Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-03-04
|AFL Members Of WLE
Urge President 10
Raise Wages II Pei.
BY the Associated Press.

| BY the Associated Press.
AFL members of the War Labor
Board, sharply differing with the
public members, appealed directly
to President Roosevelt yesterday to
boost wages generally by II per cent.
Challenging the finding of the
public members, who reported to
the President 10 days ago that a
break in the Little Steel wage for
mula was not advisable at this time,
the American Federation of Labor
members. used the reports figures
to bolster their own argument.
Wage rates have increased by 10
per cent" the AF'L members said,
picking this figure from the public
members report. THE cost of liv-
ing has increased--based upon Of
fetal figures-by 80 per cent.
ITO correct the reimbursement
between wages and the cost of
liying-when measured by the same
standard that was used when the
Little Steel Formula was adopted
an adjustment of approximately II
per cent is justifiable."
Take Issue on Yardstick.
The AFL members - George
Meany, Matthew Vol, Robert j.
Watt and James A BroWnlow-
took issue with the public members
method of measuring wage in
creases."
Before issuance of the Little
Steel Formula report, the AFL
members declared, the public mem
bers had refused to measure wages
| in terms of "take-home pay" or
gross earnings.
LAS competent students Of wages,
they recognized the essential in
equity of using gross earnings as
the basis of wage regulation" the
AFL members said. Instead, wages
were regulated in the past by ad-
| justing wage rates"
But in their new report, the AFL
members said, the public group have
substituted adjusted straight time
hourly earnings" as the criterion of
wage sterilization.
Compromise is Cited.
This change represents a COM
promise between their historical
measure-Wage rates-and the de-
mands of employers that gross earn
ings or 'take-home' pay should be
used to measure wage increases. Es-
sentially the adjusted straight time
hourly earnings measure is kind
OF take-home pay figure.
| This change has been the sole
ground upon which the public men,
bers have been able to rationaliZe
their recommendation to the Pres
ident that the Little Steel formula
could not be modified"
| The AFL members said use Of the
adjusted straight-time hourly earn
/ ings measure ttake-home pay di-
vided by the hours worked, with al
! loWance for some other factors may
indicate a 35l per cent wage in
crease" but does not measure the
/ income with which workers can
meet the rising cost of living.
/ But American Federation of La
Dor members cannot explain to the
workers of America the wage in
creases which they have only math-
ematically received. Nor can they
explain that an increase to some
individual workers fattens the pay
envelopes of all workers"
The federation group said the
Presidents seven-point program for
Sterilization, advanced in April,
/ 1912, has not been successfully
administered" because it allowed
prices to rise while wage rates re-
manned frozen.
why do the workers of the Ma
ton be made to bear the brunt OF
supporting the entire anti-inflation
program?" the AFL members asked
! The labor representatives made
these observations on the length of
/ the war:
1T now appears that the European
war will end in the summer of 1915
Except for guerrilla fighting) and
that the war with Japan should be
over some time before the fall Of
1916. This means that l947 would
be the first postwar year"
They proposed that present wage
controls give way to collective bar
gaining 60 days after victory in