Evening star., 1943-01-15

absolutely no penalty for "unau-
thorized" or wildcat strikes and
no matter what damage is done, no
matter how sternly the War Labor
Board may phrase its reprimand,
there is nothing in the law to pen
alize, even during wartime, the
worker who impairs the war effort.
There is evidently plenty of law
to seize a plant if an employer re-
fuses to grant some abstract right,
such as maintenance of union mem
bership or the check-off or some
other advantage to unionism, but
the union members, when recall
citrant, apparently are not subject
to punishment.
Thus the American people are
being deprived of hundreds of
thousands Of tons of hard coal be-
cause of a strike in PENNSYLVANIA.
Only day or so ago, the head of
big aircraft company on the Pacific
Coast said that America was being
deprived of a production of at least
300 planes a month due to absen-
teeism by individual workers.
'Day OFF" Practice.
The growth Of the practice of TAX
Ing day off whenever one pleases
has been topic of discussion among
war plant executives for some time
but no penalty has been developed
to stop the practice.
The White House doesn't seem to
be interested sufficiently in these
Interruptions to do anything dras-
tic about it. Members of the cabi-
net and officials of executive agen-
cies do plenty of denouncing of these
incidents, but if anybody on Capitol
Hill ventured to press for some legis-
lation to carry out these denuncia-
tions, the administration if past ex-
perience is criterion, would quick
ly send one of its lieutenants to
Congress to line up its rubber
stamp followers against any such
proposal
congressional committees investi-
gate and seek by publicity to shame
the so-called leaders of the unions
into ending the Interruptions. But
knowing that no penalty is involved
and that when once the men 60
back to work after some face-saying
gesture makes it easy for them
nothing will be done-the strike
weapon is utilized even in the face
OF formal protests from higher-ups
IN the union ranks.
Sympathy Strikes.
Sometimes it is difficult to tell
whether the top officials really are
or are not in sympathy with the So
called unauthorized strikes. Thus
in the coal fields, pust about a
month before Pearl Harbor, there
was a sympathy" strike among
miners in mines that were in no way
involved in the dispute between the
operators of commercial mines and
their employees. The high officials
OF the unions said the men walked
out spontaneously, and vet 100000
men don't just 90 on strike without
some leadership. Eventually, the
union officials fought the applica-
tion of penalty clauses In the union
contracts whereby the employers
sought to penalize by fines those
strikers who had no grievance of
their own although they stayed
away from work.
II there Is to be no penalty for
interrupting work during a war. if
the administration is to apply
coercion and force against employ
ers who refuse to grant union de-
mands, while at the same time using
no penalty of threat of penalty to
keep workers from wildcat" strikes,
then an intensihcation of this sort
OF virtual sabotage of the war effort
can be expected.
Congress. of course, is in session.
It knows the abuses, but too many
members are afraid of the labor vote
and refuse to be tagged as anti
labor even though they may be at
the same time betraying the young
men at the front who need the air.
planes or the weapons from the fac
tories that are having difficulties
with labor or fuel.
The tremendous cost of delay due
to labor troubles cannot, unfor-
tunately, be measured either in man
hours or In percentages. In times
like these, when every ton of ma
terial is needed, interruption of the
war effort without penalty seems
inexplicable.
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