The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-09-16
KILLEN EXPLAINS u. s.
POLICY BUNGLE

/ Killen, vice president of the lnt'l
Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite q
Paper Mill Workers-AFL returned
last week from Japan. At a meet
ling of the International Affairs
Committee of the AFL he told why
he resigned as head of the Labor
Division Of General Douglas Mac
Arthur's occupation authority in
Tokyo.
"The issue was not the right OF
civil servants to strike" Killen
said. "What was at stake was the
right of the million and quarter
Japanese government employees,
most of them in state owned indus
tries, not the civil service, to bar
gain collectively"
Killen arrived in Washington
just ahead of the Army Dept re-
lease of its official apology for
MacArthur's letter to japanese
Premier Ashida which denied. un-
ions any real status among govern
ment workers. His story shows that
the Army is using the fear of Com
munists within the Japanese labor
movement to shroud ap anti-union
policy which its supporters had de-
vised long before the present wave
of Communist-provoked strikes.
The AFL chose Killen as it's adj
visor to Macarthur in April 1947.
Then the government asked the
paper workers leader to o'take the
Job Of chief of the Labor Division
of the US occupation authority.
Long before Killen took office
the Japanese parliament had pass
ed separate regulations for real
civil servants-the administrative
and judicial employees of the gov
ernment-and the workers in state
owned industries. The regular civil
servants, as they are in the US,
were denied resort to the strike
weapon. They were, however, as
sured of their right to organize
and to negotiate about the condi-
tions of their employment.
While Killen was' in Japan the
economic position of the japanese
workers generally, and particular
Ily the government employees, deter
iorated. There were strikes many
of them spontaneous, some Com
munist provoked. After years Of
repression the japanese workers
were restive.. They had had no OPP
portunity to learn union responsiv
bility or many of the teehniques OF
collective bargaining.
Under Killen's leadership the
Labor Division continued to edu-
cate the workers in the proven
methods of western unionlsm. II
went to work too on a thoro study
of the ways in which democratic
nations protect the rights both Of
the community and of public em-'
ployes. This study revealed that
the US itself is behind the times.
While Great Britain, Australia and
the scandinavian countries have
realized that all government en-
ployes should not be considered
civil servants, and that even the
latter should have collective har-
gaining rights, the US has not.
A program was developed which
provided that, within the frame
work set by the japanese parlia-
ment as the representative of the
entire community, all government
workers organizations would have
the right to negotiate "across the
table" with the authorities, and
would have resort to arbitration,
and when necessary, compulsory
mediation tribunals. No question
was raised about the existing pro-
hibition on civil servants strikes.
In fact that prohibition was ex-
tended in the Labor Divisions plans
to workers in essential govern
ment-operated services. But the
right to bargain collectively was to
be firmly established.
While the Labor Division was
hard at work on a democratic pro-
gram Of labor relations, the Civil
Service Division Of MacArthur's
headquarters was pushing a very
draft. Headed by one
Blaine Hoover, ene-time US Civil
Service Commission official and
more recently a big-wig in the
Chicago Park Board, it took the
position that all government em-
ployes are civil servants, and no
civil servants have the right to ne
gotiate, thru unions, about wages
and conditions.
Over a year ago the Civil Service
without consulting our