Evening star., 1955-07-18
Unanswered Questions

The Commissioners have decided on
the most drastic and unusual action that
car oe imagined to end the transit strike.
1ts details should become known during
the day and will be given the careful
study they deserve.
In the meantime, it is passing strange
tnat the basic facts Of the companys
dispute with the union are receiving no
public attention whatsoever from the
Commissioners These relate to the COM
pany'S ability to pay compared with what
the union Is demanding.
The facts, of course, are available.
They should be placed before the public
by the Commissioners or the Public Utili-
ties Commission, or some disinterested
group that commands public confidence
The failure to do this suggests that the
Commissioners and the Public Utilities
Commission, sharing responsibility for
constructive action in this strike, are
afraid to face the facts, and it invites the
suspicion that their motives extend be-
yonc mere settlement of labor dispute.
The company'S position is that 1t does
not have the revenue now to meet even
the watered down version of the unions
original demands which would, in the
ordinary course of events, be offered as
a basis for settlement.
The unions position is that the COM
pany's ability to pay is from its point of
view, irrelevant. Senator Morse has
been quoted in support of that theory,
and its application to the role Of an arbi-
trator-who would be concerned only
with the wages and benefits the men
should receive, without reference to the
company's financial ability to meet them.
II the company cannot pay what the
union is entitled to receive, should the
public meet the difference through sub
sidv? If so, should we not determine the
equity of subsidy and its size, and find
out how it is to be paid?
The company's books are available
to any authorized group which wants to
examine them. The Public Utilities
Commissions own agents know the facts.
If the company is telling the truth, it is
being asked to invite bankruptcy by
agreeing to pay out more than it receives.
It is difficult to see how the management
is any more recalcitrant than the union,
though in the uproar there has been no
real opportunity for collective bargaining
to run its course
AS the Commissioners feel that they
must have legislation, why are they SO
intent on the extraordinary measures
now being recommended? Legislation
designed to invoke the methods favored
by Congress in the past should at least
be considered, but they have been ignored.
A Joint resolution, for example. could
apply to the present emergency the pro-
cedure outlined in the Railway Labor
Act, with its Presidential fact-f1nding and
reporting machinery. The Public Utili-
ties Commission, like other Federal and
State regulatory agencies, could grant
temporary relief on its own initiative,
pending conclusive finding. It knows
what the facts are, and they are spread
upon its own record.
Representatives Mcmillan and Broy-
hill have demonstrated, by their efforts
at conciliation that the two sides are not
too far apart. Why, in these circum-
stances, are the Commissioners so intent
on setting a precedent which is as dam
gerous as 1t is complicated? What are
they hiding? What are they really
seeking to do?