The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-11-02

to the proposition that the only workers in the
country who may legitlmately be classed as
labor those enrolled IN the unions. All
the rest, who far outnumber the minority EN-.
braced by the unions, are heather and have
no rights which unions must respect. They are
committed also to the propaganda that any
curtailment of the present rights powers and
privileges of unions is a fascist movement Sc.
cretly directed by big business. They are es.
pecially sensitive against all proposals which
might tend to diminish the number and dura.
ton of strikes. They are obsessed with the
notion that the principal purpose of unionism
is the strike.
The fright to strike has acquired the status
of sacred ''freedom and has been so widely
accepted, thanks to emotional propa ganda and
what might be called thoughtless thinking by
the public, that the public's right has been
lost in the confusion. To say that there exists
for American workers a right not to strike
is to utter heresy even though in thousands OF
cases groups of workers have been compelled
to leave their jobs by order of union execu-
tives and that such men have flagrantly useG
this executive power to blackmail employers
Over the years since 1888, industry, or bust
ness, has been severely restricted in its deal
ings with unions The employer is now for.
hidden even to discuss terms or condition OF
work with an individual worker if the plant
has a contract with union. That is ''intimida.
tom and coercion" Even the voluntary
award of raise in pay to an individual has
been condemned as 'intimidation'' or "Coer-
cion'' on the ground that the employer thus
tried to ALLEVIATE that worker from his union
by showing him that the union scale, applied
alike to the barely competent, the mediocre
and the exceptional man, deprived him of his
Just rate of earnings.
The Bill-Burton Hatch bill does not 60 as
far as it should. For example, it fails to
provide that union constitutions must conform
to the constitution of the United States and
respect the workers. constitutional rights. AS
matters stand, union whose constitution de-
mands sworn loyalty and obedience to its pro-
visions and to snap judgments and decisions
by its executive officer, or excludes Negroes,
may nevertheless claim the protection and
privileges granted by the present laws. There
is no legal requirement that strike must be
ratified by a majority Of the membership at
fected by an honest, supervised ballot Or,
again, the executives of big union may levy
a payroll tax on the employers, ostensibly for
a vacation fund.- for the individual workers
and then, at their discretion, apply any part
or all of this vacation money to a political
campaign, to the communist movement or to
some fund for the feeding and clothing of
some group in Europe. Nevertheless, in order
to work at that trade in shops controlled by
that union loyal, isolationist American must
pay his share Of the expense of those activ-
tiles.
The Burton-Hatch bill does not even pro-
pose to correct these conditions Possibly the
reason was that the authors believed it more
practical to put some reforms first and to let
the others come in due course, by evolution.
At any rate, such plainly evil and dangerous
privileges OF the ruling professionals of the
union movement are not even criticized in the
bill and have been ignored in the discussions
to date.
The bill does present the first statement in
what might be called the new thinking of
doubt of the right to strike in some cases.
Possibly the authors had in mind the fact that,
under his aggregate war powers" the late
President Roosevelt seized private properties
to prevent shut downs in union disputes with.
out any regard for the merits of the contro.
versies. The shutdown was held to be against
the public interest as, in most cases, it would
have been. But by this method the owners OF
the property were penaliZed even though the
union was threatening the public interest and
the owners were entirely willing to carry on
but were helpless.
The question has been put for the first time
since 1888 whether unions have right to strike
against the public interest, rejecting all COM
promise and refusing even to discuss disputed
points. Employers must negotiate or bargain
but union need not do so and so small
group of professional executives, communists,
for example, may declare strike in key
position in a community, such as power.
house or waterworks and thus shut down all
industry in the area and inflict grave danger
on that element known as 'the public.'' This
element vastly outnurnbers the total strength
OF all unions It is not organized, it has many
diverse beliefs on various subjects and up to
now it has been helpless under arrogant abuse
by men claiming to act in the name of labor
when, in fact, they were acting only for them
selves for their own purposes and possibly,
against the wishes of the workers under their
control.
But even assuming in such case that the
workers by an honest majority vote had de-
cided to strike, their right to strike still may
be challenged in the public interest Whose
right is greater here. the right of 10000 citi-
zens not to be recklessly mperilled or deprived
of their work or the right Of say 20 electri-
clans whose, grievance may be only that the
operators of the power plant received a load
of coal delivered by a non-union driver
The task of those who believe in the Ball
Burton-Hatch bill and all similar, reasonable
proposals is to make 1.-The public conscious
of its identity as the most numerous and DOM
inant element of the community and arouse
in 'fthe public demand for its own rights.
QUOTATIONS