The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1943-05-28
UNITED Mine
WORKERS WOULD
RETURN TO AFL

fliation of the United Mine Workers
with the AFL by the time of the ALL
convention next fall is now in order
as a consequence of the formal appll-
cation made this week by John l..
Lewis to the AFL Executive Council
meeting in Washington.
President Green of the AFL said
that "the council welcomed the receipt
of the application and is proceeding
to consider and act upon the applica-
tion in an orderly and sympathetic
way"
Jurisdictional Problems
1t is conceded that President Lewis
would not have made the application
for reaffiliation without assurances
from friends in the AFL that it would
be received. Much work has been done
during the last two years to insure
majority approval of the reaffiliation.
One of the major obstacles to reaf-
! filiation was the Construction Work
ers Organizing Committee, which
Lewis discontinued after leaving the
CIO. What to do about the AFL Pro-
gressive Miners, numbering 10000, is
the most difficult jurisdictional prob
lem in the reaffiliation procedure.
Jurisdictional difficulties revolving
around District so, Lewis's catch-all
unit, are not regarded as insuperable.
They cut across the spheres of AFL
federal unions which are controlled
by the Executive Council and which
can be realigned in any manner which
may seem expedient.
A further indication of the sympa-
thetic attitude toward the United
Mine Workers is reflected in the sec
ond paragraph of Mr.. Green's state
ment:
Labor Solidarity
"The Executive Council interprets
the application of the United Mine
Workers for reaffiliation as response
to it's repeated appeals to those or
ganizations originally chartered by
the AFL which had withdrawn to re-
turn and for unity and solidarity
within the ranks of labor"
The AFL now has membership of
6,225,000. The CIO membership is es-
timated at 100000. The United
Mine Workers has membership of
100000. Retaliation of the Miners
with the AFL will thus make the
score 6,825,0 to 4,500,0OO 1t is be-
lieved some other units may leave the
CIO and join the AFL along with
Lewis, because it is known that all is
not harmony within the CIO.
All of this has bearing on ma
tional politics in 1914, but so far it is
a matter of anybody's guess as to
what will have happened by then. 1t
does, however, lend strength to the
AFL warning to Congress that it
must not be treated with disdain when
it makes formal declaration on leg
islative matters affecting labor.
Labor leaders see no relationship
/ oCC"SCH eiie request lOE TedlIllldClOn
and the current wage dispute of the
United Mine Workers with the Ma
tional War Labor Board. If anything,
it may mean pressure from the AFL
upon John L. Lewis to support labor's
no-strike pledge. There are MANY
ALL leaders who have endorsed the
United Mine Workers in their demand
for wage adjustments. Furthermore,
the Presidents Executive Order of
April calling for infexible wage and
job freezes brought all labor-AFL,
ClO and UMWA and the Brother
hoods-into one camp in opposition to
It's provisions, and emphasized more
than almost any other thing the
threat to voluntary procedures in la
Dor relations from government.