Evening star., 1946-03-10
|BowIes Will Clarity
|Wage-Price Policies
For Industry Today
By Jones Y. Newton

Sterilization Director Chester
Bowles will issue regulation.
today clarifying new wage price
policy which the Government
hopes will enable early settle.
ment of existing strikes anc
easier handling of John L. Lewis
miners, whose traditional con.
tract battle with the coal in.
dustry is dead ahead.
Mr.. Bowles is expected to trans
late President Truman's general
wage-price policy directive into
meaningful terms so management
and workers In various individual
industries will know better where
they stand on prices and wages
It is expected to show individual
management just how far it can
go in boosting wages and getting
compensating price adjustment.
Labor officials are hopeful that
Mr.. Bowles' Qualifications will re-
move the uncertainties which have
existed in the mind of industry since
Mr.. Truman changed stabilizatior
policy February ID. Disappointing
ly few strikes have been settled
since that time. Mr.. Bowles is ex-
pected to emphasize that this is the
final reconversion policy and that
should do away with some uncer-
tainty.
Mr.. Lewis meets tomorrow with
the United Mine Workers 250-man
policy committee to formulate new
demands on wages and other con-
ditions of work which will be pre-
sented to the soft-coal operators
at the opening of the National BIZ
luminous Coal Wage Conference or
Tuesday.
Federal officials fear a long ano
bitter battle over new mine wage
agreement, and there remains barely
three weeks in which to draft one
Under the terms of Mr.. Lewis re.
opening, the present contract will
expire April l and the miners ira
ditionally stop work unless there
is agreement. Mr.. Lewis already
has served notice that the miners
would strike in support of their
demands.
The miners are expected to in
ject three major issues into the
negotiations and any one of the
three could tie up the conference
for long time. The three demands
looked for are: Higher wage rates
for a shorter work week; recogni-
ton of Mr.. Lewis right to organize
mine supervisory employees, and a
renewal of the spectacular demand
of last year for a royalty on each
ton of coal mined.
Last year Mr.. Lewis demanded
that the operators pay royalty of
10 cents ton into a union welfare
and disqualification fund. This
years demand might be in a slightly
different form, but the operators
expect 1t to be made.
Now Working Six Days.
The miners theoretically now are
working six-day 54-hour week, of
which hours is travel and lunch
time. They receive S63.50 for the
54 hours underground 1t is be-
lieved Mr.. Lewis will demand the
same weekly pay for a 4o-hour week,
a 5-hour allowance for
travel and lunch.
The operators already have made
it clear that they are prepared for
a long fight on the unionization of
foremen, despite the National Labor
Relations Board ruling which ap-
proved the UMW's United Clerical,
Technical and Supervisory Employees.
Several hundred mines were closed
for month last fall over this issue.
Mr.. Lewis finally ordered the men
back to work to await better time
Officials are hopeful that some
sort of a compromise can be worked
out on the foremen's issue. The
NLRB's decision excluded from elig-
ibility in the union some foremen
closest to management. In his de-
mands last year, Mr.. Lewis sug-
gested that all supervisory workers
except one foreman and superin-
tendent in each mine be taken into
the union.
The lower fringes of the northern