Evening star., 1941-03-24
Inadequate Policy

Settlement over the week end of
two defense strikes called by G. l. o.
unions, while rejecting credit on the
Labor Departments Cancellation
Service and the Labor Division of the
Office of Production Management,
serves also to direct attention to the
deplorable inadequacy of machinery
for preventing strikes as diStln-
guished from facilities for effecting
a compromise after a shutdown has
occurred.
The strikes settled over the week
end were those at the EdgeWater,
N. j., plant of the Aluminium Com
pany of America and the important
Harvill Die Casting Corporation on
the West Coast. A controversy con-
cerning overtime pay rates was the
main issue in the Aluminium strike,
which began March II. The strikers
agreed to go back to work after Sid
ney Hlllman, associate director of the
o. P. M, had urged them to do so for
reasons Of patriotism, and, according
to reports, after the national Or
ganizatiOn Of the Aluminium Workers
Of America had threatened to with
draw its support if the EdgeWater
local did not call off the strike.
Announcement of the settlement
of the Harvill strike, which began
ten days ago and which had
threatened to tie up virtually all air.
craft production on the West Coast,
was made by the Los Angeles office
of the o. P M The compromise
agreement, dealing principally with
questions of union recognition and
wage rates, must be ratified by the
full union membership before work
is resumed, but this ratification is eX-
peCted to be forthcoming promptly.
The fact that these strikes were
settled after less than two weeks of
negotiations and the character of the
issues involved strongly suggest that
the WalkoutS could have been pre-
vented in the first place if there had
been any adequate machinery for
dealing with the disputes when they
arose. 1t is in precisely this respect,
however, that the Governments pro-
gram-or lack of program-for
handling defense labor problems is
most sadly deficient.
The controversy now taking shape
at the Bethlehem, Pa, plants of the
Bethlehem Steel Company is another
example of this fundamental weak
ness. At Bethlehem, the Steel
Workers Organizing Committee of
the c. l. O. is threatening to call its
members out on strike today if a
scheduled election is held by an en-
ployes' organization which is alleged
to be company-dominated.
This question of company -domina-
ton, arising out of a finding by the
National Labor Relations Board be-
fore its reorganization, is now pend
ing in the courts on appeal. Ger
tainly, there is nothing in a dispute
Of this nature, until it Is finally
adjudicated, to Justify strike in so
vital a defense industry. Yet all the
indications are that the strike will be
called, and there is no evidence that
the Government is doing anything,
nor does it seem to be equipped to do
anything, to prevent the walkout,
If the interests of the country as a
whole, as distinct from the selfish in
terests of one or another minority
element, are to be served, it is es-
sentiaI that the Federal authorities
devote themselves primarily to the
task Of preventing rather than
settling strikes And, with the labor
relations picture shaping up as it is,
the sooner this is done the better.