Evening star., 1943-11-20

Commerce Commission to see the
more dramatic evidence of the in
creasing railway labor strinsency.
You are mistaken in believing
that workers In other industries
have had no wage adjustments be-
yond the IS per cent formula. AS
a matter OF fact. from January,
194l, to August, l943, the average
hourly earnings Of American factory
workers had increased from 6S,3
cents to 96,a cents. That increase
OF 28 cents per hour was more than
II per cent. In the iron and steel
industry. where the Little Steel for
mula was supposed to be specifically
effected, the increase in average
hourly earnings has been over IS
per cent. In durable goods gen.
orally, the increase has been more
than Al per cent. During that
same period the hourly earnings OF
incorporating employees have risen
Is per cent.
You will agree, I trust, that these
facts indicate that the railway in
dustry has been made exceptional
in two ways: First, in the procedure
which delays railway wage adjust
ments, and second, In that wage
increases in other industries even
since January l. 1941. have been
substantially higher than those in
the railway industry. AS conse-
quence, the gross inequities, which,
in January, l94l, and even since
then, have been interfering with
the maximum railway efficiency,
are uncorrected and deserve cor
rection.
One further exception has been
made against the railway employees.
II the War Labor Board finds a
particular wage adjustment justi-
f1ed-and they have found many
groups entitled to more than IS per
cent increases since January, l94l-
Sterilization Director Vinson has
no authority to set aside such in
crease excepting on the ground that
1t will occasion price increases or
prevent price reductions. Judge
Vinson has interposed a veto on
railway wages without the slightest
reason for belief that the increase
will affect railway rates.
You are wrong in believing that
Judge Vinson denied any increase
beyond the Is per cent formula to
the incorporating railway workers.
The difference between the adjust
ment which Judge Vinson has finally
approved and the one which was
agreed upon by the railway unions
and arrangements is primarily in
the way in which the wage increase
Is to be distributed. Judge Vinson
has used his power, not to prevent
an increase in wage rates. or to hold
the railway workers rigidiy to the
Is per cent formula, but to say that
particular group of workers is
getting a particular amount of in
crease different from that agreed
upon between the parties, different
also from that recommended by the
emergency board set up under the
Railway Labor Act. Judge Vinson
may feel that he has the power thus
to make detailed distributions of the
total money to be given in wage in
creases. The railway workers can
find no justification in the law, in
the industry, or in Judge Vinson S
qualifications for the exercise of this
arbitrary power You will see, there
fore. that your editorial is wholly
erroneous.
Railway workers are not asking
that they be treated exceptionally
they are asking that the exceptional
discrimination from which they are
suffering be removed. They are not
differing from Judge Vinson on the
question Of whether or not Is Fer
cent limitation should be imposed: ::
Judge Vinson proposes to 60 beyond
that Is per cent limitation. The
Truman resolution will not open the
door to general wage changes. but
will rather make wage change, now
almost general, applicable to the
railway industry as it has been to
other industries where gross in
equities exist. The railway workers
and the railway managements are
striving desperately to find a way
to restore labor morale in the in
dustry to its normal high level.
We regret that the editorial in
The Star not only misunderstands
this situation, but may make more
difficult the absolutely imperative
correction of a gross inequity now
seriously interfering with the efIec.
tive prosecution Of the war.
B. M. JEWELL.
Chairman, Fifteen Cooperating
Railway Labor Organizations.