Unionization of Foremen

Report Outline
Collective bragaining Rights for forenen
Organization of Supervisory Employees
Legal Status of Foremen's Unions

Collective bragaining Rights for forenen

Public attention has been drawn to the position of A foremen in mass production industries, and to the disproportionate power over industrial operations that may be exercised by this relatively small group of key workers, by the extent of the interference with war production that resulted from the recent strike of members of the Foreman's Association of America at Detroit.

The number of production workers reduced to idleness by the strike of 3,300 foremen at Detroit plants of six automotive corporations had risen by mid-May to 72,000. At a hearing on the strike before the National War Labor Board, May 17, General Arnold, chief of the Army Air Forces, testified that the stoppage was “one of the most serious setbacks to the Army Air Forces program since its inception.” It had cost the Army 250 P-51 Mustang fighter planes, and if continued might “even affect our invasion operations.”

The union ordered its members back to work on the day of the War Labor Board hearing, after receiving assurances from the companies that there would be no discrimination against the men who had gone on strike. The main issue of the walk out—collective bargaining rights for unionized foremen—remains unsettled; it still stands as a potential threat to smooth operation of the war production program.