Evening star., 1942-03-14

MES To-Day is al Da'iu A""e'
most 100 per cent in making weap-
ons of war for the Government,
the old contracts call for the pay
ment of double time for work done
on Sundays and holidays.
This is the meaning of the arbi-
tration decision just handed down
by an umpire to whom labor unions
and manufacturers submitted the
issue after the War Labor Board
refused to assume jurisdiction.
Almost everybody who read the
text of the contract knew ahead
OF time that the arbitrator couldn't
hand down any other decision ex-
cept to require payment of double
time because, interpreted literally,
that's what the contract provided.
1t was designed at a time when
the unions and the manufacturers
wanted to spread the work and the
double-time provision was in the
nature Of a preventive penalty.
The contract, II fully enforced,
means that the American people
will have to pay higher taxes in
order to give labor double time for
work on Sundays and holidays, not
only in the General Motors plants,
where the contract has just been
arbitrated in favor of the unions,
but in nearly all other plants in
the Detroit area controlled by the
auto workers unions of the C. I. O.
Spread on Precedent.
Last year when the General
Motors Corp. appeared before the
National Defense Mediation Board
and the latter, with the approval
of the President, ordered a 10-cents-
an-hour increase, 1t spread promptly
to other industries. In fact. the
union chiefs Immediately left Wash
ington and told the other auto
companies that the administration
wanted them to reopen contracts
that were not expiring for several
months so that equal conditions
would prevail throughout the auto
industry.
1t is significant that the labor
umpire in the case just decided
urged that ''if this double time pro-
vision should prove to be an OBJ
stacle to full war production" both
parties should turn into action
their avowed intentions" to speed up
production by "reformulating such
provision as quickly as possible"
The arbitrator went on to ex-
plain that he had no latitude under
the contract to consider the equi-
ties Of the situation" or to modify
or reinterpret provisions of that
agreement in the light OF changed
circumstances"
But what the arbitrator said was
well known ahead of time and when
the dispute arose the War Labor
Board side-stepped a decision on the
issue by insisting that the contract
be arbitrated as provided therein.
Now the controversy comes back
to Washington. The War or Navy
Departments must decide whether
full production can be attained by
maintaining in America a system
OF double time for workers in de-
tense plants when they work on
Sundays and holidays. The admin
istration must assume the respon-
sibility for ordering the wage con-
tracts abrogated or perhaps sub
stituted for by new agreements to
be voluntarily arrived at.
Stumps Employers.
There is reason to believe that the
employers do not object to paying
time and half for any overtime
which falls on Sundays and holi-
days, but what they object to is the
situation that exists when a worker
starts on a rotating shift that runs
from Thursday to Thursday and
the middle of 40-hour week hap
pens to fall on Sundays or holidays.
The impediment in the C. I. o.
contract is one that is stumping
many employers who would like to
work three or four shifts and who
would like to keep their machines
going on week ends so that Ameri-
cas- Army, Navy and air forces can
get weapons speedily. If the admin
istration wants to load the taxpayers
with the extra cost, the manufac-
turers will, of course. pass it on
to the Government. But it seems
incredible that the administration,
which seizes plants, orders tires and
autos coniscated and abrogates
contracts right and left, is so timid
about abrogating a labor union con-
tract written to apply to business
that has been ordered out of exist
ance by the Government itself.
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