Union Maintenance

Report Outline
Security of Labor Unions in Wartime
Agitation for the “Right to Work”
Labor Demands for Production Royalties

Security of Labor Unions in Wartime

Organized labor will emerge from the present war with the largest membership in its history. During the war, trade unions have solidified their position in many industries by greatly increasing the proportion of members working under closed-shop, union-shop, or maintenance-of-membership requirements. After the war, labor leaders will exert every effort to hold and extend these and other wartime gains. Their ability to do so will depend in no small degree on the measure of success attending industry and government efforts to maintain full employment.

The U. S. Chamber of Commerce, the A. F. L., and the C. I. O, joined in promulgating, Mar. 28, a “new charter for labor and management” in the postwar period. The charter declared for “the highest degree of production and employment at wages assuring a steadily advancing standard of living”; recognized “the inherent right and responsibility of management to direct the operations of an enterprise”; and asserted that, through acceptance of collective bargaining, differences between management and labor could be disposed of by peaceful means, “thereby discouraging avoidable strife through strikes and lockouts.” The charter was hailed by its sponsors as an important contribution towards maintenance of postwar industrial peace. Its potential effectiveness was clouded, however, by refusal of the National Association of Manufacturers to join in the agreement.

Promotion of state constitutional amendments and legislative measures to outlaw the closed shop as an interference with the “right to work” indicate that organized labor, despite current harmony moves, may be confronted after the war by resurgence of an open-shop movement comparable to that which followed World War I.