Settlement of Labor Disputes

Report Outline
New Machinery for Maintenance of Industrial Peace
Labor Adjustment Agencies Under the N. R. A.
Industrial Relations Boards Under the Codes
Machinery for Adjustment of Railway Disputes
State Experiments with Compulsory Settlement
Settlement of Disputes in Foreign Countries
Special Focus

New Machinery for Maintenance of Industrial Peace

Proposal of Permanent Status for National Labor Board

Announcement has been made by. Senator Wagner (D., N. Y.) that he will introduce and press for passage at the present session of Congress legislation giving permanent status to the National Labor Board, The board was set up on August 5, 1933, to provide temporary machinery for the settlement of labor disputes growing out of the application of the President's Reemployment Agreement. Its operations were quickly ex-bended, however, to controversies arising under the N. R. A. industrial codes. After the board's authority had been questioned by the Weirton Steel Company and other concerns, the President on December 19 issued an executive order confirming all previous actions of the board and conferring upon it authority to “adjust all industrial disputes.”

The wording of the order of December 19 raised the question whether it was intended to confer powers of compulsory arbitration upon the board and thus, by inference, to outlaw strikes and lockouts during the period of the recovery emergency. This question has not been given an official answer, but the board has made no attempt, to exercise powers of compulsory arbitration to date and Senator Wagner has said that no such powers will be embodied in his forthcoming bill. Wagner has counseled, however, that the strike “be abandoned as an instrument of first resort” in industrial disputes.

Industry and labor cannot cooperate by means of that medium. It is estimated that between August and the last of September five million working days were lost because of strikes. These tactics mean a drain upon the potential wealth of the country which cannot be replaced, and are unlikely to confer lasting benefits upon workers.