Evening star., 1942-01-18
War Labor Board Takes Over
I In Period of Relative Calm
q Disputes Await It, but No Strikes; Closed Shop
Is Most Troublesome Issue Up
for Determination
By Charles G. Ross.

The new National War Labor Board
created by the President to handle labor
disputes in defense industries for the
term Of the war, has begun work on a
docket Of % cases inherited from its
predecessor, the National Defense Me-
diation Board. These cases involve
nearly 1000 workers, but-and this is
the significant point-none of them Is
on strike The board thus takes over
In an atmosphere of calm in industrial
relations, whereas its forerunner, on be-
ginning work in March OF last year.
faced turbulent situation. So also, at
the start, did the War Labor Board set
up by President Wilson under the joint
craftsmanship of William Howard Taft
and Frank P Walsh during the last war.
The new board of IL members-four
representing the public and four each
acting as spokesmen for employers and
employes-will issue determinations"
not orders. Lacking statutory authority,
1t has no power to enforce its findings;
but it has back of it the general au-
thority and prestige of the presidential
ONCE and in clear cases of recalcitrance
on the part of either an employer or
labor union it undoubtedly will be able
to enlist the strong support of the ulti-
mate arbiter in struggles between
capital and labor-publc opinion.
The board is buttressed, too by the
recent agreement of representatives of
capital and labor at Washington con-
ference that for the duration of the war
all industrial disputes shall be settled by
peaceful means, without resort to either
strikes or lockouts. The creation of the
board by the President was the direct
outgrowth of this conference.
Negotiations First in Dispute.
Under the executive order setting up
the board the parties to any labor
dispute which might interrupt defense
production must first endeavor to reach
a settlement through direct negotiations.
If these fail, the good offices of the
Cancellation Service of the Department
of Labor must be invoked, and if this
service fails to bring about a prompt
adjustment. the dispute must be certi-
lieu Uy lile SeCicldIy VI LdDOi " lllS
War Labor Board. The executive
order also provides that the board need
not wait for certification by the Secre-
tary, but may in its discretion, after
consultation with the Secretary, take
jurisdiction Of the dispute on its own
motion Having assumed Jurisdiction,
as 4 sort Of supreme court for capital
1oh hop o1otf nc oil
shall finally determine the dispute, and
for this purpose may use mediation. VOL
untary arbitration, or arbitration under
rules established by the board"
The order was purposely drawn in a
manner that gives the board the widest
possible latitude in the choice of pro-
cedures. If the hopes of the chairman,
William H. Davis, are realized, techniques
will be developed that will prove perma-
nently useful in the prevention of strikes.
A continuing effort will be made to bring
about the negotiation of management
labor contracts providing within them
selves the means of settling disputes.
To the largest practicable extent, dis
putes will be heard and settled in the
communities where they originate. Re-
gional mediation offices may be set up.
Through this decentralization, it is hoped
that In many cases the contending par
ties will be freed of the necessity of
expensive and time consuming trips to
Washington. The board will insist that
appeals to it be withheld till after the
disputants have exhausted the prior pro-
cedures of direct negotiation and Labor
Department conciliation.
Regular Members Supplemented.
Available for the hearing of cases will
be not only the regular members of the
board, but four alternate members repre-
senting employees and four representing
employers. These can serve with full
powers in the absence of members in
their respective groups. 1t is expected
that the President will also name panel
from which an umpire can be chosen
If dispute fails to yield to the ordinary
processes of the board. With the con-
sent of both parties, such an umpire
might be chosen if, for example, dis
pute. had left the board divided six and
six. Among the distinguished citizens
understood to be under consideration by
the President for membership on an
umpire panel are Charles Evans Hughes
Wendell L. Willkie, Alfred E. Smith and
James A. Farley.
The most troublesome of all the issues
that will confront the War Labor Board
Is that of the closed shop. In the alb
sence of any mandate on this question
from either Congress or the President,
the issue is wide open. The employers
IN the recent Washington conference
sought without success to have the closed
shop excluded from the field of ar
bitrable issues before the board, and
after the conference. declared in a for
NAL statement that while they accepted
the Presidents direction for peaceful
settlement of disputes" they adhered to
their conviction that the board should
not take jurisdiction Of demands for the
same condition that obtained in the last
war, when the Taft-Walsh board was
bound by general policy freezing" the
then existing status of open and closed
shops. President Roosevelts order ad-
mitting "all disputes" to adjudication
by the new board represented clear
victory for the union point of view.
It remains to be seen how the board
will handle the issue under its policy,
carried over from the National Defense
Mediation Board, of dealing with each
case on its individual merits The N.
y. M. B. granted the full closed shop