Evening star., 1949-07-18
Steel Board Findings
Nav Have Wide Effect
On Labor Relations
Acceptable Report Could
Roise Question Of Need
For Injunetions
By David Lawrence

By David Laurence
An important precedent that
can have far-reaching effects on
the labor management problem
In America could result from the
operations of the fact-f1nding
board appointed by President
Truman to inquire into the dis
pute in the steel industry between
the CIO unions and the steel
companies.
Reluctance to accept the plan
was based wholly on the lack Of
faith on the part of the steel
companies in the previous be-
havior of fact finding boards
which merely played the part of
political auxiliaries to the admin
istration.
If this fact t-flnding commission
really examines the issues i'm
partially and comes up with a set
tlement acceptable to both sides
such progress will have been made
as to raise in Congress a question
concerning the need for the
discussed injunctions.
The steel companies said they
would not have objected at all to
q board of inquiry as such but
they did not wish to see the pro-
posed board make recommends
tions." On its face this was a
difficult position for the employers
to justify because most people
would say that any board which
made an exhaustive study OF the
facts should at least express opin-
ions. The steel companies, how
ever. did not fear a mere ex-
preston Of opinions but wanted
to make it clear that they had not
bound themselves in advance to
accept any or all conclusions OF
the board.
Neither Side Bound.
The delay and exchanges of
kilograms served to underline that
neither the unions nor the steel
companies were bound legally or
morally to accept the "recommen-
dations" of the fact = finding
board.
With the air cleared on this
point, the problem faced by the
board - which has go days in
which to study and report on the
dispute is one that will be
watched from one end of the
country to the other by unions as
well as employers.
First of all, the board is not
studying merely the wage situa-
ton in the steel industry alone
but whether any substantial in
crease-called a fourth round
will set off a spiral of inf1ationary
increases everywhere else. thus
making impossible reduction in
prices so much desired by the
country.
Second. the question of what
the steel industry can afford
based on 1948 profits or even the
first half of 1949 is not related at
all to what the industry can af-
ford If steel demand in the next
year or so is to be drastically cur
tailed. Many plants already are
operating way below capacity aft
er a period in which they have
been working nearly 100 per cent.
The Presidents board of three
members consists of two who are
known to be strongly sympathetic
with New Deal ideas. The general
belief in Washington is that the
CIO steelworkers union knew in
advance about the personnel of
the board and the whole strategy
and hence backed it Immediately.
Board Must Be Fair.
But the Presidents board can
not afford to make a partisan or
one sided report. If there is to
be public confidence in fact-fnd-
ing boards that make recon-
mendations, then a set of con-
clusions must be found which will
appeal to both sides and actually
avert a strike. Otherwise. at the
end of so days little will have
been accomplished except to de-
lay the strike by so days.
1t certainly ought to be pos
sible to settle the steel dispute
without a strike but that might
as well be said of the collective
bargaining process itself. Unfor-
tunately. however, collective bar
gaining alone leads to situations
that make it difficult for one side
or the other to recede. Hence a
fact-flnding board with publicly
made recommendations" some
times acts as a face-saver for one
side or the other and sometimes
it makes report not wholly
satisfactory to either side but pre-
ferable as last resort to a costly
strike. The fact finding" board
idea is on trial and conceivably
could set precedent of construc-
tive accomplishment which would
have lasting effect on the meth
ods Of settling labor disputes in
major industries.
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