Evening star., 1942-01-16
Union Shop Formula
Sought al Meeting
Of War Labor Board
Seven Disputes Involving
Issue Are Certified
To New Agency
By the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
The Government made a new at
tempt today to settle the strike
breeding union shop issue and hold
unbroken the wartime truce between
labor and management.
Secretary of Labor Perkins certl-
fed to the new War Labor Board
disputes involving the closed shop
question which all but wrecked its
predecessor, the Defense Mediation
Board, and the issue was paramount
in the % cases inherited from the
old board.
Meeting today under the chair
manship of William H. Davis, the
new l2-man board sought first OF all
to find a formula for settling dis
putes in the peaceful manner pre-
scribed by labor and management
representatives who pledged them
selves to no-strike, no-lockout
policy December %.
Both industry and labor looked to
the coming session for a quick an
swer to whether the board would
adopt a fixed policy on the union
shop. perhaps freezing the status
QUO as did the World War board OF
1918, or deciding every case indi-
Vidually.
Issue Left Unsettled.
During the December negotla-
tions employers insisted that the
union shop be barred from wartime
contract negotiations and union
leaders held out for consideration OF
the issue whenever it arose. Presl-
dent Roosevelt ended the deadlock
conference by accepting the points
on which the cOnferees were IN
agreement and leaving the contro-
versal issue unsettled.
This same issue had disrupted the
Defense Mediation Board, whose TWO
c. I. O. members, Philip Murray
and Thomas Kennedy, quit IN pro-
test against the boards refusal to
recommend for or against the
United Mine Workers in their de-
mand for union shop in the cap
tive coal mines.
With the industry and labor
groups so insistent. the burden OF
deciding falls on the four public
representatives on the new board,
Two of these-Mr Davis and Frank
P. Graham, president of the UNI
versity of North Carolina-were
members of the old board when II
refused to decide the union ship
issue in the captive mine case. The
other public members are Dean
Wayne L. Morse Of the University
of oregon Law School and George
w. TAYLOR, professor Of economies
at the University of Pennsylvania.
Davis Reappointment Hit.
Iabor's Non Partisan League.
political arm of the c. I. O., said
last night that Mr. Davis reap
pointment as chairman was sur
prise "inasmuch as both major labor
organizations had opposed his ap-
pointment.
"One count against Mr.. Davis"
the leagues statement said, was
his mishandlirg of the captive coal
mine case before the N. D. M. B.
which stultified itself by refusing
the union shop to the United Mine
Workers even when its own opinion
demonstrated that the miners union
had an alright case. 1t was evident
there were other reasons for the
boards strange decisions
After the coal miners struck to
enforce their union shop demand IN
the captive mines. which are those
owned by steel companies and pro-
ducing fuel for the steel companies,
the matter of the union shop was
submitted at the request OF Presl-
dent Roosevelt to three-man arbl-
tration board.
The arbitrators voted two-to-one
to grant the union shop clause to
the miners and steel companies
signed contracts containing proVl-
sions similar to those already con-
tanned in contracts covering miners
in commercial mines of the Appa-
lachian region.