Evening star., 1946-01-12
GIN Fact Report Held
Full of Contradictions
Writer Says Board Did Not Come
to Grips With Real Issues
By David Laurence

ny bHCtu LuDIEUCE
If the kind of "fact-finding" which
the Presidents board has just an
nounced is 10 be typical of the way in
dustrial disputes are to be approached
by such boards, there is little chance
that the hoped-for mobilization of
cisions will materialize.
For the report made in the General
Motors case is full of contradictions
and does not come to grips with the real
issues. 1t does not give the reasoning
behind the proposed recommendation
that 1914 cents an hour increase be paid
nor does it say why in the same report
it also speaks approvingly of only 16-
cent increase.
Why were the two figures used? Is 1t
perhaps that the 16-cent increase is a
minimum and 1914 cents is maximum
and that the board was trying, clumsily
enough, to indicate a range within
which collective bargaining might be
resumed? Clearly the union isn't going
to pay any attention to the 16-cent
figure and will base its acceptance on
the 1874 cent ngure.
New Steel Price a Factor.
The auto company will have to decide
whether the new prices in steel con-
stitute factor which wasn't taken into
consideration at all by the "fact-fnding"
board. When it is realized that steel is
an important item in the cost of making
an automobile and that at the very time
the board in the General Motors case
was sitting, the OPA, at the direction of
the President, was preparing to impose a
higher cost for steel on the auto in
dustry, it begins to look as if all the facts
were not gathered by the three-man
board in the General Motors case and
that different situation will be pre-
sented when the seel prices are finally
determined.
The "fact-finding" board didn't pub
lish any new evidence or reveal any new
ideas. 1t simply took the wavering phil
osophy expressed in President Trumans
recent speech and said in effect, that if
the company worked its men fraction
of an hour overtime or even more than
that because of big demand for produc-
ton, the workers would get as much, if
not more "take-home" pay than they
had during the war. This would be a
complete victory for the union.
If, on the other hand, says the board,
the work hours turn out to be less than
| 40, there might not be as much take
! home" pay. This is brilliant piece of
| straddling and reveals clearly that the
| fact-fnding" board doesn't know much
| about the production schedules or the
| planning of the General Motors Co.
| Certainly no Government board can
| learn the motorcar business in 80 days
| or attempt to issue any persuasive re-
| port as to what could happen to work
hours in so complicated a mechanism
| as the one that puts out General Motors
! vehicles.
Yardstick Not Disclosed.
The three men no doubt tried hard
| to find a formula but, when they an
nounced their recommendations, they
didn't tell what yardstick they had
used. They did say that they believed
General Motors could meet the situa-
ton and that it was a company which
had been successful and probably would
| be. Such vague generalities do not
constitute 'fact-hnding" They are
mere expressions of opinion which
make little headway because the eco
nomic reasoning or the factual back
ground behind the report are not open
to inspection by the public.
1t is significant that the board does
not say it needed any information from
the General Motors books. 1t says it
got all the data it needed. The board
would have liked General Motors to
stay in the proceedings, doubtless to
allow union lawyers to cross-examine
the company ofhcials-a circumstance
which the company probably wished to
avoid because it did not want to give
the union or its competitors details as
to how it plans it's schedules or pro-
duction programs. This is regarded as
the province wholly of management.
The boards conclusion says that the
1912 -cent-an-hour recommendation is
fair and consistent with the public
interest in the maintenance of a sta
bilized economy This is very broad
observation and amounts to a dogmatic
assertion that "fact-finding" boards are
to be governed by the underlined term
Stabilized economy" which could con-
ceivably mean anything Government
board, a union spokesman, or COM
pany official might interpret it to mean
In rejecting the 'fact-fnding" boards
| rronosalS General Motors internreteC
stabilized economy" to mean a COM
petitive economy.
| Reproduction Rights Reserved)