The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-05-28

tent to strike, as called for by Michigan law, purely as precau- tionary measure, with the Idea, per. haps, that 1t would speed up nego- tiationg and settlement. What hap pened, however, was that the cool ing off period became heating-up period and before leaders knew 1t,
 their unions were all steamed up
 and ready to walk out
 It took i6 days of the National Defense Mediation Boards best hcks
 to effect settlement. Even then, on
 the day before agreement was
 reached, 36,OO0 workers in Detroit
 and Flint, unaware that the nego-
 tlators had agreed to 6 further 24-
 hour truce, walked out. Flint work CTS simply ignored the order of U. A. w. President John R. Thomas
 that they return to work. Unfor.
 tnuately, the walkout was ended
 after one day by signing of the new agreement.
 WATERFRONT
 STEAMS UP
 Take the coast shipyards case. On April g in Seattle, 8 master con- tract was agreed to at Ofiice or Pro- duction Management instance, pro- viding SLIP an hour with time and half for overtime. A short time later, however, Uptown" San Fran cisco machinists not working in the shipyardS made a1 agreement for 4i.i6 an hour and double time for overtime.
 This steamed Up 1900 waterfront machinistg, 1900 of them A. F. Of L., 700 of them CIO. Taking the stand that the master contract had not been approved by the rank and file membership, they went out on strike for $1I6 an hour and double time, forming picket lines that kept 10000 men off the job. Union leader ship was p0Werless to prevent thls clearly unauthorized strike. OPM appealed to the machinists to go back to work. but without effect.
 Here is the interesting complica- tion: Because OPM hand handled this case from the first. the Concili- ton Service Of the Department Of Labor was not called in and be- cause Cancellation Service was not called in, the secretary of labor could not certify the case to the Na- ti0nal Defense Mediation Board. WHAT THE DOCTORS THINK
 Chief Danaeccas that Congress has been able to think Up ford these mixups follow the general formula of the Vingon bill now under con- alteration, providing Tor q cooling ] of period, Tn neither of these cases labor experts in Washington believe, would the cooling off period have done any good, Rank and file union | membership, when 1t takes matters into it's own hands, has all too fre- qucntly run away from it's leader- ship.
 Reorganization Of all federal labor relations agencies under one head has been proposed since there has been confusion in the eight-headcd OPM- Mediation Board-Conciliation seryic Department of Labor.WageS and Hours-NLRB-Maritlme Board- Railway Labor Board Betup. These OFgat1izatl0pS really nave dlfIerent functions and they are now co-or- dinated through SteelmanB Con" ciIiation Service office.
 Too much pressure has been put on the Mediation Board Because 1t has been at the top of the heap and was created to be the last word in cure.ails, there has been a great rush to get cases certified to the board for handling.
 This tendency has been partly cor. rccted now. Only the most crucial cases get to the board, which was rapidly being swampcd. Tn the two montbs of it's existence, 1t will have had only about three dozen cases certified 10 1t, tWo-thirds Of them be- ing in the first month. Tn the rieafl- time, the Cancellation Service has been handling some 800 cases month without much huilabaloo, simply becauge it's bigger and bet- ter organized for the job.