Evening star., 1942-02-19
Snag in Steel Case
Hints Stormy Career
For War Labor Board
Dr.. leiserson Forecasts
Trouble as Firms Reject
Closed Shop Compromise
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, Feb. ia stormy
career" predicted for the War Labor
Board bobbed up today in the form
of a major snag in the little steel
dispute, which is regarded as the
boards biggest test.
Even as william F. Leiserson of
the National Labor Relations Board
made the forecast last night, the
youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. and
the Inland, Bethlehem and Republic
Steel companies announced their
fiat opposition to a board-considered
compromise on the closed-shop issue.
DR.. Leiserson, whose address to
City College audience was pre-
pared before the steel companies
expressed their stand, declared that
If mutual agreements between la
Dor and war industries failed, the
only alternative was for Congress
to determine the policies by legis-
lation.
Two Major Issues Seen.
whether the new board will be
any more successful than the old
(the National Defense Mediation
Board, disbanded in disagreement
over the coal mine union-ship issue) :,
is for the future to decide" he said.
ut Is certain, however, that a
stormy career lies ahead Of it.
Already many cases have been sub
mitted to it involving the closed shop
issue and requests for wage in
creases. Success or failure of the
board will be determined by how
1t disposes of these two issues"
Negotiations between the Bethle-
hem ard Republic Steel Companies
and the c. 1. o. Steel Workers Or
ganizing Committee were broken off
a fortnight ago and were certified
to the board by Secretary of Labor
Perkins.
81 Wage Boost Asked.
Bethlehem Steel. employing 90 900
men, and Republic. with $4,000
workers, together with $4,000 others
employed by youngstown Sheet &
Tube and Inland Steel, comprise
the little steel" group for whose
workers the s. w. o. c. is seeking
a $1-a-day wage increase, the
checkof system and a closed shop.
The union says the present mini
mum wage for laborers in the four
little steel" companies was $3.50
a day, with an average hourly rate
of SO cents for steel workers.
Bethlehem Steel's statement, re-
ferring to reports that Chairman
William H. Davis of the War Labor
Board intended to sponsor the So
called Marshall Field maintenance
of-union-membership clause" as a
compromise of the closed shop issue,
termed the clause as "just one more
confusing name for the same old
idea" e.
Called "Clever Camoufiage."
"It is cleverly camoufaged closed
shop" the statement said, "and the
public should not and, as we be-
Ieve, will not be fooled by it,
Equally outspoken was Republics
statement, saying in part:
This company is opposed to It
(the Marshall Field clause or any
other form of closed shop, no matter
what ut is called nor how 1t is
camouf1aged.
The plan is all the more vicious
because its real purpose is to force
men to become and remain men,
bers OF unions under a false cloak
OF supposed voluntary action on
their part"
"Distinetion Without Difference"
youngstown Sheet & Tube Co.,
another member Of little steel"
denounced the plan as simply the
closed shop in a different dress"
and "a distinction without a diff
ference"
The company's statement said If
an employe has signed a voluntary
checkof of wages for union dues.
he is "irrevocably committed during
the life of the contract, regardless
OF his future preferences, and the
employer becomes bill collector
for the union.
Every competent workman should
have the right to work without
being under pressure from any
source to participate in any par
ticular scheme of compulsory union
membership"
The maintenance of union mem
bership clause" provides that any
employe notifying the management
that he voluntarily has become a
member of a union, designated as
the collective bargaining agent,
must remain a member in good
standing of that union or forfeit his
job. 1t does not compel any new
or old en1nlnve To inir q l1ninrn or