Evening star., 1944-06-06
JUS. Agencies Plotted
To Influence Wards
Election, Avery Says

Election, Avery Says
BY ]. A. OLEARY.
Sewell Avery, veteran board
chairman of Montgomery Ward
& Co., charged before a House
investigating committee today
that the National Labor Rela-
tions Board "gerrymandered" the
bargaining units in its Chicago
establishment to insure a union
victory in the labor election last
month, and accused the NLRB
and the War Labor Board of
conspiring together to bring
about the plants seizure.
In summary of the company's
case, Mr.. Avery also declared that:
The Post Office aided the union
during the strike at Wards and
sought to excuse its actions to this
committee by misrepresenting the
facts.
THE National Labor Relations
Board has given wholly false ex-
cuse for its action.
THE War Labor Board and the
Attorney General, to distract atten-
ton from their illegal acts, have
untruthfully attacked Wards labor
policies.
Says Law Was Violated.
"The War Labor Board violated
the law by granting a contract to
the union when the union had re-
fused to prove that it had any legal
right to represent Wards employees.
The War Labor Board, by order
ing the retroactive reinstatement of
maintenance of membership, would
have made impossible the holding of
a fair election among Wards en-
ployes. Obedience to that order
would have forced Wards, before
the election was held, to discharge
the many employees who had exer-
cised their right to resign from the
union.
THE National Labor Relations
Board and the War Labor Board
conspired together to bring about
the seizure of Wards properties to
enforce an order which they knew
to be illegal and unfair.
'"The War Labor Board and the
Attorney General have sought to
prevent Wards from obtaining a
hearing in the courts on the illegal
ity of the boards orders, while seek
ing to impose those orders upon
Wards by force.
Sees Conspiracy to Aid Union.
These facts show that the Post
Office, the Department of Justice.
the National Labor Relations Board
and the War Labor Board, with the
approval of the President, have
acted together to give illegal and
unfair assistance to the CIO union
at Chicago"
In support of the "gerrymander-
ing" charge, John A. Barr, labor re-
lations officer at Wards, told the
committee the Labor Relations
Board ordered that the bargaining
units in the retail store and mail
order house be combined with
Wards Schwinn warehouse, 4 miles
away
While the Schwinn warehouse
was included in the same unit as
the store" Mr. Barr testified, "sev-
eral thousand employees in other de-
partments In the same building as
the store were excluded. The clear
purpose OF the gerrymandering was
to use the unions majority in the
Schwinn warehouse to insure a un-
ion victory in all three locations.
| The board. conscious OF the unions
taok Of support In the retail store,
deliberately mixed the ballots to
prevent a separate count OF the store
vote" ,..---,.'
Before Mr.. Avery summarized the
companys position, Mr.. Barr re-
cited a history of the company's
labor relations, and Steuart Ball
company attorney, described the
events leading up to the current
labor dispute.
Mr.. Barr declared the company
has not fought and is not fighting
unlonism, but has refused to grant
union demands that employees be
required to become union members
and pay union dues in order to
retain their jobs.
Sees Political Deal.
Mr.. Avery, who was carried from
the Chicago mail-order house by
soldiers when the Government
seized the plant late in April, also
told the committee:
From its experiences Wards
draws the conclusion that these
many bureaus have formed a ma
chine for purchasing political sup
port from labor organizations.
Wards has long believed that.
when the public awakens to the
degree of coercion used by the ad-
mlnistrative agencies of the Govern
ment to force employers and en-
ployes to accept union restrictions
in which they do not believe and
which without such coercion thev
would avoid, 1t will rise in indigna-
ton. The public will demand that
those appointed to office in these
agencies act with a simple fairness
and obey the law or be removed
from power.
The facts Wards has recited
show, finally, that the President. to
force Wards to obey an order known
to his advisers to be unfair and