Imperial Valley press., 1943-03-05
THE WAR LABOR BOARD
RENDERS A VERDICT

The War Labor Board. in the face of
expected threat and dissatisfaction ana
confusion, Wednesday delivered courag-
eous. generally-fair verdict in the matter
of airplane workers appeals for ncreas-
ed wage scales.
For months the issue has hung fire.
Boeing workers wanted beginning wage
increased from 62,5 cents per hour, To
95 cents per hour. Southern airplane
plant workers wanted material increases
from the 60-cent starting scale.
The boards decision gave the Boelng
applicants an increase of only AS cents,
and the southern plant workers rs cents
DESPITE a threatened walkOut of the en-
tire industry.
The decision was a courageous one
Everyone knows the predicament IN winch
the board has labored. and the three-WaY
spot upon which it has been placed.
Workers wanted increases to compen
safe for increased costs of living. On the
other hand, increasing wages will not stop
initiation. which is the chief economic ann
of government And if one group Is en-
titled to an up" in pay, everybody else
in the land will feel that they, too, are
entitled to similar increases. This would
spell doom to prices, ceilings-all the IN
flation controls.
Secondly, the nasty action by the Boe-
ing workers in stopping production, and
the promised assistance from other coast
al airplane plant workers in combned
demand for increase was, and still is,
most serious threat. Yet the board could
i'll afford to give in to this power
group. lest it lose all public confidence
and reveal itself as subject to pressure,
rather than reason and right judgment.
Thirdly, the WLB knew full we'll that
the ajority of workers are not moved
into war industries so much by patriot
ism as by pure profit motive. 1here must
be cash induceInent over other pay scales
to get and hold the workers who turn
out our war materials. To increase this
inducement in industry would completely
wreck any chances of adjustment of farm
income controls, the second field of essen
tial wartime production.
All in ALL the mill stones between which
the WLB found itself can be summarized
as the need, on the one hand fer work
able. overall plan into which every one
can slip correctly and properly; and on
the other hand the fact that there simply
isn't any such plan which compels the
board to work in accord with patched
up, hit and miss, made-as-wewent econo-
mic structure.
1t did its best. In just about every
way the decision was a compromise. 1t
permitted slight increases only; but it
did provide for somewhat faster raises
to the airplane worker Immediately fol-
lowing the Boeing walkout, it did not
rush forth a decision the following morn
ing, thus betraying weakness. But it did
work late at night in speeding decision.
That the board was so closely split in
its final decision is regrettable, though
enlightening. In the 7 to roll call,
wide cleavage in opinion of board mem
bers was revealed. The wide schism, bad
enough in itself, was made only worse by
the fact that labor representatives were
unified on the one side; employees unified
on the other side. The decision rested
between the four representatives of the
public. Of these, three voted for the de-
cision; only one dissented