Battle jor Peace

LABOR

Battle for Peace

(See front cover) Prime and permanent solution for unemployment, in Washington's eyes, is NRA. Principal threat to that solution is that employers will not hire more men at higher wages. Last week General Johnson was busy with industry trying to work that threat out of the recovery picture (see p. 13). Second most important threat to NRA is that employes may decline to work under existing terms. Last week thousands of them were threatening that very thing because they wanted what General Johnson was trying to get them-- shorter hours, higher pay. Moreover, the threat was so aimed that the prize pupil of Recovery, the automobile industry, might be the first to be laid low. All this was enough to grey heads in Washington. President Roosevelt long ago set up machinery to handle labor disputes growing out of his recovery program but for years there has been similar machinery--"conciliators" within the Department of Labor--which was not notably successful. The new machinery differed from the old in two noteworthy respects: 1) It was backed not only by good intentions but by law--Section 7 (a) of the Industrial Recovery Act requiring employers to bargain with their employes collectively. 2) It had a new personnel, a National Labor Board composed of five (recently increased to six) representatives each of Labor and Industry, including such potent figures as Gerard Swope, William Green, Pierre S. du Pont, John L. Lewis. And, biggest difference of all. it was captained by a stocky, barrel-chested, German-born, Tammany-raised Senator from New York, Robert Ferdinand Wagner. Last week Senator Wagner knew full well what he was facing. In the first six months of his Board's existence it had run into I.SIS labor disputes, an average of 300 a month. In the seventh month, just finished, it had run into 430 cases, a sure sign of growing hostility on the Labor front. Senator Wagner's job is to keep the peace. Being a diligent, foresighted man he prepared for battle. Fortnight ago he got the President to divorce the Labor Board from NRA and make it an independent "fact finding" body to enforce the labor sections of codes. But independence of action was not enough. Chairman Wagner wanted a club to keep the peace. Therefore he presented Congress with a "Labor Disputes Act." To the industrialists in Washington at General Johnson's call Mr. Wagner spoke of his bill: "I believe that most fair minded employers . . . will be heartily in favor of it." But those of them who had seen the design of his new club shuddered in their seats. Old Weapons, The arms with which, to date, Senator Wagner has fought his battle are comparatively simple. His National Labor Board, founded last August during the soft coal strike, was supplemented by miniature offspring called Regional Labor Boards of which 18, with some 250 voluntary members, now exist. Their job is to sift labor complaints on the spot, turn back trifling ones to NRA Compliance officers, hold hearings on others, try by conciliation to prevent them from growing into strikes. When a case cannot be settled locally it is passed on to the National Board. But even that agency cannot force arbitration. When an employer is accused of violating the collective bargaining provisions of the Recovery Act, after a Regional Board has failed to get compliance, the National Board holds hearings and finds facts. If the findings are unfavorable to the employer, it abandons the defendant to the "secular arm," i. e. to the Attorney General for prosecution. Of the 2,012 cases which were presented to the Regional and National Boards up to March 1, 1,377 or 68% were settled, half by agreement, half by the Board's decisions. Employes involved numbered 1,061,000 of whom 775,000 were kept at work or sent back to their jobs. The Board has tackled 599 strikes of which it has settled 479, prevented 197 more. Of the unsettled cases a good part represented old strikes which have dragged out into a habit. Balance of Power-- More than two-thirds of the disputes submitted to the Labor Board concern collective bargaining under Section 7 (a) of the Recovery Act. When there is any dispute about who are the representatives of the workers, or what representatives the men want, the Board offers to conduct elections. It has conducted about 100 so far and would have conducted more if employers had not objected. Since NRA was formed many a firm has started its own company union to comply with the collective bargaining provision of the law. Organized Labor has bitterly complained to the Labor Board, asking that elections be held so that workers be allowed to choose their union representatives without company interference. Just as bitterly some employers have stood out against free elections. In the midst of this angry conflict Senator Wagner's heart has been on the side of organized Labor. As a boy of eight he arrived in the U. S. from Germany. Like Al Smith he grew up on Manhattan's East Side--not in the lower East Side of Fulton Fish Market but in the German colony of "Yorkville"' in the '80s. His father was a janitor and his brother Gus was a cook at the New York Athletic Club. By the help of his hard-working family Bob Wagner was sent to public school, to the College of the City of New York, and became a lawyer. But he never forgot what a working man's life was like. He became a Tammany politician and went to the Legislature where two of his good friends were "Al" Smith and '"Jimmy" Walker. Like Smith he was the kind of Tammany politician who played ball with the boys but also managed to be liberal and public-spirited on most questions. Later Tammany made him a Supreme Court justice and his record on the bench was like that in the Legislature. He had conscientious German traits and an eye for helping the underdog. It was the same man, growing grey and a bit chunky, a widower with a son in school, who was elected Senator from New York in 1926. His hobby in Congress was unemployment. He sponsored bills for gathering unemployment statistics and establishing national employment agencies long before Depression had made such legislation popular. In the back of his head he had the definite conviction that the growth of industry had made the workers underdogs because the bargaining power of one man against a corporation employing thousands was altogether too small. Hence he jumped at the job of heading the Labor Board where he could enforce collective bargaining and thus try to strike a new balance of power between Industry and Labor. It did not take him long to discover that the National Recovery Act was full of loopholes. It did not definitely outlaw company unions. Its provision for the free choice of worker representatives General Johnson interpreted as the right of any employe or minority group of employes to bargain independently of the majority. In Senator Wagner's eyes this gave employers a chance to play off one set of employes against another. Fortnight ago. just as the Labor Board was being cut loose from NRA. this question came to a head in a labor dispute involving the Denver Tramway Corp. Of its 714 employes, 353 (a plurality) voted to be represented by the Amalgamated Association of Street & Electric Railway Employes. 325 voted for a company union and 36 did not vote. Senator Wagner got the Labor Board (Pierre du Pont, dissenting) to upset the NRA ruling and decide that all the employes should be represented by the Amalgamated, that the lesser minority and individuals should be denied the right of separate bargaining. Third major fault that Senator Wagner found with the labor provisions of the Recovery Act was that they did not specifically require companies to recognize outside unions, which tended to drive workers into company unions.

New Club. The job of Chairman of the Labor Board in addition to his duties as Senator put a heavy load on Mr. Wagner. Probably 80% of his work is Labor Board work. Asked if he is neglecting his job as Senator he shrugs his shoulders, says he considers his Labor job more important. But the overlap of jobs has an advantage which enabled him fortnight ago to write and introduce in the Senate just the kind of labor bill he wants. That measure, when passed, would give him a new club with which to police the Labor front and keep the peace. It called for a new Labor Board appointed by the Presi dent, consisting of two representatives of Labor and two of Capital who would get traveling expenses and $25 a day while on the job. In addition there would be three representatives of the public at $10,000 a year. This new Labor Board would be a permanent statutory body resembling the Fed eral Trade Commission. Just as the Trade Commission can issue orders against "un fair trade practices.'' so the Labor Board could order companies to cease from "un fair labor practices." Any person who assaults, resists, prevents or impedes its operations could be sent to jail for a year, fined $5.000. ''Unfair labor practices" would include: 1) any attempt to restrain or coerce men from joining any labor union they chose ; 2) refusal to recognize the representatives of employes; 3) any attempt by employers to form a company union or gain influence over an existing union by financial aid or otherwise; 4) any discrimination tending to drive workers into a company union or away from other unions. Out of the famed interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, often stretched but not yet broken. Senator Wagner would whittle his new club. His bill asserts that labor disputes may "burden or affect . . . or obstruct the free flow of commerce.'' The strikes of last summer were violent, sometimes bloody (TIME, Aug. 7, et seq.). In the first two months of 1934 labor troubles spilled little blood. Bloodless labor troubles are better than bloody; none would be better yet. Last week not one but many were in prospect and Senator Wagner prophesied that the work already cut out for his Board "presages a marked increase in the number of disputes. . . . The stresses and strains of our national economic readjustment are by no means on the wane." Some of the labor troubles which kept the Wagner Board on the jump and supplied fresh ammunition for the passage of the Wagner Bill: Weirton Steel. Theoretically Senator Wagner's concern with Weirton Steel Co. ended fortnight ago when he turned its case over to the Attorney General and invited him to start prosecution. Actually there are few cases in which the Labor Board was still more interested. Ernest Tener Weir, who founded Weirton and built Weirton Steel Co., is in his own way a liberal, opposing Depression wage cutting, favoring unemployment and old age insurance. But he is of Scotch-Irish ancestry and has Scotch-Irish stubbornness when anyone tries to interfere between him and his employes. In December, to comply with the provisions of the Recovery Act, he had his employes hold an election to name representatives--the A. F. of L. having ordered its members not to vote. He refused, however, to let the Labor Board conduct the election. The A. F. of L. protested loudly that the workers had been allowed no real choice. The President intervened and proud Mr. Weir went to the White House. There he remained polite and firm. When the President au- thorized the Labor Board to hold its own election Mr. Weir refused to supply a list of employes. Nor would Mr. Weir recognize the officials of the A. F. of L. Steel Union. For a showdown on a question of principle, the Labor Board finally cited him to the Attorney General for failure to permit it to hold an orderly election. Now the case will be settled in court. If Mr. Weir wins it will be a sad setback for Senator Wagner. Budd Manufacturing. Next most vexing case to Senator Wagner concerns Edward Gowen Budd, Philadelphia manufacturer who built up a big business in all-steel automobile bodies and now is be- ginning to make stainless steel streamlined trains. Last November 1,300 of his workers went on strike charging that the company was trying to prevent the A. F. of L. from organizing its plants. The Regional Labor Board ordered Budd to take back the strikers and hold an election. Budd refused and refused again when the National Labor Board issued a similar order. Then an election was held in the plant and a company union set up. The NRA Compliance Board finally ordered another vote on: i) a modified com-pany union plan, or 2) joining the A. F. of L. union. The election, set for last week, was postponed on NRA orders to allow General Johnson to decide whether some 800 ousted strikers should be permitted to present credentials and vote. In spite of the postponement order another election was held last week in the plant and the votes counted by certified public accountants. The vote was 3,152 for the company union, 1,995 for the A. F. of L. Organized Labor screamed that the election was dishonest. The company admitted that it had paid for printing the ballots, hired the accountants to audit the result, but insisted that the election had been held by orders of the representatives of its employes. General Johnson countered with the emphatic assurance that a new election would be held.

Fifth Avenue Bus. Still another type of election trouble started in Manhattan. Fifth Avenue Coach Co. has long boasted of its fairness and liberal dealing with its employes, 98% of whom are supposed to belong to a company union. Early in February the A. F. of L. union distributed circulars calling the men to strike. Only one of its 1,450 employes quit. The A. F. of L. union appealed to the Regional Labor Board, headed by Mrs. Eleanore M. Herrick, to call an election. She ordered an election and invited the company to send official representatives to the polling places. The company refused to do so, on the ground that its men, already organized, were to hold their annual election March 20. It did, however, send unofficial observers to see whether others than its employes voted. Precisely twelve votes were cast in Mrs. Herrick's election. Last week, indignant, she voided the election, called on the National Labor Board to act, charged that in sending unofficial observers the company had resorted to "deliberate and brazen intimidation" to prevent its workers from voting.

Far more serious threats to the success of NRA than such disputes over the Labor Board's powers were strikes that the Board was trying to prevent or end:

Milwaukee Electric. Two hours before a strike for higher wages and union recognition was to have shut off all the electric light, gas and street car service in Milwaukee, the National Labor Board got a postponement for hearings in Washington this week.

Nash Motors. In the towns dotting the Lake Michigan shore south of Milwaukee an epidemic of strikes broke out, most notable being those affecting Nash Motors Co.'s plants at Racine and Kenosha and the Seaman Corp., makers of Nash bodies. Strikers, demanding 20% more pay, a minimum of 60-c- an hour, picketed the plants, jeered workers who were called for at their homes and brought to the shops by company automobile. At the Seaman plant strikers stopped loaded freight cars from being taken in by the railroad. Two men who refused to strike were beaten. Buick, Fisher Body, Hudson. Nash with its factories in Wisconsin is but an outpost of the real labor trouble in the auto- mobile industry. Seat of that trouble is the Detroit region and cause of it is A. F. of L.'s eagerness to get a hold on the automobile business which to date has eluded the union's grasp. First round of that fight was the tool and die workers strike last year which held up production of new models. Renewal of the automobile code forestalled trouble last December but the automobile business has been anxiously waiting for the lightning to strike--wondering only where and when it would fall. Ford early in February forestalled trouble by giving a 10% increase in wages, the second in six months. Trouble started fortnight ago in Toledo when strikes were called in plants making automobile parts. A temporary settlement was made on the basis of a 5% pay increase. Last week strike notices demanding a 20% pay increase, a minimum of 60-c- an hour and union recognition struck Buick, Fisher Body and Hudson, employers of 37,500 men. Again the Labor Board intervened, got the strike postponed so that Labor and automobile makers could go to Washington and make terms. Aluminum Co. At New Kensington, Pa., the Mellons' Aluminum Co. of America has mills for making foil, seals, pots & pans. Workers took a "holiday" fortnight ago because they felt recent wage increases by the company were not fairly distributed. Union leaders conferred with company officials who agreed on a flat increase of 11% for all workers above rates in force last autumn. Then the union leaders went back to their constituents whom Communist agitators had been meantime stirring up. The men voted the agreement down. Result: for ten days 3,700 of Aluminum Co.'s 4,500 workers at New Kensington were out of work. Finally a Department of Labor conciliator went to New Kensington, harangued the strikers, got them to go back to work on terms agreed to by Aluminum Co. pending negotiations for a check-off and other demands. Coal, taxis, cleaners. In Alabama 9,000 miners in 34 coal mines walked out demanding the checkoff. In Manhattan, several hundred of the 4,500 taxi drivers of the Parmelee System struck charging that they were being forced into a company union. In Philadelphia, 300 dyers and cleaners struck against "working conditions." Employes of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad voted to strike against a new system of hourly pay substituted by the road for the old time-&-mileage basis, but postponed the strike to wait for Federal mediation. Thus last week was Senator Wagner's policing job growing by leaps and bounds. As he paced his beat, with discord and discontent popping around him, his most disturbing thought was this: A few good strikes could create as much unemployment in a day as NRA could cure in a month.

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