Evening star., 1945-09-26
A Strike Penalty

The reaction of organized labor
spokeSmen to the decision of the
House Ways and Means Committee
to shelve the emergency unemploy-
ment pay bill should surprise no one
William Green, president of the
AFL, says that Congress has gone on
strike against the best interests of
the Nation and Is showing a callous
disregard of human needs during
reconversion. Philip Murray, pres
ident Of the CIO, charges that the
committee, while turning its back
on the needs of workers, has voted
to take up proposal for tax relief
for the rich and war-swollen
corporations.
This is in keeping with a familiar
strategy. 1t admits of no RESPONSE
bility on labor'S part, not even
recognizing that the current wave
of strikes has contributed extensively
to unemployment and threatens to
drive many thousands more into the
unemployed ranks. AS these spokes-
men draw the picture, only Congress
and the corporations are culpable,
and they are denounced with an
extravaganza that is calculated to
divert attention from the real part
that labor is playing.
But this is strategy which is
wearing pretty thin. Labor is de-
manding unemployment protection
up to maximums of $25 a week for
twenty-six weeks, the cost to be
borne by the public. At the same
time, it is striking for higher wages
and, by its own pronouncements,
these strikes are planned in such
way as to have the maximum
Gripping effect on reconversion. The
inevitable result will be most seri-
Gus state of unemployment, resulting
directly from considered labor policy,
and affecting not only strikers them
selves but, thousands and thousands
of other workers who, although not
on strike, will lose their jobs as
result of strikes.
Organized labor thinks that the
public should foot the bill for this
kind of unemployment as well as
the unemployment which unavoid-
ably results from the process OF con-
verting from war to peace. But, ap-
parently, a majority of the Ways
and Means Committee thinks other
wise, and while the responsible lead
ers of labor may be reluctant to face
the fact, the strong probability is
that the committee majority has
the support of public opinion.
At the same time, it is also prob
able that public opinion would favor
higher wages. When the peacetime
profit position of industry permits,
there ought to be a sharing of
profits in the form of higher wages
which would compensate workers, in
part at least, for the reduction in
their total income that results from
the loss of overtime pay received
during the war. But industry, while
harassed and crippled by strikes,
will not be able to get back into
peacetime production and there will
be no peacetime profits. What we
will have will be hundreds of thou
sands, perhaps millions, of unem-
ployed, rising threat of imitation,
and a condition Of economic chaos
which can lead to almost anything.
AS of today, the spokesmen for
labor cannot or will not look at this
danger. The warning implicit in the
action of the House committee-an
action that is unfortunate in that
it penalties all unemployed-appar-
entity has gone unheeded. But the
ultimate consequences of the forces
now being set in motion are ines
capable, and they will either be
anticipated and dealt with intelli-
gently or they will result in great
hardship fof all of us.