
 From this summary 1t can be seen that the rivalry of the two labor groups for organization of the big gest of the new industries is fierce, While 0. I. O. with contracts in seven plants and 2ii,000 U. A, w. aircraft union members has been In tho worst thus far, A. r. of l., has q couple Of bad cases ahead of 1t, First year of q two-year contract at Boeing expires soon and A. F. of L. wage negotiations for i80OO workers are scheduled. Negotia tons are under way at Consolidated for i4,000 workers asking practically the same demands being made at North American The tendency at A. r, of L. headquarters now would be to sit tight to see how North American comes out.
 MURRAY MAKES
 THE MOVES
 At 0. I, O., President Phil Mur- ray has two courses to pursue He can handle the North American case as Q local disturbance or he can say 1t is Q threat of left-wing- CTS against the o. I. o. leadership, and run the risk of having the en- tire organization split wide open, Reports that the battle would be fought on the latter line can be pretty well diScredited, and further. more, there is no evidence that John L. Lewis is running the air. craft fight from the wings, He has had his hands full of coal. Murray will make the decision and Lewis will back 1t, even if Murray is wrong.
 Where c. I o. leadership is really embarrassed Is by the action of Harry Bridges who is titularly west coast regional director of c. I. O. and as such should be Murrays representative in the North Amer ican case. Bridges has, however chosen to defy the Murray leader ship. According to Washington word, Bridges longshoremen have been the real strength of the North American strike. If this should lead to Q break that would mean general withdrawal of c. I. o, sup port against pending deportation or ders for Bridges, he might find him. self on the way back to Australia much sooner than expected.
 The North American case has been, of course, just the incident Congress has been wanting to push over Q program of restraint on Ia. bor in defense industries. The strike therefore gives the entire labor movement black eye, which labor leaders in Washington full realize
 And If the administration car make its first plant seizure stick breaking @ strike, the tendency may be. to stiffen future labor policy perhaps even to a further consolida- ton of the existing mediation and