Scottish Trades Union Congress in the spring of 1943, however, that strikes and stoppages could not be afforded at present, when the last ounce of the nation's energy was important if the war was to be shortened and brought to a successful conclusion. He added that the wartime machinery of arbitration had worked well, and that it was not too much to ask that strikes cease when the situation was still so desperate. He asked that instead of holding up production, difficulties and disputes should be settled by arbitration and not by recourse to stoppage of production of the weapons of war.

The arbitration machinery referred to became operative on July 25. 1940. The order which established the system provided for both conciliation and arbitration of disputes, and prohibited strikes and lock-outs unless the controversy had been reported to the Minister of Labor and National Service and had not been referred by him for settlement within 3 weeks from the date on which reported to him.

DIRECT AIDS TO PRODUCTION

Ministry of Production. On the technical side, the Ministry of Production and its regional offices are doing valuable work in improving the efficiency of production.

On April 15, 1943, the Minister of Production said that since the reconstitution of the regional production boards in July 1942 they have rendered valuable service to production in a variety of ways. He added that it was not possible to express this contribution in quantitative terms. The boards are representative of all the main interests concerned with production. They deal with all regional problems, such as advising the Ministry of Labor on prospective demands for local labor; inquiring into cases of difficulty referred by joint production committees; the provision of assistance and advice to firms working below full efficiency; the development of home work and other special means of relieving labor scarcity in certain districts; and adjustment of labor and capacity following changes in production

programs.

Joint production committees. Within the individual plants the joint production committees, made up of representatives of management and labor, deal with production problems. Official recognition of their worth was given on February 26, 1942, when a constitution was signed for the establishment of joint production committees in Government ordnance factories. These committees have representatives of workers and management, and their purpose is to increase efficiency and attain maximum output. The introduction of such committees has spread to various branches of the engineering industry. On February 17, 1943, the Minister of Production stated that 2,096 factories employing 150 or more workers each had established production committees and that these had "on the whole been a success." The scope of the committees' work is exclusively that of production. They deal with the use of machinery, machine-tool capacity, the organization of supplies, the shift system, progress, and inspection. Matters contributing to welfare and therefore to productivity are within their jurisdiction. They include canteens, transportation, ventilation, lighting, and related matters. All of these factors, if favorable, are likely to reduce absences from work as well as to raise output when the worker is present.

In an evaluation of the worth of the joint production committees, the International Labor Office states that the committees have been useful in the promotion of morale through better understanding of the problems faced by management and labor. The committees have fostered more adequate appreciation of the urgency and importance of the industrial war effort. An analysis of the factors contributing to improvement in production and those impeding it, made by the British Amalgamated Engineering Union and covering the period April to September 1942, shows very definite improvements in output in a number of factories and reveals a growing interest in production on the part of workers as a whole. The proportion of firms having joint production committees had risen to 55 percent in the latest period surveyed, from 21 percent in March 1941, and the A. E. U. is of the opinion that the work of these committees forms a basis for union-management cooperation.

Welfare Provisions

When the Churchill Government came into office in May 1940, a special Welfare Department was established in the Ministry of Labor. An extensive regional organization has been developed since that time and a Factory and Welfare Advisory Board, composed of representatives of employers, trade-unions, and other organizations, with officials of the Ministry of Labor, was formed to advise on all welfare problems both within and outside the factories. A special authority was established to advise on the welfare of seamen-the Seamen's Welfare Board. Another indication of the importance the British Government attaches to the welfare of the labor force is the provision written into the essential-work orders (covering 8,000,000 employees by the spring of 1943), requiring that before scheduling any enterprise under their terms the Minister of Labor shall satisfy himself that satisfactory arrangements exist or are being made for the welfare of those employed. Welfare outside factories. To make it possible for women with children to work outside their homes for the war period, facilities. were needed for the care of young children during working hours. Although the demand for nurseries has remained far in excess of the supply, there were 1,100 such wartime nurseries early in May 1943, according to a statement in the House of Lords. Another 475 had been either approved or prepared. Public elementary schools have also made provision for the care of children under 5 years of age whose mothers are working.

Feeding the family presents special problems for the working wife, also, as her hours in the factory are long and shopping hours have been shortened to reduce the need for staff. Unique plans have been worked out whereby a volunteer has shopped for a group, shopping pools have been arranged, and time off has been allowed for shopping. A particularly helpful development has been the establishment of restaurants, known as British Restaurants, where persons in the general population can obtain meals at low cost. The facilities are open to all persons who wish to patronize them, and they are not attached to particular factories as are the factory canteens. The total number of British Restaurants was 1,900 in December 1942; school meals were being served to three-quarters of a million children, and plans were being made to serve one-half million more.

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In the transfer of labor from area to area, where the manpower requirements cannot be filled locally, provision has been made for special reception centers in various localities. Temporary and permanent hostels are managed by the National Service Hostels Corporation. Some hostels are for men and others for women. They usually have sleeping accommodations, canteens, lounges, and recreation halls.

To alleviate transportation difficulties, working hours have been staggered. Transferred workers have been granted travel allowances, and special assistance has been granted to enable them to return to their homes at intervals.

Entertainment for war workers, such as concerts and movies, at public expense, has increased during the war. All forms of outdoor and indoor physical recreation have been developed for factory workers.

Welfare inside factories.-The most outstanding development for the welfare of industrial workers has been the extension of the factorycanteen system. Provision of factory canteens may be required by the Government in all plants employing over 250 persons and engaged in the performance of work essential to the defense of the realm, under the terms of the Factories (Canteens) Order of April 7, 1943. Early in 1943 there were some 7,500 works canteens in existence.

Special attention has been directed toward the provision of canteen meals for mine labor. Mine workers had ordinarily carried a meal from home and consumed it underground. After the war started this custom worked to their disadvantage, as mine workers were thus obliged to use a part of their rationed foods for the meal at work, which other workers were buying at the factory canteen without the use of ration coupons. This inequality is being corrected rapidly. At the beginning of March, 215,205 mine workers were served by full-meal mine canteens. Facilities were under construction for 124,601 more, and were in preparation for 99,009. Owing to the nature of mine work, where employees work at great distances from each other and the mine opening, it was not practical to serve meals in the middle of the working shift. Therefore, the canteens are at the pit head, and the men in the labor force wash up after the day's work is completed and meals are then served above ground.

Medical services in factories have been extended. The number of full-time doctors employed has increased from 35 to 150; for parttime physicians the rise is from 70 to 550. Encouragement was expressed in the annual report of the Chief Inspector of Factories, covering the year 1941, that progress had been made in providing factory-medical services, in spite of other claims on the medical profession-particularly for the armed forces.

SOURCES: Great Britain, Parliament, House of Commons Debates, February 3, 1943; Ministry of Labor Gazette (various issues) and Hours of Work and Maximum Output July 1942; Ministry of Information, Home Front Handbook, London, 1942; British Information Services, Information Division, Pamphlets Nos. 1. D. 313 and 1. D. 384, releases Nos. L 69 and L 80, and Labor and Industry in Britain. April 1943; Economist (London), issues of April 3, May 8 and 15, 1913; The Lancet (London), May 15, 1943; Political and Economic Planning, April 20, 1943; International Labor Office. Studies and Reports, Series D (Wages and Hours of Work) No. 23, Labor Conditions and War Contracts, Montreal, 1943; International Labor Review, May 1943; Reports from the United States Embassy in London, England, Nos. 159, 290, 370, and 8997; and various issues of the Monthly Labor Review.

Decision of Labor Relations Board on Reinstatement of Service Men'

THE National Labor Relations Board in a recent decision ordered the reinstatement of a temporary employee (who had been inducted into the armed services), within 40 days after his discharge from the Army. The present Selective Service Act makes no provision for the reemployment of a man released from the armed forces who has held a temporary position previous to his induction. That act provides that such a person who held "other than a temporary position" shall be restored to such position or to a position of like seniority unless the employer's circumstances have so changed as to make it impossible or unreasonable to do so, and shall be so restored without loss of seniority.

On the basis of these provisions of the Selective Service Act, the company contended that the temporary employee could not be reemployed after his discharge from the Army until the company had discharged its obligations to its permanent employees who had been inducted into the armed forces.

The Board held that there was no evidence that the employee in question had been hired to replace a specific employee, and that the definition of an employee in the National Labor Relations Act makes no distinction between temporary or permanent employees. Hence, the Board held that the employee was entitled to the protection of the act, and to "immediate and full reinstatement to his former or substantially equivalent position, or to one which he is qualified to fill, without prejudice to his seniority and other rights and privileges, or place him upon a preferential list if such employment is not immediately available."

War Labor Board Decision on Wages of Negroes

ON June 7, 1943, the National War Labor Board unanimously ruled that wage classifications based wholly on difference in race were invalid and ordered that differences in pay between whites and Negroes performing equal work be abolished. The Southport Petroleum Co. of Texas City, Tex., was directed by the Board to accord wage increases to its Negro workers which would "place them on a basis of economic parity with the white workers in the same classification."

1 U. S. National Labor Relations Board. Case No. C-2508. Press release 8031-D, Washington, D. C, April 13, 1943. Office of War Information-National War Labor Board, advance release, June 7, 1943.

A reclassification system was ordered under which a wage increase of either 5 percent or 51⁄2 cents (whichever is higher) is to be granted in each classification. This increase, it was stated, will not raise the Southport rates above the minimum of the wage bracket in the prevailing scales for other oil fields in this region.

The wage increases granted to Negro workers in this case, characterized as "small but significant," are made "without regard to the 'Little Steel' formula, but with regard simply for the democratic formula of equal pay for work equal in quantity and quality in the same classification. This equalization of economic opportunity is not a violation of the sound American provision of differentials in pay for differences in skills. It is rather a bit of realization of the no less sound American principle of equal pay for equal work as one of those equal rights in the promise of American democracy regardless of color, race, sex, religion, or national origin. *To the credit of the company, this decision, along with other decisions in the case, is accepted by management in good faith and spirit."

*

In the opinion, attention is called to the generally accepted fact that, despite the handicaps of slavery and discrimination, the Negro in America has made more rapid advance in a shorter period than any other race in human history. "Slavery gave the Negro his Christianity. Christianity gave the Negro his freedom. This freedom must give the Negro equal rights to home and health, education and citizenship, and an equal opportunity to work and fight for our common country."

Whether as vigorous fighting men or for production of food and munitions, America needs the Negro; the Negro needs the equal opportunity to work and fight. The Negro is necessary for winning the war, and, at the same time, is a test of our sincerity in the cause for which we are fighting. More hundreds of millions of colored people are involved in the outcome of this war than the combined populations of the Axis Powers. Under Hitler and his Master Race, their movement is backward to slavery and despair. In America, the colored people have the freedom to struggle for freedom. With the victory of the democracies, the human destiny is toward freedom, hope, equality of opportunity, and the gradual fulfillment for all peoples of the noblest aspirations of the brothers of men and the sons of God, without regard to color or creed, region or race, in the world neighborhood of human brotherhood.

Federal Committee on Fair Employment Practices

EXECUTIVE Order No. 9346 of May 27, 1943, reaffirmed the policy of the United States that "there shall be no discrimination in the employment of any person in war industries or in Government by reason of race, creed, color, or national origin." In this order the President declared that "it is the duty of all employers, including the several Federal departments and agencies, and all labor organizations, in furtherance of this policy and of this order, to eliminate discrimination in regard to hire, tenure, terms or conditions of employment, or union membership because of race, creed, color, or national origin." He directed all contracting agencies of the United States Government to include, in all their future negotiated or renegotiated contracts, a provision making it obligatory on the contractor not to practice such

1 Federal Register, Washington, May 29, 1943, pp. 7183-7184.