Evening star., 1943-03-01
Boeing Plant
TroubIesLuid
To Bung|ine
SerIes Of Errors on
Labor Policy Charged
To Administration
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.


lclsm on the men who have left
thelr jobs, but the solution of the
problem does not lie in mere con.
Gemnation of the workers or even
In legislation simply banning war
time strikes.
The issues 60 deeper. The walk
out at Boeing is the climax of Ions
series of acts Of incompetence and
neglect in the Governments owr
handling of the labor problem, and
1t is most unfortunate that only
the final act of evaporation by the
workers should be emphasized
whereas the incidents leading ur
tn 1t over the last two years are
either forgotten or sidetracked, The
company is an innocent bystander-
1t will pay whatever wages the Gov
eminent, which pays the cost in
every contract, says should be paid
The workers at Boeing have a
grievance. They get less pay than
is paid for the same work else
where. They have waited a long
time for the War Labor Board to
decide their case. Why doesn't the
BOARD do 1t? The answer is to be
found IN a maze of mistakes and
plumbers which 60 to the heart of
the labor problem in America today.
Wages Bid Up.
Thus the aircraft industry Is a
comparatively new business which
two years ago had only a fraction
OF the number now employed.
Union organizers stepped In repre-
senting rival CIO and AFE locals
and began bidding up wages, play
ing one plant against another.
Boeing, for |instance, originally
paid the highest wage rates in the
industry, but soon the Southern
California wage rates scared higher
than those at Boeing. Then came
the freezing of wage levels by the
executive order OF the President last
October, and pretty mess ensued.
Several governmental agencies
have had their clumsy hands in the
problem the War Production
Board, the War Labor Board. the
War Manpower Commission and
the Office OF Price Administration.
The employers, beginning in early
1941. pleaded with the Government
to develop uniform stabilization
agreement for the whole Pacific
Coast industry. At one time 1t
looked as if this might be accom-
plished but the CIO and AFL re-
fused to let their representatives sit
down in the same room with the
Governments emissaries.
Instead of telling these facts to
the American people and getting
public support for simple piece of
policy, the administra-
ton lost its nerve and temporized.
There was a time when changes in
the Wagner Labor Relations Act
would have compelled unions to
accept responsibilities, but again the
administration temporized and held
Congress back.
Labor Experts Ignored
Sterilization agreements region
ally and through whole industries
engaged In war production are
needed as well as a machinery to
obtain compliance. The workers
want it. the employers want it, but
the administration has bungled the
whole idea.
Indeed, the most serious indict-
ment Of the present administration
for its lack of a consistent labor
policy caq be made by the workers,
who have so much if not more to
complain about than have the en-
ployers.
One Of the principal reasons for
the administrations failure is that
tt@ignores men of labor experience
who have spent their lives handling
such problems. The War Labor
Board consists of men without the
background in the American labor
movement that is possessed, for in
stance, by William Leiserson or John
r. Steelman. Here are two of the
sblest Government men in America
who know labor inside out. One
has been serving on the National
Labor Relations Board and is now
being made chairman of the Ma
tiona1 Mediation Board, which
handles railroad labor disputes ex-
cluslvely. and the other is at the
head Of the United States Concilia-
tion Service, subordinate bureau
In the Labor Department.
Neither of these two experienced
men has been permitted to serve
his country in the place each is
best qualified to do so. The reason
Is that the President still clings
to the theory that he can Go every
thing by smile and a bit of per-
sonal caiolery. He formed the So
called labor cabinet and proclaimed
to the country that strikes were at
sn end and warned Congress it
must keep hands off
No Power Over Locals.
This correspondent pointed out
at the time-December lq4l-that
the C1O and AFL top executive
councils really had no effective dis
olpllnary powers over the locals and
that fundamental legislation to
compel responsibility in local labor
union activities was essential to-
eether with adequate mediation
machinery to be operated by ex-
perienced meGlatorS furnished by
the Government.
The union leaders have mis-
managed the situation and have
mlsled the workers at Boeing. The