The Daily Alaska empire., 1944-12-26
WAR PRIORITY PLAN ANNOUNCED,
 ALASKA INDUSTRY

ALAlkA lEDUSEkY Alaska industries, effective to- day, will come under uniform national system for classifying manpower orders of employers in | five priority categories in the order ! of their relative importance to the war effort" it is announced by Arthur Hedges, Territorial Director 1 for the War Manpower Commission in Alaska.
 Under this new manpower prior 1 ity plan" Hedges said, such pro- jects as the command construction bases under Alaska Defense con- mand and Alaska Railroad, would have the highest, or number one category, with others in the Alaska area ranking in relation to their importance to the war program"
 The action was taken, according to advices received from WING headquarters in Washington, in an effort to reduce the chance of in- equities that might arise in some industrial areas in which more than one item on the critical war production programs is being manufactured. Heretofore, man. power priorities in each area were fixed by WING area directors but criteria to assure standard ratings throughout the nation had not been Established.
 Five Categories
 The five categories, approved under an arrangement between the War Manpower Commission and the War Production Board, are as follows:
 1-Orders of exceptional national importance.
 2-Emergency orders.
 3-Only orders from establish ments which have been assigned production urgency rating of III and whose production or service is behind schedule for manpower reasons or threatens to become so because of an expanded schedule, and only if they are orders for workers who will be engaged on must production or services, or on production or services with To- cally equivalent urgency ratings.
 4-Only orders from establish ments which have been assigned production urgency rating of " or which have sbeen assigned a pro- duction urgency rating of III and whose orders have not been placed in priority category 3. Orders from either such establishments will be placed in this category only if they are for workers who will be en- ployed on the production or service which has been designated as must" or equivalent in urgency.
 5--Crders from essential and To- cally needed establishments may be placed in this category if the orders require preferential treat ment in referral and the estab- lishments have been assigned a production urgency rating of V or above.
 ClarificatiOn The adoption of this uniform system should serve to clarify the relative importance of manpower requirements of employers and to reinforce WINGS efforts to speed up the placement of workers in war plants where they are most urgently needed, MT. Hedges ex- plained.
 Under the system, any order in a local office of the United States Employment Service will be classed as priority" order unless it has been given priority designa- tion by the chairman of the Ma tional Manpower Priorities Con- mittee, or by the WING Regional, State, or Area Director
 Eligibility for priority treatment will be determined by the Area Manpower Director with the advice and recommendation of the Area Manpower Priorities Committee. A production urgency rating must be given, however, before the WING Area Director will assign a pri- ority manpower rating to an em- ployer.
 MT. Hedges pointed out that an employer violating WING regula- tions or engaging in discrimina- tory or restrictive hiring practices may forfeit his right to priority treatment.
 Employers may obtain additional details from local offices of the