Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1950-09-08
Industry Wide Bargaining
Opposed By AT&T Officials
AS Phone Hearings End

WASHINGTON (LPA) - Of
ficials of various Bell System
telephone companies paraded
before a Senate subcommittee
August % to 80, stating their OPP
position to industry-wide bar
gaining in the phone industry.
Last of the lot was W. c. Boil
enius. vice-president of Ameri-
can Telephone & Telegraph Co.
Bolenius told the Senators that
AT & T does not dictate labor
policy to its affiliated companies.
He further contended that bar
gaining should be kept strictly
on a local basis, because each OF
the many phone contracts Is diff
ferent, and besides, he and his
staff Of six couldn't possibly
handle bargaining for the entire
country.
President Joseph p. Bierne of
Communications Workers of
America-CIO had told the COM
mittee, at previous sessions, that
local bargaining is impossible
because officials at the bargain
ing table don't have the final
say, and keep running to the
phone to call AT g. T in New
York for their orders.
Bolenius did not deny that the
associated companies consult
with him on labor matters. 1t is
part of the service offered by the
parent company, he said. Off
Gals Of the local companies are
free to make their own final de-
cisions, he told the Senators.
On one thing, the testimony
OF the phone companies checked
with that of the union: Collec-
tive bargaining in the phone in.
dustry at the present time is
complex and unwieldly thing
Each contract Is different, Bole-
Mus said. Each has special
clauses and adheres to wage
scales and practices common in
the area.
He sees this as a reason foi
having bargaining handled by
men familiar with the situation
in their own area. The union
sees it is as adding to the gen.
eral confusion. A uniform con.
tract, Bierne had argued, would
lend stability to the industry.
Bolenius cited an organizing
pamphlet published last Febru.
airy by CWA to refute union
charges that labor conditions in
the industry are poor. The pam
phlet listed gains won by the
union between 1910 and 1880
IT shows, Bolenius declared, that
there are good wages and work
ing conditions" in the industry
today.
ANY trouble there 10 In the
Industry, the company official
maintained, has been stirred up
by Bierne. According to the
union, he said, this years ne
gotiations were marked by stall
ing tactics on The part of the
company, and the union post
poned a strike only because OF
requests from the Federal Medi-
alton e. Cancellation Service.
Bolenius asserted that the ac-
tual stalling was done by the
union, which didn't want some
divisions to face a collective bar
CANNING fight In an Isolated
position. He charged Bierne with
responsibility, because the
union head requested all CIO
members to overwork phone
equipment in the event Of a
strike and a scab-operated serv-
ice.
When the hearings wound up
August 80, the committee could
have no doubt that there is
trouble in the phone industry's
Ia b relations. The big dis
agreement would be or whose
fault II Is - the company's or
the unions.
Senator James Murray d.
Mont.), chairman of the Senate
subcommittee on labor-manage-
ment relations, called the hear
ings 10 collect evidence on the
way labor relations are working
under the Taft-Hartley law. The
group hopes TO make recommen-
dationa for fttura Iagtslafiop