Striking Partner

Notable were two strikes last week which revealed the impotence of the National Recovery Administration to put down the labor controversies stirred up by NIRA. Both disputes flunked the National Labor Board because nowhere in the law was that agency, an extra-legal body backed only by the President's prestige, given authority to force settlements in the backwash of NRA code-making. The Ford and coal strikes exemplified the stubborn militancy of Labor to overreach itself, the stubborn militancy of Capital to resist to the limit.

The Ford strike involved wages and hours of some 3,000 unorganized workers in Henry Ford's Chester, Pa. export assembly plant. Though Mr. Ford has not yet signed the automobile code (which binds him just the same) he pays his men a minimum wage (50-c- per hour) which is 7-c- higher than the trade agreement requires. But because of the seasonal peaks and valleys of automobile production, Mr. Ford did not have enough work to run his Chester plant more than four days a week. As a result his men earned only $16 per week. They struck for a five-day week at a $25 minimum. Mr. Ford retaliated by closing his Chester plant indefinitely. The strikers moved on the Ford plant at Edgewater, N.J., attempted to enlist its 2,000 workers in a sympathy strike, talked of closing every Ford factory in the land. Observers predicted that before matters reached such a pass, Henry Ford would shut up shop entirely, let the workers stew in their own juice. No law could force him, or any other manufacturer, to reopen.

Last week's other important strike involved recognition of United Mine Workers by the "captive" soft coal mines of Pennsylvania. These mines are owned and their entire output is used by the great non-union iron and steel companies. Last fortnight U. M. W. won complete recognition from most commercial mine operators in a blanket wage contract under the coal code. Because that contract did not include the "captive" mines of U. S. Steel Corp., Bethlehem Steel and others, some 75,000 Pennsylvania diggers under Insurgent Martin Ryan refused to work in any sort of mine.

Steelmen at first balked at U. M. W. recognition at their "captive mines" lest it prove an entering wedge for the unionization of their steel workers. The steel companies were ready to give their miners everything but that--and that was the one thing the U. M. W. miners were standing out for.

Last week the steelmasters, as a voluntary peace move, agreed to run their mines in concert with the coal code, giving their men the same wages and hours as prevail in commercial mines. This agreement was promptly approved by President Roosevelt in the hope of placating the strikers. But they stayed out, insisting that the steelmen must give them full recognition. When virtual recognition seemed attained last week, U. M. W. leaders ordered the 75,000 strikers back to work.

The Pennsylvania coal strike sharply raised the issue of Labor's moral obligation as a "partner" with Government and Industry in the recovery program. Last summer soft coal miners first struck when operators tried to thwart their unionization under NRA. To the coal fields President Roosevelt dispatched as his personal representative Deputy NRAdministrator McGrady who won a strike truce by promising the miners a "square deal'' from the White House. Out of that strike was born the National Labor Board under New York's Senator Wagner. Last month the Pennsylvania miners broke the truce to force the coal code through Washington. They kept it broken to force the "captives" in line.

Since June the ambiguous wording of the law on collective bargaining has forced NRA to walk a tight-rope on "open" and ''closed" shops. General Johnson banished those words from NRA's dictionary but that did not settle the issue. But National Labor Board has conducted workers' plebiscites in an effort to determine the strength of union sentiment in strike-closed shops. But even where a majority favors union representation, the law nowhere gives that majority the right to bargain collectively for a non-union minority.

NRA can "crack down" on employers who violate codes but is powerless to deal with employes who violate its spirit. In not a single code, except that for coal, has Labor surrendered its right to strike. Its argument is that strikes are often necessary to bring NRA disputes to a head for mediation. Uppermost in many a mind last week as the American Federation of Labor opened its annual convention in Washington (see p. 16) was the stand it would take on the tide of strikes sweeping the land. William Green, president, cautioned all workers as follows: "The right to strike is fundamental. It is legally and morally right. . . . But it involves so many serious considerations that it ought to be utilized as a last resort. ... I glory in the fighting spirit of the working people. ... I urge all workers who have grievances to make use of [the National Labor Board] before resorting to the extreme action of striking."

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