THE LABORER Year No. Panamá, de Junio de 1945 a copy EDITORIALThe Laborer THERE IS NO LABOR MOVEMENT Thanks While the subject hereof is remote to conditions as we The Management of the know and see them here in the Republic of Panama, neverLABORER uses this means of theless, for the information of all concerned we quote in expressing profound thanks to par answers by Mr. John Lewis, one of the ablest and its numerous friends, admirforemost of labor leaders in the United States of North ers and well wishers of the America, to certain question asked of him about US City of Colon, also to the labor, by Collier May 5, 1945. members of the reactivated Union of that City for the UNIONS AS POLITICAL AGENCIES excellent support given by For a full decade, and increasingly in the last few them in the purchasing of years, there has been a skillful and sustained drive to the paper, and wishes to state make organized labor part and parcel of a political machthat in due course of time ine. The promises of favors and special privileges have BYRON ANDERSON EDUARD DOUGLAS not in the too distant future alternated cleverly wth threats of condign punishment, and Member of the Board of Member of the Board of to put on the market a as a consequence the effort has met with no small measDirectors Directors much larger paper. Plans are ure of success. Today wi witness the ever widening spread being perfected by the manof what can only be called political company unions, as agement for the gathering of much under the control of a party as the industrial comlocal news of interests to its pany union is under the control of the employer.
the maintenance of industrial peace. In July, 1942, it start readers. Watch. look outIncreasingly the interests of the party are put above ed modestly enough with 189 employees. Within a year it for the next issue. Your conthe interests of the workers. It is, in effect, an alarming had swollen to 2, 280 employees, of whom 238 were econ tinued support is earnestly reapproach to the situation in Russia, where unions are an omists.
quested; and please send in integral part of the Communist state, without independent NO LABOR DISCUSSION ALLOWED!
any news you would like to function, and purchase the meager right of mere existence Out of the whole sorry business have come many have published. We are at your by abject servility. Not one has a voice in the determinaAlice in Blunderland situations. When the Secretary of the command and willing to be of an of wage scales and working conditons.
service to you.
Interior, for example, was first appointed custodian of the These labor leaders, who have bell wethered their Profound thanks also, to nation coal mines, the whines of the War Labor Board memberships into the abattoir of partisan politics, may seek gained a White House order that Mr. Ickes was without those persons (including memto salve their conscences by claimng that they are equal authority to discuss labor relations with the representatives bers of the Bar Tenders and partners, not cogs in the machine, but the record gives of the miners. Here, in effect, was the manager of a plant, Waiters Union for the sugthem no support. In the last election nothing was more gestion anent allocation of adcommon that the spectable of labor support for labor open entirely responsible for production and facing an increased demand for coal, peremptorily forbidden to talk about wages ditional space in the English enemies, because these enemies were on the ticket that Section of the paper. This has and working conditions with the men from whom producthey were under orders to elect. As political party work tion was expected.
been given the required aters, these leaders are subject to party discipline, and party tention and as time progresses As if there were not confusion enough with twentyvictory always takes precedence over every other consideit is hoped to enlarge both six labor boards, commissions, committees, etc. Congress ration: the size and circulation of the decided to make its contribution to chaos and enacted the With this covering correction, come now to the first paper, dependent, however, on Smith Connaly law. No more inflammatory piece of legislathe support given to it.
of your questions. It is regrettably true that from the very tion was ever passed, for this grotesque slave statute not first day of war, there has been industrial strife instead of only invites industrial conflict, but COMMANDS it.
Our aim is to please one the industrial peace demanded by America peril. Precious and all regardless of standing days, weeks and months have been lost by bitter quarrels On March 1st, by way of example, the United Mine with the union.
between management and labor. But it is not the workers Workers sat down with the operators to consider the terms The Management who are to blame. say to you that any honest analysis of a new two year contract. At the very outset, however, further thanks to those persons who voves plainly that responsibility for the plague of industrial in order to guard ourselves against the criminal and civil without solicitation have menunrest traces back directly to politics and politicians. penalties of the Smith Connally Act, we were compelled When war came, what stood plainer than the need of to file legal notice that a national strike vote might be tioned the truthfullness of the a GOVERNMENT LABOR POLICY? code that would lay invoked.
articles appearing in each isdown the rights, duties and high responsibilities of both sue of the paper. It is our employers and employee. And why was not such poiciy What more provocative of suspicion and anger? Instead purpose to give the public unof thethe friendly atmosphere so necessary for successful dulterated news at all times.
adopted and proclaimed? Because it would have meant agreement between management and labor, and even more collective bargaining, the strike threat, forced upon us by.
important, labor own unity. Such an arrangement, obviBASIS FOR AN INDUSTRIAL CODE ously, offered the politicians no troubled waters in which Expression of On the statut books of the nation there are now these to fish. With group hatreds abated, there was small room Gratitude laws: The Narris La Guardia Act, exempting unions from for demagogic appeals. With labor united, the attempt to promote political company unions would fall flat. Delib the punitive provision sof antitrust legislation; the Wage The Board of Directors of erately, callously, therefore, they sabotaged the formula and Hour Act; Social Security, with its protection against the Bar Tenders and Waiters tion of a government labor policy, not only continuing but the terrors of old age and unemployment; a National RelaUnion, desires to express the deepening the divisions between workers and employers, tion Act that guarantees the right of workers to organize, Union highest sentiments of between union and union.
and lays down rules for collective bargaining.
gratitude and deepest appreciation to Mr. Alfred Benjamin It may seem to you that exaggerate the importance THERE ARE THE FUNDAMENTALS OF CODE. Put of the city of Colon, who, of a government labor policy, overstressing out of a desire the administration of these laws in the Department of to make a point. Permit me, then, to go back to the first during the Board sojourn in Labor, under a competent head, and back them up by a World War and lift Woodrow Wilson labor policy from that City, on the 17th May, trained meditation and conciliation service, recruited from the tomb where it has been allowed to gather dust, along 1945, did everything possible the ranks of industry, and not made up of campus prodigies in making its stay most comwith every other chart that would have been of inestimable and social workers. This done, all that remains is to call fortable and at home. This value today. Appointing a War Labor Conference Board, a conference of management and labor for further agreemade up of union leaders and the country foremost emgentleman in order to make ments that will narrow every field of controversy.
ployers, President Wilson put the body in a room and told the Board task a much lightone than it would have them to stay in session until they had framed an industrial Voices of protest, of course, will be raiced against the been otherwise, proffered the establishment of an industrial code, for there are many who code that would guarantee industrial peace. The order was use of the salon of his esobeyed, and out of long and heated discussion came agree do not WANT industrial peace. Primarily they are: the politablishment for the holding of ment on these fundamental principles.
ticians, for there would be no longer any possible excuse No strikes or lockouts for the duration.
for the bureaucratic neddling that has as its secret purpose meetings, for which the union the fomentation of class hatreds and the subornation of is deeply indebted and apIt shall be the right of employers to form association preciative and the right of workers to organize in trade unions, both labor as a political instrument for the seizure and perpetuaIn similar breath, the Board tion of power; the revolutionary agitators who fight any to bargain collectively through their chosen representatives.
01 Directors expresses the The National Labor Relations Board, created by statute, and every constructive measure, preferring those disconUnion heartfelt gratefuness to has been shunted into the back waters by the War Labor tents that contain the seeds of revolt; reactionary employthat amiable employer and Board, set up by executive order. This board supposedly ers who oppose understandings with labor as an interferfriend of labor, Mr. Isaac authoritative, is subject to veto by the Director of War ence with their so called economic law of ruthless selfKersch, also of the City of Mobilization and the Director of Economic Stabilization. interest.
Colon, for by his sympathetic, These two, in turn, receive their directives from the Presi These are powerful and vocal groups. But against them painstaking and superb gentledent. The Wilson body, administering and interpreting a stand the whole rank and file of labor, organized and unmanly manner in treating CODE, laid down precedents that did away with piecemeal organized, and a decisive majority of employers, large and all problems, whether litigation. The overstaffed, cumbersome War Labor Board small, who are equally sick of dog eat dog relationships. they be in céonnection with considers each case separately, and this only after a care Above all, an overwhelming public sentiment, the call of labor or otherwise, he has enful reading of the political barometer each morning.
America, eager for unity in the war years that still lie deared himself to the hearts moment, if you please, for a brief consideration of ahead, and demanding co operation when pease presents its of all those with whom he this fantastic body, supposedly the supreme instrument for problems.
comes in contact. BIBLIOTECA NACIONAL ERNESTO CASTILLERO er with