Labor Bucks the Steel Giants For Collective Bargaining
TAYLOR, JOHN W.
Labor Bucks the Steel Giants For Collective Bargaining By JOHN W. TAYLOR *|*HE strike threat that has been * long overhanging the greater part of the steel industry fell last week when union...
...Suddenly he shut up...
...For forty-eight hours Europe was overshadowed by war clouds...
...This includes the membership of the suspended C.I.O...
...j_o far, you can sum the whole thing up thus: that Rebel after nine months Offensive the rebel offensive yCt , i J has been exhausted...
...A consent election under the auspices of the Labor Board was suggested as the next step te take...
...He had opposed also a move to form a common front against unionization, consisting of steel, automobile, chemical • and other large industries...
...launched three-year litigation and finally reduced rates...
...that now comes a period of lull...
...And they ought to know their business...
...you hear people say...
...Incidentally, "Putsy" Hanfstaengel, in London, wants to come here and live, but Congressional pressure on Labor Department and State Department makes issuance of a permit exceedingly Uoubtful...
...4| The split in the steel "ihdjstrp thus illustrated is attributed to the policy of Myron C. "Taylor, chairman of the board of directors of the United States Steel Cerpo-ration, who negotiated secretly...
...Example: In 1923, little Villisca, Iowa, 2,100, in southwestern Iowa, voted 409 to 66 for a public power plant, Iowa-Nebraska Light and Power Co...
...unions as of the time of suspension...
...If so, and if the kernel salient" can be disposed **«_then we may see a push north » Calauyud, threatening to SaragOssa's communication and disturbing to Franco's Navarrese and Aragon troops...
...He had just witnessed "George's" method of getting utility legislation—just as George wanted it—even while the Kings of the Senate were calling it plain murder...
...Is the refusal of the independent companies to sign an agreement equivalent to a refusal to bargain...
...upheld by the Supreme Court % its application to the steel industry...
...fake neutrality State Department, which wrote fake neutrality bill, is in a tight spot...
...By BEBNABD MOORE Daily Herald Geneva Correspondent (Reprinted from the London Daily Herald) fVESPITE all that the pessimists *^ say, the League is not even moribund...
...Note: Over a thousand similar examples are available...
...Now the tide turns and with it taVst, people's estimate of the chances of the war...
...This suggestion formed the basis for the settlement on May 14 after a two-day strike...
...If Gomez has—and it looks like it—the upper hand around Penna-raya: if he can get a real decision there: if then he moves not south, but due west, what then...
...And never before has the need for everything for which the League stands been so great as today...
...Now Miaja and his colleagues •hare surely learned the lesson...
...it has shown itself well capable of vigorous counter-offense...
...Right back at the end of August Durruti said confidently to Walter Duranty, "Of course, we ¦ball -take Saragossa soon...
...If it should happen, and should seem to be succeeding, don't get too cock-a-hoop...
...To have stopped two years—even "teeny-weeny" wan—is not a bad record - in less than twenty years of existence...
...Who would act for the non-union members was not made clear but the company has not publicly repudiated its support to its employee representation plan, as has the Jones & Laughlin Company...
...The independent companies immediately pot into effect those same hours and wages but not as an agreement...
...A short two and a half years ago a man concealing a machine rifle under his jacket broke through a thin police cordon at Marseilles...
...Few of those who talk glibly of the League, which is to them a vajrue resting place at Geneva for itinerant statesmen, know, for instance, that every week in the Far and Middle East, powerful radio stations broadcast to ships' captains and port authorities warnings of the outbreak of the dread bubonic plague or the insidious spread of smallpox and cholera...
...But the union, which is preparing charges against the .companies, called attention to prior decision...
...Its failure to stop the rape of Manchuria and its sudden collapse when success was in sight daring the Italian conquest of Abyssinia came as dismal shocks to those who looked to Geneva...
...They failed to realize the full import, and the press failed to realize it, because Nebraska's Norris did a strange thing...
...organization, training and ^r*es__fi___p are equal to the task Wfc are more likely to see bard at more vulnerable points of »e rebel "frontier...
...By W. N. EWER THE Spanish war has come into a new phase...
...Look at the Spanish affair...
...I Bargain: Oral or Written...
...The reason the entire industry is not threatened' is that the industry is till divided into two parts' on the basis of its labor policy...
...His opposition on this point is credited with being responsible for General Motors' consent to recogrnize' tbf United Automobile Workers as a bargaining agency...
...SUPPORT FOB THE PRESIDENT There is a reason for the President's intransigent Supreme Court position which has* not yet appeared...
...From the first weeks, when Cadiz, Seville aad Badajoz fell in succession, the rebels have been, for the most part, attacking-, the loyalists, for the nbst part, defending...
...An angry Jugoslavia, mourning the loss of its King, discovered that the assassination had been plotted in a terrorist camp whose existence had been winked at by the Hungarian authorities...
...1 Tfce SplH~im Steel f 4,,-__-_-,—a...
...It is simply a miniature copy of it...
...It is far harder and far more costly to attack' than to defend...
...Any fool with a map could have thought of the march through Georgia...
...The agreement signed called for a basic 46-hour week and a minimum daily wag* of $5...
...It was so tempting...
...he new fighting round Teruel "•y- mean that the Catalonian *ny is coming at last effectively •"^operation...
...Fortunately there was a League of Nations...
...The occasion was the sentencing of private ownership of utilities in this country to lingering but practically certain death...
...Whatever one's view may be of the non-intervention policy, the fact remains that Governments can do nothing without international consultation and international action...
...Remember that it is comparatively easy to launch a sudden offensive, and that they "George" Norris Always Gets His Legislation gALT LAKE CITY'S gift to the Power Trust, Senator William H. King, gazed admiringly at Nebraska's George W. Norris and murmured: "The Canadian 'Mounties' may always get their man but George always gets his legislation V * o - ----- _____ r~» The Utah Senator's admiration' was tempered with personal dismay, but it was genuine...
...Cordoba lies some thirty miles to the south of Gomez' present fighting ground...
...It not only held the rebel attempt to cross the Alcudia and seize the mercury mines of Almaden...
...Through amendments, it now directs the Commission to go into every nook and cranny of the nation...
...Mola's offensive ttin presses on Bilbao...
...If it could be done it would cut Franeonia in two, "break its back," as Sherman's march "from Atlanta to the sea," in December, 1864, "broke the back of the Confederacy," and prepared the way for Grant's final campaign in Virginia...
...The resolution empowers the Federal Trade Commission to go much farther than a mere investigation of attempts to control public opinion...
...Oviedo has proved as impregnable as Madrid...
...Whether a break through from Pennaraya is militarily possible: whether Gomez and his troops are capable of carrying it out: what strength they have: what forces the enemy could bring rapidly to face them: all these are' these are things one cannot judge from afar...
...The American Federation of Law bor has been issuing statements of membership at monthly intervals which bespeaks an active competir tion in organization efforts...
...From ^Pennaraya it is only some seventy miles to the Portuguese frontier, seventy miles of fairly open country with your left flank covered by the Sierra Morena...
...But also there is a chance in Hie next few weeks of big advances which might, in the fairly low state jf rebel morale, bring about a collapse! Franco, it is now pretty obvious, made a major mistake when he •Bowed himself to be drawn by Madrid...
...of the Labor Board, holding, that a "refusal to enter into a written agreement may be strong evidence of a refusal to bargain—one of the unfair labor practices forbidden by the law...
...In all, there were twelve years of litigation...
...For the League has League not always failed...
...Movie houses will shortly be showing a new film taken at Geneva and covering the activity of the League in all its many spheres...
...The Singapore office of the League (only a few know it even exists) receives reports from all...
...i ,It was so important: so irresist->Wy important that franco's ad-.visers forgot one lesson of the »Nt Wax: that a city is such a ***work of ready-made fortifications that, reasonably strengthened ¦*ad reasonably defended the .chances of taking it by direct at-?** are very small, s Bo Franco marched on Madrid...
...It looked so •nay in the September days, when Talavera and Toledo had been takes,' when the road to the capital/ seemed open...
...Answer: He received from the Power Trust a contract to lecture on feed conservation...
...how municipalities and farm organizations have been thwarted by private companies...
...I do not think they will exhaust _h their men and their mu•JJon't nitions in attempts to Waste force the rebels back Men foot by foot and yard by yard from the eastern ¦oburbs of Madrid...
...All that I feel pretty sure about is that something Government of that kind, Offensive there or else-: Prepared where, will be' tried very soon...
...w Since that time the National Labor Relations Act has beer...
...Governments know that there is another stage before the inevitable declaration of war which hitherto marked the breakdown of diplomatic negotiations, and that is a tremendous contribution towards ¦World peace...
...More litigation...
...for some time with John L. Lewis before the corporation's decision to sign an agreement was published...
...Which, in essence, is precisely what the League is for...
...But the reasons for these failures are now too well known to reflect on the system for which the League stands...
...A new clement is thus injected into the question, namely...
...Because, somehow—and in face at'any amount of experience, it aWys looks as though the attacker were .winning, as though the defenaer were just holding out, ¦jgfrpi back to the wall...
...A large number of independent steel companies have followed the lead of the United States Steel Corporation, but the strongest of the independents, producing the larger part/ of the steel output, 'have not done so...
...And that is a new thing...
...Example: J. W. Kime, at Fort Dodge, was rip-snorting speaker for public operation...
...The Government army of Cordoba, under General Gomez, is quite evidently now a really efficient force...
...how taxes have been decreased—and why...
...Anti-fascists organizations are seeking to have churches collect relief funds for Spain and State Department would be forced to prosecute the churches...
...Villisca public plant started operating last November...
...And, because it is always the sensational political developments that get the widest publicity, the many activities of the League in other than political spheres are lost sight of...
...We had all that once before...
...Contract called for payment of $24,000 at rate of $400 a month...
...The subsidiaries of this corporation have all signed agreements with the union as bargaining agent for its own members • and at the same time have ceased to support their company unions.' 'The effect' is to give the union "sole bargaining rights to represent all employees...
...Wftot tfce Employers Say f t?---o The Republic Steel Company took the position that no agreement would be signed unless a similar agreement was accepted by nonunion members...
...subsequent events have shown it was not through any fault of the machinery, but of those who refused to use it that the Italian aggression, for one, remained unchecked...
...But thirty miles across the Sierra Morena...
...I feel sure that the Government is preparing some stroke of the sort, that the rebels are preparing to resit it—or even to anticipate it...
...Jumping on the running board of a passing car, he poured a stream of bullets into the bodies of its occupants, killing a reigning monarch and a Foreign Minister...
...The Jones & Laughlin Company argued that the union did not have a majority of tbe employees as members and, untU it proved it was the proper representative of the majority, no agreement would be signed...
...Note: There is a bronze plaque at the entrane of the hew Villisca plant—"Dedicated to the ability of the people to serve themselves...
...At length, the private citizen admitted that he never paid for the lawyers or the bond...
...The League could not deal with it, so you had to have a Non-Intervention Committee in London...
...really now that the critical aMnts are coming...
...Taylor had opposed the policy of the Iron and Steel Institute, ss exemplified in many newspapers last July declaring that the in* dustry would oppose without compromise the unionization of its workers...
...But everywhere else it is the Government forces which have the initiative...
...It was all Power Company money...
...The latest figure, referring to April, gives the total as 3367,677, an increase of 446,000 in eight months...
...But strategically the South would seem more hopeful ground for a big break-through...
...Officers of the Republic Company asserted that an agreement with the CIO union was only the first step toward a closed shop, and they refused to take any step that might lead in that direction...
...The machinery of the League was there to hand...
...It took a Sherman to carry it out...
...And the very Governments which did most to damage the League's prestige have since shown that they have no alternative policy to that underlying the League's Covenant—that of collective consultation and collective action...
...Had he said, during the short debate, the things he said by way of a footnote, the opposition would have brought up its last ounce of reserve power...
...Their membership at that time is estimated at about 1.200,000, 'since said to have increased by mere than 1,000,000...
...Hastily, the Council was summoned, and, almost at zero hour, hostilities were prevented...
...1 Unhappily, memories are short...
...Often In 1925 troops Successful w*re ranged along the frontiers of Greece and Bulgaria...
...It is fashionable to talk of Geneva as a dead let-League ter, to accept blind-Machinery 1 >' *he failure of Copied Governments for the failure of the system...
...He spoke for the resolution after its adoption...
...to ascertain how much the public has profited through operation of its own power plants...
...In1 1931, the town again voted for a plant, and the company went to court again...
...The much abused machinery of Geneva was set in motion and Europe was saved from catastrophe...
...Most of them have never touched the fringe of publicity...
...For the time being, all figures on membership most be accepted with large allowances for their provisional character...
...Scramble to Oroanfit ? Feverish activity in unionization is now going forward in all parts of the country...
...Tbe split in the industry goes back to March 1, when the largest subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation electrified the country and the rest of the industry by abandoning its traditional open-shop policy...
...i Loyalists on the Offense As Crisis Approaches Rebel Forces Exhausted After 9 Months Drive—Period of Lull Expected Followed by Government Attack...
...A wedge was driven between its component parts when the United States Steel Corporation, maker of about 35 per cent of the country's steel, decided to bargain with the steel union affiliated with John L. Lewis' Committee for Industrial Organization...
...an ultimatum had been delivered and the outbreak of war with terrible consequences was only a few hours off...
...And what is Cordoba, anyway, but another city with a network of suburbs for attackers to die in...
...But the Non-intervention Committee is not an alternative to the League...
...that soon the Government forces will try in their torn to take the offensive...
...It would be folly to ignore the possibility that the Government offensives in their turn may be held in check, and that the advantages of the defensive may bring about a military stalemate...
...Even the utility people didn't realize, when the Senate voted the way "George" wanted it to vote, that the Senate Joint Resolution 95 (to investigate the efforts of private utilities to control public opinion) was perhaps even more dangerous for them than the Wheeler-Rayburn Law to regulate holding companies...
...The possibilities of individual intervention in the Spanish rebellion opened up such alarming vistas of international friction that it became imperative to arrange that all Governments concerned should gather round the same table to see what could be done about it...
...Although the Jones & Laughlin strike was soon settled, the conflict showed signs of widening to include all of the large independent steel companies, but not the largest producer of all...
...One fact, however, may be take* as certain, namely: Labor unions are growing at aa unprecedented, pace, which appears to hare "beef, quickened since the Supreme Court decided that employers may not lawfully discriminate agamst the workers for joining onion* '•' (Printed by tpeeial pemtis*io% of the United State* .Yea...
...Those movie-goers who see the League's film will get Non- some idea of the trePolitical mendous scope of these Activities non-political activities...
...a»t his army tangled in its sub-*rhs, and went hammering away h for months until his hammer h"gan to break in his hand...
...Can they be compelled to treat with the union under the terms of the law ? Spokesmen for the companies assert that there is nothing in the 'National Labor Relations Act making it obligatory for an employer to reach an agreement with employees and still less one requiring a written contract...
...Of course, it is easy enough to talk...
...That will he the testing time...
...Led by the Jones & Laughlin and the Republic Steel corporations, they refused to sign agreements with the union...
...Finally, a private citizen fought the public power plant in the courts...
...While the League was "failing" over Manchuria and Abyssinia the League's technical services, its social and humanitarian committees, worked steadily, on their task of ridding the world of the ills that breed wars...
...Consequently they received no undertaking from the union that there would be no strike in their plants for a specified period...
...The film is introduced by the Secretary-General of the League, and M. Avenol delivers himself of a fundamental truth when he says: "Do not forget that no dispute is ever brought before the League until it has proved too difficult to be handled by ordinary diplomatic channels...
...When that is universally realized there will be a greater appreciation of the League's difficulties, as well as of the League's failings...
...That is now the belief of the German experts...
...Labor Bucks the Steel Giants For Collective Bargaining By JOHN W. TAYLOR *|*HE strike threat that has been * long overhanging the greater part of the steel industry fell last week when union members among employees of the Jones A Laughlin Steel Company and several other firms were ordered, to quit work...
...There are 27 Democratic Senators who must face the electorate in 1939, and among these are a goodly number who have deLeague of Nations Structure Can Still Serve for Collective Security Substitute for Common Action Has Not Been Devised—Important Work Still Carried on by Geneva Body Proving It Far From Useless...
...New York's "Bob" Wagner may and may not know it, but the fact is that much of opposition to the Housing Bill comes from Treasurer Morgenthau, who can't get away from some of his old friendships in the New York Budget "Commission," now led by the real estater, Pete Grimm...
...It would be idle to deny that the working of the League's machinery has disappointed many of its staunehest supporters...
Vol. 20 • May 1937 • No. 21
