an-hour wage increase, beginning June 1, under the terms of a contract reached with the Builders Association of Chicago. The 2-year agreement called for an additional 10-cent pay increase on May 31, 1959.

A 25-cent-an-hour raise and a reduction in the employers' contributions to a welfare fund from 5 to 3 percent of straight-time payrolls also went into effect for about 8,000 electricans employed by the Electrical Contractors Association in the Chicago area. The agreement-negotiated by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers-became effective June 1. Contractors estimated the net cost of the package to be about 18 cents an hour.

In contrast, a local of the Wood, Wire and Metal Lathers Union signed a 2-year contract with the Plasterers Association of Chicago that provided for no change in wage rates for 1958, although a reopening on wages was scheduled for 1959. According to the local's president, union members felt that continuous employment was their major concern; about 1,200 workers were affected.

Agreement was reached on May 21 between the Carpenters and the Master Builders Association of Western Pennsylvania on terms of a 2-year contract for about 5,000 workers. Effective June 1, 1958, rates of pay were to be increased by 15 cents an hour and by 10 cents more next June, bringing the hourly scale to $3.775. In addition, the employers agreed to increase their contributions to a welfare fund from 7 to 10 cents an hour on June 1, and 5 cents more in December 1959. Provision for a 5-cent contribution to a pension fund beginning December 1, 1958, was also included.

Governmental Pay Actions. On May 27, President Eisenhower signed into law a bill providing the 530,000 postal workers with a pay raise approximating 10 percent. Retroactive to the first pay period which began on or after January 1, 1958, pay scales were to be increased by 7% percent. Workers in the 6 lowest pay grades-more than 4 out of every 5 employees-were to receive an additional 2-percent "temporary" increase for 3 years to compensate for the increased cost of living, and employees at the 7th level were in line for a similar bonus amounting to 1% percent.

The President also signed, on May 20, a military pay-raise bill providing members of the Armed Forces having at least 2 years of service with an estimated average 8-percent increase. Effective June 1, 1958, increases in pay ranged from a minimum of about 6 percent to a maximum of about 47 percent, with the larger amounts going to higher ranks, both officers and enlisted men, and to those with special talents. Provision was made for special "responsibility" and "proficiency" adjustments. About 2 million military personnel are affected-1.7 million on the active rolls, 600,000 in the reserves and the National Guard, and 200,000 retired personnel.

On May 19, the Pennsylvania State Secretary of Labor and Industry issued an order that will raise the minimum wage for women and minors in retail trade to $1 an hour. The order was scheduled to go into effect on July 1 in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh; for other areas, the increase is spread over a period of time. Cities with populations of 10,000 to 500,000 will go to a minimum of 85 cents on July 1, 1958, to 90 cents on January 1, 1959, and to $1 on July 1, 1959. In other areas, the $1 minimum will not be reached until January 1, 1960. Of the approximately 250,000 employees covered by the order, it was estimated that about 95,000 were receiving less than the new minimums.

held during May included those of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, the United Furniture Workers, the Textile Workers Union of America, the Laundry and Dry Cleaning International Union, and the United Wall Paper Craftsmen and Workers. At most of these conventions, there was considerable discussion concerning remedies for the business recession. Some of the proposals adopted called for a reduction in the basic workweek and in Federal income taxes, an increase in the Federal minimum wage, and improved unemployment compensation.

In addition to the above proposals, delegates to the 21st biennial convention of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers endorsed a resolution which, while it gave qualified praise for the work the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activi

ties in the Labor or Management Field had done in exposing corruption in the labor movement, criticized the committee's failure to proceed "with as much zeal in rooting out corruption and wrongdoing among employers .." ." Speaking before the convention, Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell said that after July 1, 1958, bidding on Army, Navy, and Air Force uniform contracts would be restricted to lists of "reputable manufacturers who pay decent wages." In the past, both the Amalgamated and the International Ladies' Garment Workers had protested that military procurement policies enabled many shops to establish a virtual monopoly in the uniform field by "chiseling" on labor standards. The convention nominated the present international officers, including President Jacob S. Potofsky, for reelection for another 2 years; a referendum was scheduled to be held within 6 weeks.

The McClellan Committee was also criticized by the Textile Workers Union convention, convening in Miami Beach on May 12, which said it should "pack up its prejudices and go home." Antirecession moves also occupied much of the convention's attention, as the union's president, William Pollack, criticized the administration for failing "to prime the pump to restore prosperity." In addition to advocating a 35-hour week, the delegates called upon Congress to consider possible Government purchase of surplus textiles for distribution to the needy.

5

4

The new Laundry and Dry Cleaning International Union (AFL-CIO), formed to replace the Laundry Workers union expelled from the Federation last December, was formally established in May. Delegates to the convention, held in Washington, D. C., elected Winfield Chasmar president, Samuel Begler secretarytreasurer, 9 vice presidents, and 3 trustees. In order to insure democratic and ethical procedures in the union, several anticorruption rules were incorporated into the constitution, including the AFL-CIO ethical practice codes and provisions for election of officers by secret ballot, biennial conventions, and a yearly audit of union books.

The new union claims to represent almost 30,000 workers in 41 locals throughout the country.

In New York, delegates to a special convention of the United Wall Paper Craftsmen and Workers unanimously voted to affiliate their 2,200-member union with the 165,000-member Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers Union. Founded in 1883, the UWCPW has its membership primarily in the northeastern section of the country.

Other Union Affairs. During May, the 37th and 38th mergers of State labor organizations took place. Delegates representing about a million members of the Ohio State Federation of Labor and the Ohio State Industrial Council met on May 7 in Cleveland to form the Ohio AFL-CIO. Elected to the top posts were former State AFL President Michael Lyden, as president; Phillip Hannah, secretary-treasurer of the Ohio AFL, as executive vice president; and Elmer Cope of the Steelworkers (formerly CIO) as secretary-treasurer. In Indiana, delegates from the State AFL and CIO bodies convened on May 24 to inaugurate the Indiana State AFL-CIO. Ex-president of the CIO group, Dallas Sells, was elected to head the new organization, Grover Osborn of the Plumbers (AFL) was designated as secretarytreasurer, and 2 vice presidents (one each from the AFL and CIO) were also chosen. About 315,000 workers are represented by the new organization.

In New York, the merger of the State AFL and CIO labor organizations was again postponed, because of the death of the AFL organization's president, Thomas A. Murray, whose vacancy was filled by Harold C. Hanover.

In New York City, merger talks promising an end to several years of bitter conflict occurred during late May between the Transport Workers Union and the Motormen's Benevolent Association. The peace formula-set up by counsels representing the AFL-CIO, the TWU, and the MBA-was proposed to a special "harmony" committee appointed by Mayor Robert Wagner last winter. This body in turn recommended the formula to the 2 unions. Under the tentative agreement, the motormen would form a separate department within Local 100 of the TWU, but would elect their own representatives to the local's executive board in proportion to their member

During May, the United Textile Workers accepted an AFL-CIO directive to remove its vice president, Burton Hyman of New York, as a condition of continued affiliation with the Federation. George Baldanzi, president of the union, said he would investigate charges that Mr. Hyman used union funds for personal gain. The union is to remain on probation pending the August meeting of the AFL-CIO Executive Council.

One of the Nation's largest labor unions-the International Association of Machinists, with a membership of almost 1 million workers-celebrated its 70th birthday during May. Representing large segments of workers in the aircraft, automotive repair, machine tool, and railroad industries, the union holds contracts with more then 15,000 firms.

Rulings and Decisions

In a 5-to-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled, on May 5, that a company could not insist on a collective bargaining contract provision requiring both union and nonunion employees to participate in a union strike vote. The issue arose from a contract incorporating such a provision, which had been signed, after a strike in 1953, by a local of the UAW and the Wooster Division of the BorgWarner Corp. The union's subsequent charges of unfair labor practices were affirmed by the NLRB but set aside by a Federal court of appeals. In writing the High Court's majority opinion, Justice Harold H. Burton held that the contract clause in question was not a legal no-strike provision intended to govern relations between the employer and the employees. Instead, he held, it was intended to control relations between the union

and the employees and to enable the employe in effect, to deal directly with the employees, th weakening the union."

Major implications for labor-management rel tions were involved in two rulings handed dow by the United States Supreme Court on May 2 when the power of State courts to award actu and punitive damages in suits filed by worke deprived of work by trade union actions was up held. One of the cases involved a nonunion ele trician who was prevented from crossing a pick line to work; the other concerned a marine ma chinist who was prevented from obtaining wor through a union hiring hall after being expelle from the union. In both cases, the workers ha been awarded back pay and damages by Sta courts. The issue was whether the Taft-Hartle Act, by authorizing the NLRB to make back pa awards against unions in such situations, had pr empted recourse to State courts.8

In a ruling related to last December's action o "hot-cargo" clauses, the Interstate Commer Commission held, on May 1, that railroads an trucking firms could not refuse to handle picku and delivery orders even when customers' plan were hit by "riots, strikes, picketing, or other labo disturbances."

Other Developments

Hearings and Investigations. The U. S. Senate S lect Committee on Improper Activities in th Labor or Management Field investigated tw areas of questionable practices during May. I the earlier part of the month, the committe probed an alleged swindle involving advertise ments in "souvenir" publications sponsored b the New York and Pennsylvania State federation of labor. The transactions had been handled re portedly through an advertising agent, Benjami Lapensohn, who was charged with misappropriat ing fees that should have been turned over to th federations. Several witnesses said they had been

• In January, the AFL-CIO abolished the jobs of about 125 field and head quarters employees, attributing the reduction in force to lack of success i organizing campaigns, a reduction in income, and a shift in emphasis to pub lic relations. See Monthly Labor Review, March 1958, pp. 302-303. See also p. 771 of this issue.

See also pp. 772-773 of this issue.

See Monthly Labor Review, February 1958, p. 192.

shaken down" by salesmen and had acquiesced 1 order to buy "labor peace." Mr. Lapensohn as out of the country and not available for uestioning.

At midmonth, the committee turned its attenon to allegations that the Great Atlantic and acific Tea Co. in the New York metropolitan rea had made a collusive 5-year agreement in 952 with local representatives of the Meat Cutters nion. Issues centered on whether the company ad let the local union "in the back door" after sisting other union attempts to organize its orkers; and whether there was a secret agreement etween the parties to retain a 45-hour workweek uring the life of the contract,10 when at least one >her retail food chain in the area was on a 40our week. The company denied any collusion nd stated that it had been "forced by the threat a costly strike to submit to card counts to reolve the question of union representation.. harges were also made that officers of the local ad forged several hundred signatures on these rds to show that a majority of the workers dered the union as their bargaining agent.

Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, hearings continued à proposed labor legislation. Boyd Leedom, LRB chairman, testifying before a Senate Labor bcommittee, suggested legislation that would peed up the Board's handling of cases by permitng it to bring contempt proceedings against arties who disobeyed its orders, without waiting, now, for a Federal court ruling that the order è enforced. He recommended, however, that arties be allowed to appeal the order prior to con

tempt action. Mr. Leedom also called for Congress to eliminate the "no man's land" in labor relations.11

In the latter part of May, Secretary of Labor James P. Mitchell, appearing before the labor committees of both houses in support of the administration's labor legislation program, asked for laws which would, among other objectives, assure adequate accounting of union health, welfare, and pension funds and their use solely for the advancement of workers' welfare, as well as fully democratic conduct of union affairs.

Other Actions. On June 4, President Eisenhower signed a bill making possible extended unemployment compensation for workers exhausting their benefits under existing State systems. The law provides Federal loans to States which specifically seek Federal aid for additional unemployment benefits, and covers workers who exhaust their benefits any time between July 1957 and April 1, 1959. The funds so obtained by the States can be used to pay such workers regular benefits for up to 50 percent of the number of weeks for which they are now eligible.

An ethics guide book outlining moral and ethical standards for business was issued on May 18 by the National Association of Manufacturers. The code calls for fairness by employers in all their dealings and declared the "monopoly of capital, of labor, or of government [to be] detrimental to the public interest."

10 A 40-hour week was established by the 1957 agreement.

11 See The Gap Between State and Federal Jurisdiction in Labor Relations (in Monthly Labor Review, July 1957, pp. 829–832).

Book Reviews and Notes

EDITOR'S NOTE.-Listing of a publication in this section is for record and reference only and does not constitute an endorsement of point of view or advocacy of use.

Special Reviews

A Decade of Industrial Relations Research, 1946-56. Edited by Neil W. Chamberlain, Frank C. Pierson, Theresa Wolfson. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1958. 205 pp. pp. (Industrial Relations Research Association, Publication No. 19.) $3.50.

Subtitled An Appraisal of the Literature in the Field, this is the first of two volumes planned by the Industrial Relations Research Association. The appraisers are Joel Seidman and Daisy L. Tagliacozzo on union government and union leadership; Joseph Shister on collective bargaining; Melvin Reder on wage determination in theory and practice; George H. Hildebrand on the economic effects of of unionism; Robert Tilove on employee benefit plans; and Adolf Sturmthal on the labor movement abroad. All of the contributors are academicians, except Mr. Tilove, who is senior vice president of a large consulting firm in the health, welfare, and pension plan field, and, if the word is appropriate here, a "practitioner." The difference in outlook is quite evident.

These eminent authorities explore the output of a prolific decade-cataloging, sorting, and reviewing as they go; surely a prodigious labor, worthy of the gratitude of all researchers and students. In addition, they offer many suggestions for future studies, enough perhaps to keep another decade of researchers fully (if not always gainfully) occupied.

This is a useful book and a worthy addition to the fine series issued during the past 10 years under the auspices of the IRRA. However, the

reader outside of academic circles who is son times visited by what Lloyd Reynolds has call "uneasy midnight doubts about the value research and about its relation to practi affairs" will find much in this book (Tilov contribution excepted) to reinforce his uneasine This question may be another subject entirely, from the point of view of educational need irrelevant, but someone willing to pursue th matter will find this book as good a starting poi as any.

-JOSEPH W. BLO Bureau of Labor Statist

Automation and Management. By James Bright. Boston, Harvard University, Grad ate School of Business Administration, Div sion of Research, 1958. xv, 270 pp. $10. This is an outstanding work in the current spa of books about automation and its implication Unlike many other writers on the subject, Pr fessor Bright draws his provocative conclusion from his firsthand case studies of the experienc of automated plants. These studies, made ov a 3-year period, were part of the research progra of the Harvard Graduate School of Busines Administration.

One valuable contribution of Professor Bright work is a better understanding of the nature mechanization, which he discusses in Part Rather than an absolute quality, the term "mech anized" is analyzed in terms of 17 levels or degree of automaticity. An interesting application this concept is the Mechanization Profile showin the different levels of automaticity in the sequenc of operations of a plant. Such charts of so-calle automated plants reveal only a few operations a the highest levels of automaticity. This approac should lead to greater clarity and precision i discussing the meaning of automation.

Part II of the book describes the objectives and main features of 13 plants with a significant degre of mechanization, including 6 in the automobil industry. The experiences of these highly auto mated installations are compared with respect to their conception, design, and operating character istics such as productivity, leadtime, production flexibility, and safety. Both the advantages and disadvantages of automation are weighed.

The last third of this study considers some critical areas; namely, maintenance, management