Evening star., 1947-08-22
Labor Act Goes
Into Full Effect;
Unrest Mounts
Ford Contract Beuts
DeodIine; Printers
To Ignore Rules
WORKERS IDLE HERE as cleaning
plant and employees disagree on
labor act. Story on page AS.

The Taft-Hartley Labor Act
went into full effect today to the
accompaniment of unrest along
the labor front.
Ford and the CIO United Automo-
bile Workers beat the gun, agreeing
to union shop contract affecting
100000 production workers just a
few minutes before midnight when
the laws provision requiring major
ity approval by a company's en-
ployes for the union shop became
operative
A strike at the Chrysler Corp. plant
in Detroit, lumblings of a dock strike
on the West Coast and a move by
the long-organized printers in the
International Typographical Union
to ignore the new rules to large ex-
tent were other Developments.
simultaneously, evidence mounted
of a deep-rooted difference of opin-
ion among supporters of the new
law as to its basic philosophy.
Many Bypass Law.
This difference is between:
Those like Chairman Hartley of
the House Labor Committee who
hold that employers should take full
advantage of the law, and that If
they bargain away any of their
rights they are violating the spirit"
of the act, and can be held account.
able for so doing
Those like Chairman Taft of the
Senate Labor Committee who con-
tend that since the law is designed
to encourage free collective bargain
ing and peaceful relations, employ
ers can make any agreements they
please so long as they do not vio-
late the letter of the act.
During the go days since the laws
enactment by the Eightieth Con-
gress over President Truman's veto,
many unions had taken action SINH
lar to that of the Ford workers to
bypass its provisions. In New York
City, the Greater New York CIO
Council estimated that 65 per cent
of the 10000 employees having con-
tracts with 300 CIO locals there
signed one-year contract extensions
before the deadline.
Chrysler Plant Affected.
In Detroit, the Chrysler Corp. said
today the cutter grind department
Of its Jefferson avenue plant was
closed by what it termed a wild
cat strike" Eighty-two CIO en-
ployes on three shifts were affected,
and the company added that con-
tinuation of the walkout eventual
ly would leave 1,500 others idle.
A company spokesman said the
strikers objected to the rehiring Of
a veteran employe instead of the
upgrading of union member in
the plant. He charged the griev-
ance procedure was ignored.
The newspaper Guild of New York
(CIO), which claims approximately
5000 members and is the largest
local in the American Newspaper
Guild, said it's members had voted
to boycott the new National Labor
Relations Board.
The guild said in a resolution that
the new law created many new de-
vices that would prove IAN obstruc-
ton rather than an aid to COL
lective bargaining rights It
pledged an "all-out fight" for re-
peal Of the law.
| The resolution added that the
guild would attempt to resolve all
issues with employers through bona
fide collective bargaining and other
peaceful means whenever possible. :"
Shipping Tieup Seen.
Other developments included:
| SAN FRANCISCO-The Inter-
national Longshoremen's and Ware
housemen's Union (C1O), in a dis
pute over employer refusal to recog-
nize unionization of longshore walk
ing bosses, warned shippers of the
possibility of a West Coast maritime
tieup and, at the same time advised
its locals Of an impending "lock-
out" some time after today. The
six-week dispute has tied up six
Luckenbach Steamship Co. vessels.
CLEVELAND.-The International
Typographical Union (AFD, which
long has enjoyed a closed shop
which now is outlaWed by the new
act, wrote a "no-contract" policy
into its bylaws, saying that on
expiration of existing contracts "our
members may accept employment
only from employers who are willing
to employ them under the 'condi-
tions of employment which the
several unions adopt, after approval
by the Executive Council, of the
lSee LABOR, Page A-5D