Evening star., 1943-04-12
Continued From First Page.)

her daily output before the dis
charge. This worker now is far
above the department average, which
is more than double production at
the time of the showdown incident.
Slow Unit Slows Plant.
officials attributed the general i'm
provement to the fact that the de-
partment had changed from day
rate basis of pay to piece work
plan and smoothing of relations with
labor. Most departments in the
plant now are on piece work, and
reporteGly showing great production
increases. At the time of our visit,
some shop sections still were on day
work. Management said those sec
ticns were operating ct 80 per cent
efficiency or less They said the
slowed sections limited output of the
entire plant which is making highly
important war machine parts.
1t would be grossly unfair to place
the blame on workers for produc-
ticn not being what it should be in
many plants. Employees invariably
deny hotly that there is any con-
certed effort to restrict output, and
they charge figures presented by
management to prove the cases are
biased The cases generally involve
poor labor relations, disputes of long
standing which have never been
settled completely. The grievances
tester and flare up at time when
considerable harm is done to the
war effort. Production drops as
charges and countercharges are
made.
Unions charge management with
unfair practices. In other instances
they contend that working condi-
, tons are poor. Perhaps the plant
assembly line was laid out badly, or
machines in the shop are arranged
so that materials do not flow
through efficiently. Though gen.
orally it was impossible for this re-
porter to determine whether or not
management practices were unfair
it was obvious in some instances
that plant working conditions were
not the best.
Government Action Needed.
Whatever are the causes of plant
inefectiveness, of poor production
| it is obviously a condition which
cannot be tolerated if we are to have
all-out war effort. There is much
the Government can do that it is not
doing to untangle plant situation:
and improve production. Compare
/ lively minor disputes are allowed tc
90 unsettled too long, frequently
| growing to large proportions. Neither
anagement nor labor can do it best
/ with so many things on their minds
other than to produce to win the
war
A charge made by both labor anc
management representatives wa:
that the multiplicity of Fedora
agencies dealing with labor rela,
tions and production problems was 6
bar to peace in plants. There wa!
! duplication of effort, and sometime
the point of contention between en-
ployer and labor was not precisely
! within the jurisdiction of any one
agency. A Chicago labor repre-.
sentative in Government said tha
hesitancy OF Federal officials to GU
red tape and assume responsible.
ity' was preventing labor accord.
In one plant where labor ano
management had been tied in knot
for a year, five separate agencie
we're called in from time to time tt
smooth out relations. The agencie
were the War Labor Board, Wa
| ManpoWer Commission, Cancellation
Service, War Production Board LA
bol Production DivisionD and Arm,
Air Forces, for whom the plant wa
making aircraft parts. Apparent,
al hands made Investigations, al
though relations had not beer
smoothed when this reporter visitet
the plant.
The current round of trouble be
gan year ago with union demant
for a general cents per hour in
crease. Management refused an,
discussions continued through tn
simmer Since then many othe
difficulties cropped up. The com
rany accused workers of showdown
The workers, according to officials
demanded guaranteed 43-hou
work week before women employe
were brought in This dispute wen
to arbitration and the union lost, of
flcialS said,
Workers accused the company Q
poor working conditions. charge
that one man might be shifted t
a number Of machines during tn
course of a day The firm, lik
thousands of others converted t
war work, has expanded greatly
The building is old and overloade
with machines stuffed nearly to tn
caves. Officials admitted the plan
was not all it could be-
Officials charged that the unio
had among its regulations pro
vision for a fine to be assessed fc
earnings above an established cell
ing. Since the shop was on piece
work basis, they said this tende
to place a ceiling on productio,
They said they did not kno,
whether the alleged penalty wa
still in force
The company showed lette
allegedly written by an officer Of tn
union to the firm Bargaining Com
mittee last August during course c
negotiations for the scent increas
and other demands.
The letter outlined benefits aske
by employees, adding that in retur
employees would cooperate wit
management. One paragraph read
Also that we would reciprocal
by endeavoring to persuade ou