Evening star., 1949-09-21

Labor Leader Ignored
Pledge Given by Truman
To Steel Companies
By David Laurence
Philip Murray. steel union lead.
er. has In just a few days wounded
seriously the cause of collective
bargaining and trade unionism ir
America.
Just when the processes oi
reason were beginning to be EN-.
ployed to avoid the disastrou.
losses Of major strike in a basic
industry. Mr.. Murray proved the
case for the employer groups
that words do not mean what they
say when some union leaders seeh
to achieve an advantage at the
expense of the public.
The President of the United
States assured the steel union anc
the steel companies that the "rec.
concentrations" of q fact-flndine
board were not to be considered
as binding" on either side but al
q preliminary to a resumption o1
collective bargaining.
Mr.. Murray now ignores thai
pledge given by the President anc
insists that, before there Is any
collective bargaining, there must
be an acceptance of his terms.
One Sided Position.
No steel strike derived from
such a one-sided position will gain
the support of public opinion. II
will only strengthen the demand
for further revision Of the Taft
Hartley Act 50 as to eliminate
labor-union monopolies in Amer
lea. The American people are in
the mood for such legislation, as
they now observe that one big
union monopoly has curtailed pro-
duction Of coal in direct violation
OF the principles Of the antitrust
laws.
There was a chance. if Mr.. Muir
ray had been better advised, that
q proper use Of the fact-finding
boards report as a basis for COL
lective bargaining would have en-
hanced the value of that proce-
dure and aided the cause of those
who believe that restrictive fea-
lures Of the Wagner Act and Taft
Hartley Act can be removed from
the statute books.
But Mr.. Murray has completely
misunderstood the public interest.
He now insists that a subject as
complicated and far-reaching as
pensions and social insurance
shall be settled his way. He does
not take into consideration that
pension and insurance plans are
made for a long period Of years
and not for q single years con-
tract. Whatever is decided now as
to the method of financing pen
sions and social insurance will re-
main the plan for 10 or 20 years or
more-as far into the future as
the private-enterprise system may
last or a Government social-secu-
rity system may take over the
problem.
To require that the steel COM
panies commit themselves now
for 10 or 20 years is to ask some
thing unreasonable. This problem
is one that calls for further study
and joint examination. and it can
not be disposed of by taking
solated sentences out of the fact
lnding report of the Presidents
ommittee.
Could Have Quibbled, Too.
The steel companies could have
libbled. too. They could have
.::ccepted the fact-f1nding report
IS a basis" just as Mr.. Murray
asked them to do, and then could
have refused to accept the COM
pany-financed program because It
would impose too great a cost
burden upon them. When Mr..
Murray said he wanted negotia-
tions resumed on the basis of
the report, many people thought
he was acting in earnest and
merely was using different words.
The Federal mediator, Cyrus
Ching, also thought it was a de-
bate over the meaning of words.
But the steel companies evidently
were wiser than observers thought.
They suspected a trick. And now
Mr.. Murray acknowledges that
when he demanded the "accept-
ance" of the report as basis" +"
he meant that the company
should agree in advance to pay all
the pension and Social-insurance
costs.
It Is clear now that Mr.. Murray
wants the issue decided before
and without collective bargaining.
Such a misuse of the fact finding
method will kill it for further use
In America. More is at stake than
Mr.. Murray's mishandling of the
steel situation. The future of
fact-finding boards is involved,
and it is up to the President of
the United States to recover for
the Nation the ground that has
been lost for the fact-f1nding-
board method. Mr.. Truman can
do so by declaring that everything
IN the report is within the scope
OF collective bargaining and that
negotiations should proceed with
each side free to accept or reject
any point at issue.
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