Evening star., 1946-01-13
JAW Demanding Doto
Already Open Secret
Observer Discusses Danger In.
volved in Meaningless Slogans
By Raymond Motey

By Raymond Moley
When the natives of India first
brought their criticism of England to
the outside world, they said of their
rulers, They talk about the Bible and
they mean cotton" 1t was not the first
or the last time that high-sounding
phrases have been used for very ma
terial purposes.
There is lot of this in current labor
disputes. Slogans are not principles, but
both sides are trying to make people be-
lieve they are. Let's see what substance
there is in some of the current phrases.
In the General Motors dispute, the
UAW demands that the company open
the books" This cannot be what the
UAW really wants, because every fact
in "the books" which bears on the abi-
ity OF GIN to pay more wages is matter
of public knowledge. Profits, sales,
charge-of for depreciation and amorti-
cation, amounts set aside for reconver-
sion, investments in other firms and
profits therefrom, distribution of profits
to stockholders and cash and inventory
on hand are all public information,
Most OF this is in the company report.
So the UAW cannot really want these
facts from the books, although these
facts are all that would seem to indi-
cate present ability to pay more wages.
If they want prophecies and estimates
for the next year and thereafter, they
will not find such matter in "the books"
Those guesses, however expert, are pre-
sumably in existence, but they are for
the use OF management in planning it's
work. The actual fact is that such esti-
mates are highly speculative, and every
business manager knows that they
usually are not accurate prophecies.
No falr-minded person would conclude
that the company ought to be forced
to make binding contract for wages
on such speculative material. To re-
veal production estimates and plans
generally would go far to destroy the
competitive system, for each company
would have to reveal plans for new
models or new products, which are
essentially competitive. And labor claims
that it wants the competitive system
to live.
If, further, "the books" are to be
produced to show detailed costs, the
union can hardly base claims for gen.
eral wage increases on such data. For
such information has little bearing on
wages generally, since this is not a
demand for single group of workers
within the company who perform a
part OF the job of producing a car, but
for all workers within the company.
And cost figures are important company
secrets, essential to competition.
We must conclude, therefore, that the
slogan show the books" is merely a
trading point, an embarrassment de-
signed to force the company to pay
something more in wages to avoid re-
Veallng to competing companies ma
terial harmful to competition.
On the other side, it does not help
much to have management say that
ability to pay is not a matter to be
considered in paying wages. Ability
to pay is matter of trading in most
wage disputes. If company is clearly
unable to operate at profit if higher
wages are paid, it is very quick to offer
proof of that fact. Few companies
will stand on the theoretical principle
that ability to pay" is irrelevant, if by
demonstrating inability. they can resist
the demand
In the telegraph strike, the company
was ready and eager to argue ability
to pay" The union was not interested.
Fact finders in the steel strike have not
based their case on the production Of
the company's books. There are too
many companies involved, and all the
relevant facts will soon be available to
| all who can read.
| Moreover, when mana gers say, as they
| do privately, that labor is commodity"
| to be bought in the cheapest market,
| they forget that the concept of labor
as commodity has been outlawed for
decades. This issue, largely theoretical,
was threshed over in the progressive"
days around 1912, and nearly every one
involved dropped the term, at least pub
llcly. 1t is, as a concept, repugnant
| to the American idea of a partnership
between workers and employers. No
enlightened employer considers labor as
something to be bought, like coal or
| steel.
Nor does the slogan prevailing wages"
mean much. Efficient and profitable
companies are glad to be able to say
that they pay the best wages in the
industry or in the community" Man
agement which pays better than the
prevailing scale is not modest about it.
This is not to say that principles
ultimately may not be developed to take
bargaining out of the realm OF pure
opportunism. But such principles have
not yet appeared. and. instead, we are
bombarded with slogans which do not
mean what they say.
/ And H. kAnx, n tST