Two Shillelaghs, One Strike

Walter Reed Hospital in Washington last week discharged a distinguished one-night patient. Army doctors who gave him a thorough examination found General Hugh S. Johnson physically fit. It was well, because the NRAdministrator had strenuous work ahead. Two short, husky old Irishmen were limbering up to meet him next day.

They came with their shillelaghs--florid-faced Thomas Francis McMahon swinging the threat of a cotton textile strike and pug-nosed Michael Francis Tighe brandishing what looked dangerously like a steel strike. If either or both landed a good stiff wallop with their clubs. General Johnson's job-making program with NRA would be sent sprawling in the dust of more labor troubles.

As he and everyone knew the two A. F. of L. labor leaders had taken Section 7 (a) of the Recovery Act as an invitation to unionize cotton and steel mills. They had made considerable progress, but neither could boast of a closed shop in either industry. Since President Roosevelt averted an automobile strike last March, NRA policy has been: 1) to back labor to the hilt on collective bargaining in general but 2) not to back any one union, A. F. of L., company or independent. The shillelaghs were carried into General Johnson's parlor last week to be used to change this policy and, if possible, line NRA up behind the A. F. of L.

Cotton. General Johnson had ordered cotton mills to cut their machine hours 25% for the next twelve weeks, until some of the 332,000,000 yards of unsold cotton goods now on hand could be disposed of. A 25% cut in machine hours meant a 25% cut in man hours and a 25% cut in wages. Unless the order were canceled Tom McMahon promised to call a strike of the United Textile Workers, promised that 300,000 men would walk out. Said he: "The issue at stake apparently is whether the workers are willing to accept a 25% wage reduction. The answer based upon telegrams from our workers North and South is an emphatic 'No.'"

Tom McMahon, born in Ballybay, County Monaghan, used the word "apparently" with Irish adroitness. He knew that the cotton mills, if they went on piling up a surplus, would soon have to shut down altogether, that General Johnson's order was really a means of spreading work and pay with minimum hardships to labor. As a matter of strategy he protested the order to offer a substitute: reduction of working hours from 40 to 30 per week and a proportionate increase in pay. Next he made a tactical retreat from his own substitute to take up a winning position which would give the Union more power and open the way to a closed shop.

The struggle between General Johnson and Unionmaster McMahon was brief, a settlement coming in three days. Mc-Mahon winnings: the appointment of textile labor representatives on 1) the NRA Labor Advisory Board, 2) the Cotton Textile Code Authority, 3) the industry's Industrial Relations Board, which was remodeled and given powers similar to those of the Automobile Labor Board. General Johnson promised that all three of these labor representatives should be picked from the United Textile Workers if the fact was established that the union was the only important cotton textile union and had at least 200,000 bona fide members. This was not closed shop but it was a step toward it.

Cotton mill operators won nothing except cancellation of the strike order. General Johnson won a small point: written admission from the Union that it is sometimes necessary to reduce the machine hours in the textile industry.

Steel. Not since 1919 has the A. F. of L. made a serious bid to unionize the steel industry. Now honest Mike Tighe, president of the Amalgamated Iron, Steel & Tin Workers, "conservatively" counts 100,000 members in his union. It is much easier, however, to get a workman to sign a union card than to pay his initiation fee. Nobody, not even Mr. Tighe, can calculate how many members his union can effectively call off the job. Nevertheless, at its annual meeting in Pittsburgh last month Amalgamated voted to strike. Fortnight ago Leader Tighe served an ultimatum on the steel industry: union recognition or a general strike on June 16.

"There is no question of backing down," he said. "The workmen themselves decided it. ... We have no choice but to carry out their orders."

He was answered flatly by Tom M. Girdler, board chairman & president of Republic Steel, who fired a Manhattan meeting of steelmen to lusty applause by saying: "Before I spend the rest of my life dealing with William Green, I'm going to raise apples and potatoes. . . . We are . . . willing to deal with our own employes. . . . We are not going to deal with the Amalgamated or any other professional union, even if we have to shut down."

Mike Tighe waited until the Steel Code came up for renewal last week to carry his strike shillelagh to Washington. Then, if ever, seemed the strategic time to rivet the closed shop upon the industry. Into no code so far has gone a closed shop provision and President Roosevelt did not propose to begin with Steel. In renewing the code, however, the President made a solemn promise: "I will undertake promptly to provide, as the occasion may demand, for the election by employes in each industrial unit of representatives of their own choosing for the purpose of collective bargaining and other mutual aid and protection, under the supervision of an appropriate governmental agency."

That promise did not satisfy Michael Tighe. The Government had promised no less in the Weirton Steel case, only to fall flat in Wilmington court last week (see col. 2). The union did not want merely elections, which might not result to its advantage. It wanted recognition and a closed shop.

No radical labor leader is Michael Tighe. Belligerent members of his own union who had never suffered through a long, hard strike were not satisfied with Leader Tighe's protests. To Washington went Earl J. Forbeck heading a "Rank & File Committee," pledged to strike June 16. Forbeck declared there would be "bloody war" if the steel industry did not recognize Amalgamated.

General Johnson, glad to deal with Mike Tighe instead of Earl Forbeck, promised to "go the limit with the steel unions if they'll get down to cases." He asked them to lay the legal groundwork for governmental action.

But Mr. Tighe, with a fire behind him as well as before, was not inclined to be placated. "Old stuff," he said. "The only solution is recognition of Amalgamated. That's all they have to do."

Meantime Governor Pinchot rushed to the White House bearing news. After telling the President he told it to newshawks : "The steel companies are arming. I am ready to meet whatever situation arises."

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