Evening star., 1941-08-18

of the Mediation
Board may re-
suit in new Ss<S
wave of strikes David Lawrence.
and industrial unrest which the
board was supposed to have averted.
In a statement by William H.
Davis, chairman of the Mediation
Board, the full prestige and author
ity of a governmental agency is for
the first time placed squarely behind
the principle OF employer coercion
and compulsory unionism. Although
Mr.. Davis contends that an arrange
ment whereby the employer is COM
PEELED to threaten dismissal of all
employees who do not maintain
membership in a union in good
standing has nothing to do with a
CLOSED shop" employers who have
for generations fought this COM
pulsory setup will not be dissuaded
by an argument on terminology.
AS for terms, the United States
Department of Labor in a bulletin
issued in october, 1899, describes
the various forms of "closed shops
in America and formally lists among
them the scheme whereby the en-
ployer Is made responsible for the
maintenance of union membership
by employees who already have joined
union.
In other words, closed shop. as
understood by American industry,
is any arrangement whereby the
employer is compelled by the terms
of a contract to intrude into the
relationship between the employe
and his union. The spirit of the
Wagner Act Is to abolish employer
interference and though one pro-
vision says such contracts are not
illegal, the whole purpose Of the
act is to keep employers from med
ding IN union affairs.
Cites Davis Letter.
Mr.. Davis by his letter to Secre-
tary Knox comits the National De-
fense Mediation Board to the idea
of clauses in contracts that compel
employers to discharge workers who
once having joined the union wish
to resign or who fail to pay dues.
He thus has taken a step which the
National War Labor Board during
the first World War did not ven
ture to take. That board strove to
avoid strikes by asking both sides to
freeze" the situation, namely, to
allow closed shops" to remain
where they already existed and To
get an sides to agree not to intro
duce any more closed shops" dur
ing the emergency.
This was and Is q sensible ma
Honal labor policy and by it nei-
ther side valves its rights to fu-
ture agitation once the emergency
Is over. But the National Defense
Mediation Board plunged into one
Of the most perplexing issues Of
unionism and actually granted to a
union recently q form OF CLOSED
shop" after that same union had
defied Its own national officers and
the plea of the President and his
cabinet to keep the North Ameri-
can Aviation Co. plant in operation.
It seems that the reward given to
the strikers by the Mediation Board
was a clause forced upon manage
ment to keep intact the very union
which had ignored all Government
requests and had interrupted the
defense program.
Now it is proposed that the Kearny
{N.'JD plant of the Federal Ship
building and Drydock Co., where
the closed-shop issue has flared
up, be seized by the Government.
This will not settle the question.
For the right to strike Is not lin
tied to those who work with their
hands. The Mediation Board may
90 too far and force management
TO withdraw and go on a strike. too,
leaving the plants without operat-
ing personnel. Such a consequence
would be the logical outcome of
the partisan policy of the Media
ton Board.
Says Board Isn't Neutral.
The main trouble with the Media
ton Board is that, despite its con-
scientious endeavors and hard
work, 1t is not neutral, and for that
reason has lost the confidence Of
many important factors in Ameri-
can industrial management. One
reason Is that it was selected from
the ranks of labor's partisans. The
union representatives, of course,
are partisan and the so-called pub
lie representatives are men known
to be friendly to unionism and who
evidently are much more concerned
about unionization than they are
about avoiding issues which tie up
defense work. With two votes