The Labor Month In Review

LABOR DISPUTES continued at a low level as work stoppages were averted in two major controversies in December 1947. The number of workers idle and the number of man-days lost due to labor disputes were the lowest for any month in the year, far below the high point in April, when over 300,000 telephone workers were out, and below the 1935-39 average. Wage settlements concluded in December added a considerable number of workers to the total who have now received third postwar wage increases. Negotiations were pending, or scheduled in the near future, for most of the major wage contracts, with pressure for wage increases mounting as living costs continued to rise.

Western Union employees continued at work, without interruption to operations, as a result of an agreement between the company and the AFL unions involved to submit determination of "technical differences" to a 3-member fact-finding board appointed by Cyrus S. Ching, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. These differences related to the special ("windfall") profit position of the company in 1947 and the determination of the date of the reopening of the contract for purposes of payment of retroactive wage increases. In the second situation, the Atlantic and Gulf Coast ship operators agreed to accept arbitration of the wage demands of the three unions involved, National Maritime Union, Marine Engineers Beneficial Association, and American Communications Association.

An important issue for the future of collective bargaining under the new Labor Management Relations Act emerged in December with the termination by Remington Rand, Inc., of recognition of the CIO United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers as the bargaining agency for

of the company was the failure of the union to comply with the registration and non-Communist affidavit requirements of the Labor Management Relations Act. The action followed dismissal by two regional directors of the National Labor Relations Board of petitions by the company, under a provision of the amended law, to determine whether the union still represented a majority of the employees in seven plants. The petitions were turned down by the NLRB directors on the ground that the Board could not determine the issue because of failure of the union to comply with the filing requirements of the act. The company then broke off collective-bargaining relationships with the union. The question of the union's rights under the unexpired contract remains undetermined as well as the company's liability for present refusal to bargain if the union should subsequently comply with the requirements of the law.

The United Mine Workers for the second time in their history divorced their organization from the American Federation of Labor. In a 2-word message saying, "We disaffiliate," John L. Lewis, on December 12, 1947, notified William Green of the action. Following the dispute over the matter of filing non-Communist affidavits and the refusal of Lewis to hold any office in the Federation, the break was not unexpected.

Prices and Cost of Living

At the year end, labor and management viewed price developments as one of the major factors in coming collective-bargaining negotiations. The consumers' price index resumed its upward movement in November, reaching 164.9 percent of the 1935-39 average, after a temporary halt during October. Latest indications are that retail food prices and rents rose still higher in December, again increasing the consumers' price index. Wholesale prices were about 2 percent higher at the end of December than a month previously, with increases reported for most commodities and commodity groups. Some easing in fats and oils and in hides was noted during the month, the importance of which, if it is more than temporary, cannot yet be appraised. Scattered declines in wholesale food prices, except for edible fats and oils, were largely seasonal.

Estimated costs of a worker's family budget in

34 of the larger cities in the country were released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics during the month. The budget was designed to represent the cost of maintaining a family of 4, consisting of working husband, housewife, boy of 13, and girl of 8, at a level consistent with prevailing standards in the United States for health, efficiency, the nurture of children, and participation in community activities. The estimated total cost of this budget in June 1947 was $3,458 in Washington, the highest cost city surveyed, and $3,004 in New Orleans, the lowest in the group of 34 cities.

Wages and Employment

Pressure for additional wage increases mounted during December and early January. Wage increases during December were granted in the contract settlements in men's clothing manufacturing, West Coast oil refining, and in a scattering of wage agreements in retailing, street railways and busses, and in other manufacturing and nonmanufacturing fields. Currently, wage negotiations are being carried on in woolen textiles, leather, telegraph, shipping, and local transportation. Later contract negotiations will involve large numbers of workers in the automobile, electrical products, meat packing, steel, and rubber industries.

Practically no change occurred in November in average weekly earnings of factory workers which remained at the record high of about $51. Some decline in earnings as a result of a slightly shorter average workweek about offset increases of approximately 1 cent in gross average hourly earnings. Wage increases in cotton textiles and some premium pay for holiday work in the durable goods industries were important factors in raising hourly earnings to an average exceeding $1.26. The decline in hours worked during mid-November was largely accounted for by seasonal declines in apparel, foods, and leather.

Seasonal factors in various industries were the

principal reason for some relatively small changes in employment in December. The usual seasonal down-swing in agricultural and construction em ployment, although the latter decrease Was probably less than expected, was partly offset by the pre-holiday increase in trade and allied fields and in Government employment. Unemploy ment continued virtually unchanged at 1.6 million, the lowest level for the month since 1944.

The decline of approximately 1 million in the number of farm workers between November and' December was accounted for largely by the with drawals of family workers, including women and teen-age youth, as fall harvests were completed. An increase of about 400,000 in nonagricultural employment, to a new high of almost 51 million. reflects the usual inflow in December of housewives and students in temporary pre-Christmas jobs.

International Labor Standards

International labor standards was an important item on the agenda of the Fourteenth National Conference on Labor Legislation, meeting in Washington, December 9 and 10. The conference adopted the report of its Committee on International Labor Standards which urged the comple tion by Congress of the ratification of the pending amendments to the constitution of the International Labor Organization. The pending amend ments, clarifying the status of proposed ILO conventions in countries with Federal-State systems of government, would require that conventions appropriate for action by the States be trans Imitted to the States for ratification.

Secretary of Labor Schwellenbach, addressing the conference, stressed the importance of State action in the field of labor legislation, and pointed out that in the recent discussion of Federal labor legislation many have overlooked the fact that 30 States had passed restrictive labor legislation of one sort or another during the past year.

FLORENCE E. PARKER1

WIDE VARIATIONS IN CONDITIONS were faced by the cooperatives, both during and after World War II, in Great Britain, Belgium, France, Netherlands, and Switzerland. Nevertheless, in spite of substantial losses of manpower and plant, in all five countries the cooperatives survived and emerged in some respects in a better position than was the case in prewar days. Few permanent changes in the legal status of cooperatives occurred in these countries, notwithstanding the Nazi conditions enforced during the war.

By the end of the war most of the bomb damage to property sustained in Great Britain had been patched up or restored, but lack of materials has hampered complete restoration or much physical expansion. In France and the Netherlands, the greater part of the damage to plant occurred during the liberation campaign. Destruction of premises, loss of equipment and goods through looting by the retreating Germans, and the cutting of means of communication left the cooperative movement in the area of hostilities almost prostrate. Elsewhere in these countries, as well as in Belgium and Switzerland, the problem was mainly that of replacement of worn-out equipment. The cooperatives in Switzerland, which had had no physical destruction, took the lead in giving assistance to associations in the war-torn countries.

1 of the Bureau's Labor Economics Staff. This is the first in a series of four articles. The remaining three articles will deal, respectively, with Scandinavia, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe.

Reports, however, indicate a worsening of the supply situation since the end of hostilities. Goods of all sorts are either in short supply or unobtainable in all five countries, and in those for which data are available (Great Britain, France, and Switzerland) continue to be under Government control.

Because cooperators had more money than ration coupons, their unspent money poured back into the cooperative movement in the form of deposits and new capital. In Great Britain the consumers' cooperatives, all during the war, had no difficulty in obtaining whatever amounts of capital were needed. Large increases in capital were also reported for the CWS Bank in Great Britain and the cooperative banks in France and Switzerland. An improved financial condition, as compared with prewar, was reported for the distributive cooperatives in all these countries. The Belgian cooperatives had the most difficult time, but succeeded in maintaining financial stability, with more or less regular depreciation of assets, maintenance of reserves, etc.

Considering all the circumstances, cooperative membership held up well, registering steady increases in Great Britain and Switzerland and a moderate gain in Belgium. An apparent decline took place in France, but the smaller figure may have been due to failure to include the cooperative membership in Alsace-Lorraine. In the Netherlands the membership appears to be at about the same level as before the war.

In spite of shortages of supplies and Government controls on distribution which reduced consumption, volume of business (in terms of money) has shown an increase in all these countries. Taking into consideration the rises in price levels, it appears that tonnage handled by the retail associations in Great Britain and Switzerland has also increased, but that of the wholesales fell somewhat. In Belgium the index of cooperative business-both retail and wholesale-fell considerably below the indexes of prices, indicating a sharp drop in the physical volume of goods sold. In France the wholesale maintained its volume until the inflation of 1946. No data are available as to cooperative retail business in France in relation to prices, nor as to either retail or wholesale business in the Netherlands.

Controls on prices and decreased consumption operated to reduce the net operating surplus in some cases, as did also increased taxation, but it is known that in Great Britain and Switzerland cooperatives continued to pay patronage refunds all through the war. Special taxation levied in Great Britain, Belgium, and Switzerland, designed to expropriate exceptional profits derived directly or indirectly from the wartime conditions, did not apply to patronage refunds. To some extent, however, such legislation prevented or reduced allocations to reserves, and prevented making some necessary repairs and replacements.

Great Britain

Cooperatives suffered extensive damage to their premises during the war. Some associations, which had been bombed over and over again, managed to repair or patch up the damage in the

intervals. In the "second battle of London," i 1944-45, it was reported that at least 700 cooper ative shops in that city were damaged by th "flying bombs." Permanent restoration has bee impossible in some cases, even yet, because of inability to obtain materials. The same caus has delayed the realization of many of the postwa plans for expansion.

After the first period of bombing, which resulte in a movement away from the cities where the cooperatives were strong to the rural districts where they were relatively weak, cooperative membership began to rise and continued to do so. in spite of the steady decrease of the civilian popu lation. Whereas, before the war, British coopera tives were serving between a fourth and a third of the population, by 1945 (according to the repor of the central board of the Cooperative Union they embraced about half of the families in Grea: Britain.

Cooperatives shared in the general wartime decline in trade in nonfood items resulting from shortages of supplies and control of demand through rationing. In fact, in such commodities as wearing apparel and household goods, the cooperative trade showed a decrease greater than the national average, indicating that in these lines they had not held their own. However, increased volume in the food departments resulted in steadily increasing the total cooperative business throughout the whole period of the war (table 1).

Postwar Situation. In the postwar period, busi ness has also shown a continuous rise. For 1946. it is estimated, a 12-percent increase took place representing a real increase in tonnage of goods sold, as there was almost no change in prices