Imperial Valley press., 1943-04-09
copital Talk

Before anyone gets the cockeyet
idea that this CIO versus AFL dis
pute over which union should b,
the bargaining agent for some so.
900 employees of three Kaiser ship.
yards in Oregon is an isolated case
situation peculiar TO this industry
alone, it is we'll to consult the Ma.
tional Labor Relations Board rec
ords and determine how frequent
juriSdictional labor rows really
ere. There are about so such cases
every month, and this has been the
trend for the last year and half
NLRB spokesmen insist that
all disputes between unions are
not jurisdictional disputes. A
jurisdictional dispute, according
tc NLRB definition, is question
over what union laborers are to
do certain job, as, for instance,
should ships be built by boiler
makers, plumbers, or sheet metal
workers, or should welders and
riveters form union of their
own to do the job.
A dispute such as that now cen
tered in the Kaiser yards. in which
the CIO has petitioned the NLRB
to set aside Kaiser contracts with
the AFL, SO that an election may
be held to determine which group
should bargain for the workers, is
called by the NLRB a representa-
ton case" not jurisdictional
case.
Accepting this somewhat fine
and legalistic distinction, the fact
remains that the Kaiser case CEN
ters around a dispute between two
unions. AS such it is a potential
interference with efficient opera
ton of an essential war production
industry and it should be stopped
before it makes any more trouble
than it has.
COMMON OCCURRENCE
Whatever you call this Kaiser
case now before NLRB, it is in no
way unique. There are 18 such
cases in shipyards alone. There
are literally hundreds OF such
union VS.. union contests in other
wal industries. There have been
close to 1000 such disputes since
war production effort began.
The NLRB seventh annual re-
port for the fiscal year ending
June 80, 1912, reveals that TO-
S77 new cases were filed with the
board during the year. In round
numbers, 5000 cases were charges
that employers had in6ulged i'm
union labor practices as defined
by the Wagner act, while 5000
cases were representation cases.
OF these 5000 representation
cases, 1919 were contests be
tween rival unions over which
should be the bargaining agent,
the others being cases in which
the union petitioning for an elec-
ton to determine bargaining
agent was not opposed by another
union.
A breakdown of the 1919 union
Us. union contests fails 10 show
that any one group of unions has a
record On this question any better
than its rivals, although the ClO
unions won the largest proportion
Of elections and polled the largest
of votes.
FIGURES
AFL unions started 234 Of these
contests against CIO unions and
won AZ per cent of the elections,
involving 10000 workers.
AFL unions started 118 contests
against unaffiliated unions and won
SO per cent of the elections, in
volving $1,000 workers.
CIO unions started 371 contests
against AFL unions and won sc
per cent of the eleytions, involving
221 900 workers.
CIO unions started 1875 contests
against unaffiliated unions and won
So per cent of the elections, in
10000 workers.
Unaffiliated unions started II
contests against AFL unions, 10
contests against CIO unions, won
co per cent Of all elections inVolY-
ing $1,000 workers.
To be perfectly fair about this
matter, it is TO The credit of the
NLRB that il handled these 1879
disputes with no more than the
local furore they created But
the important point is that in
these thousand odd cases, over
lalf a million workmcn were