The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-02-01

@uOe Uaeson worst for four. The rest were settled before the pickets had even got their feet | warm.
 The much.puhlicized Allis-C Chal- mers strike in Milwaukee represents 3 special situation, as the commis- sion's labor experts see 1t. Involved in 1t, as these experts explain, are a management with bad labor rec- ord, o. I. o. union under radical dominance and an A. r. of L. union with q pre-191O attitude. If that set-up were typical of defense indus tries there would be grounds for pes- sirnisin, but 1t isn't.
 HOW NO-STRIKE
 MACHINERY WORKS
 The Defense Commissions ma chinery for handling labor troubles works smoothly and in most cases effectively. When 8 strike occurs in 8 defense se-I1idustry plant, the mat ter Is immediately referred to John R. Steelman, head of the cancellation service of the labor department. Steelman sends conciliator to the scene at once. The conciliator talks with union leaders, management off1- cials, and with outsiders, sizes up the i situation, and does what he can to get the two sides to make an imme- diate settlement.
 Usually he succeeds. The average strike during the last six months of the defense program has lasted about a day or a day and a half. If he fails to get settlement, he yefers things back to Steelman and tS Sid- ney Hillman, who is ,labor'S half Of the office of production management.
 .Hillman relies chiefly on three men. They are John Owens, Ohio United Mine Workers chief, who represents the 0. I. O.; Joseph Kee- Inan, secretary of the Chicago Fed eration of Labor, who represents the A. F. of L. and E. D. Bransome, head of the American Vanadium Corp, who represents industry.
 The procedure varies with the in- diyidual cases. If c. I. O. union is involved, Owens goes to work. ii it's an A., r. of L. union, the job goes to Keenan. In either case. If it's the opinion of the conciliation service and of Hillman that management is chiefly at fault, Bra11some weighs in with company ofdciAls. Almost al- ways, the efforts of these three men are sufficient.
 lLABOR WOULD COUNTER
 RESTRICTIVE DEMANDS
 1 Hillnian and Steelman work closely together on all of these things, end 1t often Is impossible to say where ones sphere ends and the others begins. The strike threatened recently in the Ryan AerOnautical Go. plant at San Diego Is 8 good H. illustration. On that one, Owens part was chiefly selling the union on the idea of delay-he got a postpone mert three times when the deadline was less than an hour awaayw while Steelman put company officials m touch with top c. I. o. leaders and satisfied them that union responsi- bility'' really meant something. This set-up doesn't always work overnight, as witness the Allis- -Chal- mers case. But 1t works so much of the time that the commissions labor experts are pretty well satisfied. The present demand for laws re- stricting the right to strike originates | in congress, not in the Defense Com mission. If such laws should be adopted, both A. F. of L. and c. l. Q. would almost certainly be found waging a campaign to restrict in- dustry's defense profits to cents on the dollar, or whereabouts. Such a campaign has been talked over by various labor leaders, and you'll hear good deal more if it is restrictive legislation gets passed.