The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1942-04-03

the Steok WuIkSES
Raaon Organizing Com
mlttee demands
for Si-a.day increases, union closed
Job, and eheck-otf,
The important fact In this sltuN'
ton Is that while thoSo hearings
are IN progress the $4,000 steel IN
dustry employees are on tho Job,
There Is no strike involved,
You man criticize the slownCss
OF this procedure MS much rs you
please 1t Is costly for management,
labor and government, II Is filled
with headaches, for In NIL such ne.
gotiations there Is q deal OF pound
Ing on tables, hurting OF charges,
and losing OF tempers. But you can't
overlook the fact that while oil this
goes on, war production has not
stopped,
,, The hopefulness Of this condition
" nevertheless In the statistics on
labor conditions for February which
was made public BY the Depart
ment OF Labor. Unfortunately, II
takes q month to get together any
thing like accurate figures on the
national strike situation, National
Association OF Manufacturers DASH
es into print shortly after the first
OF each month for the preceding
month, and N, A. M, has taken oe-
CaSion TO blast away at Labor Dc
pnrtment statistics. Tho N, A, M,
survey is, however, On inadequitely
spotty check, based on newspaper
clippings received up TO The end OF
each month, and cNn hardly DO dig
niAed Os outstanding statistics.
THREE SOURCES
NEEDED
To get the real strike picture,
you have 10 put together three re.
ports-the Bureau OF Labor StatiS-
Ties strike summary, the statement
OF the Cancellation Service, and the
defense strike summary Of War
Production Boards labor division.
BIS bases Its summary Oh the
number OF strikes beginning IN each
month. For February " was 100 new
strikes, involving $1,000 workers, aS
against the i03B-30 fiye-year aver
age Of 1872 strikes involving 00,0li
workers. II was, IN other words, o.
below average month In spite OF the
increased levels Of employment. A
single, one-day strike In Q New
Bedford textile mill accounted for q
fourth OF oil the time lost by labor
trouble. Even this was made 'up, for
the union forced the employees who
had refused TO work unless given
time pnd n half Oh q holiday TO re-
turn 10 the Job the following Sat.
urday and make UP the lost day NJ
straight time.
without condonlng strikes n any
way--they are ugly, unnecessary
and people get hurt In them--it ~
probable that here will be fiare-upS
like the New, Bedford ruckus, all
through the war period. Hot-heads
will get control OF local situations
and they raise hob but while these
ineendiary strikes do break out and
make oil the headlines the mach
inery that stops strikes, and better
still-prevertS them-is working ef-
fectiyely, too.
You get that picture from another
report-that OF the United States
Cancellation Service under DR.. John
II. steelman. Take the same month
OF February. There were 3l4 indus.
trial disputes adjusted and settled
before the strike stage and there
fore without any stoppage OF pro-
duetlon. In addition OF strikes that
had stopped production were settled
by the service.
LESS THAN
/ PER CENT LOST
The foregoing figures cover all
industries, whether on war or civil
Ian production. When the figures
are narrowed 70 war production, the
picture looks like this, again Tor
teh month OF February;
There were III thai month about
rs million workers on war produc-
ton. Figuring "a working days IN
that month, there were potential
1870 million man days In employ
ment. Out OF that total In q report
ed 81 Stoppages OF work involving
1890 employees, there were $4,000
man -days lost. The percentage OF
time lost Is $4,000 OF per cent
less than 2-100 or 1850 OF l per cent
Contrast that with February,
i04l, when there were an estimated
81 million inan-days put in on ma
tional defense and strikes caused O
loss OF $4,000 man-days - nearly
IS times as high a percentage as
this year.
AS long as there Is maintained
this tendency to keep EN- working
while labor disputes are being set
tied, this labor problem can be
| flabaI