The union times., 1945-03-10
Retaining Of Steel
 Formula Assailed

 Sharply rejecting the findings of the public members of the National War Labor Board against any change in the wage freeze, the AFL mem bers of the board this week called upon President Roose- welt to prevent s'ecOnOmic disaster" by promptly and realistically modifying the Little Steel formula.
 Since the President ineorpor- ated the Little Steel formula into an executive order and thus made it part of the nations stabilization program, the AFL group contended that 1t is up to the President to make the final decision on whether the formula should now be changed.
 Blasts Argument
 Arguments of the public mem bers against modification of the formula were blasted to smither- eens i'm the AFL dissent.
 The statement charged that the public members, after years de- lay, have resorted to the tricky expedient of changing the S'meas- uring rod" of wages in order to justify their position.
 From the beginning, the AFL group pointed out, the NWLB has limited its sphere of regulations to wage rates" and has not used gross earnings or "take-home pay" as its guide. In their latest report, however, the pub lie members seized upon new meas urihg rod, adjusted straight-time hourly earnings" This amounts to a statistical about-face since the "ad- justments" that are included make the new measure a kind of "take-home pay figure"
 Exposing the injustice of this meth cd. the AFL asserted that if 10 men in a plant received 10 cents an hour increase, an averaging process IS used 10 show that 20 men received cents hourly increase.
 ssIn this manner" the AFL state ment declared, ''the public mem- bers have concocted S6.7 per cent increase i'm adjusted straight time hourly earnings for all wage earners subject to the War Labor Boards jurisdiction.
 "The workers of America are dis illusioned by this change in wage con trol technique. But they have not been hypnotized into believing that an increase for some workers is an in- crease in the wages of all workers. Only statisticians can be confused by the magic of their averaging tech nique."
 ssSubmissiOn to government re- gulatiOn of wages and interfer- ence with the rights of American workers during a war fought to de- fend freedom has been necessary. But even a suggestion that free collective bargaining shall be sup planted in large measure by gov ernment regulation during the un- defined recOnversiOn period is 8 timely warming that the organized workers of America can i'll afford to overlook.
 "The eventual outcome of this kind of thinking is government dominated and controlled unionism. We cannot subscribe to this solution of the prob lem which will be unacceptable if the rigid control of wages represented by the Little Steel formula is to be con tinted"
 The dissenting report was signed by AFL Secretary Treasurer George Meany, Vice President Matthew Woll, Robert J. Watt and James A. Brownlow.
 They emphasized at the outset that the record of the Presidents original 7-point anti-inhation program is a ''sorry one" on every point save wage regulation, adding;
 "The contrast between the results attained by the War Labor Board and those produced by the other agencies involved in the program is startling Indeed, the control of wages has beer so effective that the deficiencies of tht entire program have been hidden iron public view.
 Nevertheless, by some strange quirk of reasoning, whenever tho program is tagging more thar usual, the pressure is placed upOI the one area of control that ha succeeded. As Q consequence, th' thumbscrews have been steadil, frightened upon workers until no, they have been asked to fOreg' even certain benefits which are con ducive to healthful living.
 "The analysis of wage control pre- sented in the statement of the publi members represents desperate ei fort to. save the entire program C fighting imitation at a cost to be born only by the wage earners and fo the enrichment of other groups the economy"