There is no open shop in the steel industry as represented by Mr. Lamont. There is no right to belong to a union in the steel industry. It is a misnomer. If any shop exists in the steel industry, it is the closed shop, closed to the man who wants to belong to a union. He cannot work in the steel industry if he belongs to a union, and the best evidence of that fact is that in the steel plants of the United States Steel Corporation today there are no union men. There is no man who dares say he belongs to a union. Why? Because the secretservice bureau and the intelligence department of the Carnegie Steel Co., the American Sheet & Tinplate Co., the National Tube Co., the American Bridge Co., all of the units of the Steel Corporation, report that man and he is immediately discharged, if he attends a union meeting, or if he gives voice to a sentiment that indicates his desire to belong to a union. That is the kind of open shop that exists in the steel industry which Mr. Lamont comes here this morning and pleads with this committee to maintain in the future. Senator REED. Is that similarly true of the mines? Mr. LEWIS. It is true of the National Mining Co., the United States Coal & Coke Co., the Fricke Coal & Coke Co., the Tennessee Coal & Iron Mines. It is not true of the United States Steel Co., in Illinois and Indiana, where they deal with the union. And, Senator, in that instance the Steel Corporation deals fairly with its employees, where they do recognize the unions in those mines. Senator REED. How about the iron mines? Are they organized? Mr. LEWIS. They are not, Senator, and a man cannot belong to a union in the iron mines for the reason that the secret-service department would report him, and he is immediately weeded out. There is no open shop in the steel industry. It cannot be perpetuated because it does not exist, and it is beside the question now for the iron and steel industry, which last week, through a speech to the Iron Institute in New York, told the American people the iron and steel industry was assisting in good faith the industrial recovery act, to now send its representatives here to scuttle the legislative ship through the opening of the sea cocks in schedule no. 7. Organized labor in America wants the right to organize if it wants to organize. Every employer has the right to join these trade associations, and the enactment of this bill will make it almost mandatory upon every substantial employer of labor and producer of commodities transported in interstate commerce to join an organization for his protection, and through this legislative enactment there will be a closed shop to employers and industrialists in this country in every trade and industry, and yet distinguished gentlemen have the effrontery to come before this committee and propose that, after securing these privileges for themselves, they will deny to the workmen engaged in those industries the same rights and privileges which they arrogate to themselves. Labor in America is tired of such hypocrisy; it is tired of being dealt with in such a manner by men who proclaim the present labor relationship, as was done this morning by a representative of the steel industry here, as a happy state of affairs existing and a happy condition. A man who can say that labor relations in the last 10 years in America were happy is an optimist that dwells in a realm to which I cannot ascend. I refer him to the millions of workmen who have their standards of living degraded and their conditions of employment taken away from them, their hours of labor unduly lengthened by the arbitrary actions of employers, who merely posted their wage schedules upon the bulletin boards and told them to take it or leave it. They had no voice in determining those conditions. They had no privilege to even express their opinion as to whether the policy was good, bad, or indifferent. I have here the figures of a coal company in Harlan County, W.Va., that withdrew from the recently formed Appalachian Coal Sales Organization that was formed to raise the price of coal in that area, because they found it was more profitable to undersell the pool price, by reducing the price of their labor and lengthening their hours, and this statement shows they are running their mines now an average of from 12 to 16 hours a day, and the average per day worked underground for those men is 13 hours, and the average compensation received is $2.25 daily. They are making it impossible for the sales crew to function, and they are making it impossible for their labor to live and endure, because no man can work underground 13 hours a day and continue to maintain his health. This legislation, gentlemen, is intended, in the words of the President, to correct the attitude of that coal operator and that employer, who is the man that is dragging down industry-correct his attitude so that the producers in that field may be protected against his discriminatory sales policy and influence him so that he will give his labor a reasonable day's work at a living wage. That is the purpose and the intent of this measure, and it can not be accomplished in American industry by emasculating section 7 upon the petition of men who come here to maintain a medieval relationship in labor. American labor occupies a unique position in this country, because in the very essence of things it must stand between the rapacity of the robber barons of industry of America, and the lustful rage of the Communists, who would lay waste to our traditions and our institutions with fire and sword. And the one is almost as great a menace as the other. Labor in America, organized labor, is trying to maintain an equilibrium of relations in industry, and trying to maintain an equilibrium of our Government in this time of stress, and in order to accomplish that task it is entitled to the friendly cooperation and support of every American who believes in maintaining that equilibrium so that our Nation might endure, and it cannot be maintained by following the legislative course of action suggested here by large employers of labor in the iron and steel industry, and National Association of Manufacturers, to keep from labor those rights which the masters of industry arrogate to themselves. The only parallel to this situation, and this suggestion made here, that now comes to my mind, is the action of the Scotch Parliament in 1654, which enacted a statute which said that the relations between the employee and employer were those of master and servant, and that no servant would be permitted in the mining industry to leave the employment of his master without the master's consent. And again, they passed an act giving to the Scotch mine owners the authority and power to go out upon the byways and public highways and apprehend all rascals and stout varlets and impress them into service. Perhaps that is the kind of amendment to this bill that the steel industry would like to have, the power to apprehend men and impress them into service of industry and keep them there under the conditions they impose upon them. That is not a far cry. It does not require any great stretch of the imagination. Gentlemen of the committee, I must not take more time. I appreciate your haste. I merely want to say in conclusion that organized labor in America, speaking through the American Federation of Labor and its subdivisions, has endorsed the provisions of this legislation. They have endorsed it because they think there is an emergency in the Nation that is hourly growing worse. There is a grave necessity for the stabilization of our economic and industrial processes. There is an imperative necessity for setting up machinery under the Government for economic, coordination, and regulation of processes of industry and labor relationship. Let there be no "moaning at the bar" when we put out to sea on this great adventure; let there be decision on the part of all, and each will be treated according to his inherent rights, and every American engaged in industry, whether he is a member of the American Iron & Steel Institute, the president of the National Manufacturers Association, or the humblest employee in your Edgar Thompson Works, Senator, he shall be accorded by this great Government of ours the equal opportunity to do those things that are inherent under the great privileges of American citizenship. Labor will protest any emasculation of section 7, and it says furthermore that industry has nothing to fear in a modern rationalized labor relationship such as can be set up and administered under the provisions of this act. Those employers who point with fear, apprehension, and alarm to the amendment, referring to company unions in section 7, need not be alarmed. There is nothing in section 7 that will destroy the company union as it now exists in any plant. If the employees of that plant want to remain members of a company union, all there is in that is that the Bethlehem Steel Co. cannot, as a condition of employment, force those employees to join a company union, or discharge them or penalize them of they refuse to do so. That is all there is in the company union proposition, which was inserted in the bill by action. of the Ways and Means Committee of the House. Gentlemen, I thank you for your consideration and hope you will give these matters serious consideration, because these remarks come, as you must understand, from the ideals, objectives, and dreams of labor, and right from the heart of American labor. The CHAIRMAN. I would like to put into the record a letter I received from Mr. Harriman, Chamber of Commerce of the United States; also one I received from the building trades department. (The letters are as follows:) Hon. PAT HARRISON, BOSTON, MASS., May 27, 1933. Chairman Committee on Finance, United States Senate, Washington, D.C. MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: I learn that your committee has been holding hearings on the Industrial Recovery Act introduced by Senator Wagner, S. 1712, and that you will soon have before you the corresponding House bill which was passed by the House of Representatives on May 26. The Chamber of Commerce of the United States is heartily in sympathy with the main provisions of title 1 of said bill. I presented the position of the chamber and my own personal views before the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives on May 18 and as these statements are undoubtedly before you, I assume you do not care for their repetition. If the provisions of title 1 are to operate successfully and promptly aid in improving industrial conditions, it is essential that they have the hearty support of both industry and labor. In my judgment, changes should be made in sections 6 and 7 to make perfectly clear that the principles of true open-shop operation are not contravened. I am enclosing you a resolution adopted at the twenty-first annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States held May 5 dealing with the problems of industry. Very truly yours, H. I. HARRIMAN, President. Resolution adopted at the twenty-first annual meeting of the Chanber of Commerce of the United States, Washington, D.C., May 5, 1933. PROBLEMS OF INDUSTRY Those who are best equipped to solve the problems of industry are those who themselves are engaged in industry. They can provide measures which are so shaped to the conditions in each of the parts of our highly complex industrial system as to afford results beneficial to the public interest and avoid consequences. that would follow endeavors from outside to apply arbitrary rules and that would bring widespread detriments, public and private. For common action that is timely our industries have trade associations through which they can act quickly, or which they can adapt for action. Each trade association representative of it industry or branch, in accordance with its conditions and in conference with the appropriate agency of the Government, should be permitted to promulgate fair rules for industrial producton and distribution, to improve the status of labor, the industries of the Nation, and the public welfare.. Federal legislation affording opportunity for this form of self-regulation under Government supervision would produce conditions which would assure fair competitive opportunity to each enterprise and permit immediate increase in employment, raise earnings, and free the public from the burdens and detriments it inevitably suffers from the results of destructive competition on the part of the least responsible industrial elements. All enterprise could be held to standards. of fair competition properly determined. Hon. PAT HARRISON, BUILDING TRADES DEPARTMENT, Chairman Committee on Finance, Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. SIR: As I will be unable to appear before your committee, which is considering Senate bill 1712, I will appreciate the bill being amended so as to make it possible for the building trades mechanics of this country to have an opportunity to be benefited by the passage of this act. At the present time the building trades industry is the most depressed industry in the country, as at present only 15 percent of the men normally engaged in building construction are employed.. Under normal conditions, the building industry, with its many ramifications,. furnishes employment for 20 percent of our working population. This industry yearly is the largest industry in the country, with reference to the amount of money paid out for pay rolls, 77 cents out of each dollar spent for the erection of buildings is paid out in wages to workmen employed in the industry. In the passage of the Reforestation Act, the money for the maintenance of the reforestation corps was diverted from the funds already appropriated for public buildings by a previous Congress. The Reforestation Act also provides that projects on which actual construction has been commenced or may be commenced within 90 days, such sums as may be necessary for the erection of these projects will be appropriated. Sixty days of the 90 have elapsed and bids have been accepted by the various governmental departments on approximately $20,000,000 of public construction, but by Executive order awarding of contracts has been withheld, which is adding to the misery of those engaged in the building industry. Representing 1,500,000 organized building-trades mechanics of this country, I believe it is the desire of our Government in approving the national industry bill to relieve unemployment in all industries. We feel that to relieve unemployment in the building industry, it will be necessary to amend the bill so as to earmark a definite sum for the erection of Federal buildings. In addition, we are submitting a list of public buildings which have been investigated by all of the governmental departments and deemed by them necessary, and if erected will prove an economy to the Government. We are offering the following amendment to S. 1712: "For the purpose of providing for the construction of public buildings, that $1,000,000,000 of the $3,300,000,000 appropriated be allocated for the construction of public buildings." In addition to relieving unemployment for the building-trades mechanics and laborers, the amendment if approved will encourage private construction, as our experience has been that in the localities where the Federal Government erects a public building, private concerns build new buildings and renovate their old ones, so you can appreciate the impetus that will be given to private construction by the Government earmarking at least $1,000,000,000 for the erection of public buildings. Trusting that the suggested amendment will meet with the approval of your committee, I am, with best wishes, Very truly yours, M. J. MCDONOUGH, President Building Trades Department. |