Evening star., 1941-09-20

the American people may as we'll
be advised that without benefit of
Congress an important statute has
been amended.
The Wagner law states in specific
terms that no employer may dis
criminate as between his employees
on account of union membership
or non-membership. 1t makes one
important exception and that is in
permitting an employer and a
union voluntarily to enter into an
agreement for closed shop. The
closed shop practice is we'll under
stood in industrial history. 1t means
that when the union and the en-
ployer agree to exclude any work
ers except union members, such a
closed shop agreement is valid,
though, to be sure, it has never
been really tested in the Supreme
Court of the United States.
But now the Defense Media ton
Board has extended the area
covered by the closed shop excep-
ton and. in letter which seems to
relegate the National Labor Rela-
tionS Board to a relatively Sec
ondary position as spokesman on
the Wagner Act, says that it is all
right for an employer to discrimi-
nate as between employees hereafter
and make those that are members
of a union pay dues while letting
persons who are not members re-
main free from dues payment or
membership in union.
Significant Variation.
This variation is significant be-
cause it nullifies the original pur-
pose of Congress in permitting the
closed shop to be an exception to
the Wagner Act provision about
non-dlsCrimination. The basic idea
has always been that closed shop.
since 1t applies to all the workers
in a given plant, eliminates internal
strife. To accomplish that objec-
tive, Congress agreed to the excep-
ton. Now the Defense Mediation
Board says it's all right for an en-
ployer to fire any workers who don't
pay dues and this isn't in any way
an interference with the workers
rights.
The language of the statute is
plain. 1t says: Nothing in this
act shall preclude an employer
from making an agreement with
labor organization to require as
a condition of employment men,
bership therein if such labor organ
tzation is the representative of the
employees in the appropriate collec-
tive bargaining unit"
Now the requirement is that
membership" shall be a condition
of employment in the contracts
which are thus permitted as ex-
ceptions to the law. 1t doesn't say
that workers already members must
pay dues or be in any other way
policed by the employer. It refers,
obviously, to the hiring of new
workers or to the continued tenure
OF all workers, because if it does not.
then there would have been no
purpose in making the exception.
II in the same plant two citizens
working side by side now can be
subjected to two different conditions
OF employment, then plainly the
meaning as set forth in the statute
has not been met.
Arbitrary Government.
What the National Defense Medi-
alton Board has ruled with the mis-
taken support of a weakly worded
opinion from counsel for the Ma
tlonal Labor Relations Board is that
man who does not belong to a
union and hence does not pay dues
can keep his job, whereas man who
once belonged to a union and wants
to be rid of the assessments cannot
keep his job-the employer must fire
him. Certainly condition of en-
ployment," as used in the statute,
must mean a uniform condition
within the same plant. That's what
closed shop contract has always
meant. To sanction now a modi-
fed closed shop under the Wagner
Act is to open it up to almost any
Interpretation and any hardship
which the Labor Board or the De-
fense Board may impose on the
workers of the land.
But these are days of arbitrary
Government and tyrannical in
depreciation of the laws. 1t is due
mostly to the supine attitude taken
by Congress, which is afraid to in
terpret or amend its own laws.
Even the Secretary of the Navy,
Frank Knox, who used to be in
business, has Succumbed to the New
Deal idea of Government imposed
law without resort to Congress. He
has announced that when the
Kearny, N. j., plant of the Federal
Shipbuilding Co. is leased or sold to
another management the new COM
pany must accept a union-main-
tenance membership clause. This
means that the administration now
will select managements for defense
industries and will care far more
about pleasing the small group of
union leaders hereabouts than it
will the people of America, who
want efficiency. Small wonder many
people doubt whether the admins
tration really is in earnest in its
pleas for national unity or for all
out support behind the defense pro-
gram.
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