Evening star., 1942-01-28
VII.
The lubor Front

On the worlds labor front the
contrast between the Fascist
system and our own is sharply
and dramatically drawn. The
first conquest Of the Nazis was
the conquest of their own people.
AS q consequence, many Reich
factories that are turning out
guns meant for the enslavement
Of other people are themselves
run by slaves. And workers Of
countries overrun by the Axis
have been wrenched from their
homes and shipped into the Reich
as forced labor.
In this country we have placed
our reliance on what President
Wilson called "the highest and
best form of efficiency - the
spontaneous cooperation Of .
free people"
We are fighting our battle Of
production confident that free
labor will outproduce slave labor.
Five million workers have al
ready been drawn into Americas
tremendous war production pro-
gram. But that is only be-
ginning. Five million more will
be required In the next six
months. BY the end Of the year
labor's army of men and women
in war industries will be tripled-
and it will be quadrupled in
l943.
During the first year and half
OF our defense program disputes
between labor and management
were allowed to interfere with
production. Frome June /, 1910,
to December l, 1941, o. P. MS
labor division tailed 160 defense
strikes Of primary significance"
involving 28O100 workers, caus-
ing the loss Of 2,667 900 man days.
On March 10, 1941, the National
Defense Mediation Board was
created by executive order to
mediate labor controversies and
avoid strikes, stoppages and lock-
outs. In roughly 10 months OF
its existence ia cases, affecting
nearly 100000 workers, were
certified to the board. In 81 OF
these cases strikes were In prog
ress and defense production in
terrupted when the board was
called in. Ninety-two disputes,
affecting more than 100000
workers, were settled.
Board Rarely Disregarded.
One of the boards major OBJ
Jectives was to keep workers on
the job while controversies were
being mediated. Progress in at
tanning this objective is shown
by the fact that in the % cases
still pending before the board
early in January the 90, 1000 work.
ers affected remained at work in
the factories.
Other conciliation agencies of
the Government settled 583 dis
putes in plants working on Army,
Navy and Maritime Commission
contracts before they could de-
velop into strikes. These dis
putes involved more than 2,OO0,-
900 workers. =
The recommendations Of the
mediation board had, no legal
force, but they rarely were disre-
garded. In three cases, when
strikes were in progress and the
boards recommendations were
rejected, the President ordered
seizure of the plants.
Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor
brought a swift and almost
unanimous response from labor.
Threatened strikes were called
of. Unions circularized their
members urging them to buy De-
fense bonds. Others asked to be
allowed to give blood for Army
and Navy blood banks. Unions
whose membership was largely
1talian-American and German
American affirmed that I'VE are
Americans above ALL"
The Presidents appeal to all
war industries to work 1853 hours
q week produced pledges of sup
port. Hundreds of thousands of
workers volunteered for over
time until the additional Sunday
and night work could be spread
out through the recruiting of ad-
ditional shifts.
This spontaneous rallying of
labor reached a climax on De-
cember II, when representatives
Of the C. I. o. and A. F. L. met
with representatives of industry
to draft voluntarily a formula to
insure industrial peace and pre-
vent Interruptions in production.
This conference reached a unani-
nous agreement on a three point
formula which was Immediately
adopted by the President:
/. There shall be no strikes or
lockouts.
2. All disputes shall be settled
by peaceful means.
3. The President shall set up q
proper war labor board to handle
these disputes.
To Need Another 100000.
On January II the President
created the War Labor Board,
superseding the National De-
tense Mediation Board. The new
board consists of IL members,
with representatives for the pub
lie, for labor and for manage
ment. In the maritime field,
labor and management repre-
sentatives agreed unanimously
on the creation of a similar
Maritime Labor Board to settle
all disputes. The United States