John McAlpine, president, Mine Officials Union of America_ Walter McNally, president, International Union of the American Decision and dissenting opinion of National Labor Relations Board. 699-704 J. G. Luhrsen, executive secretary-treasurer, Railway Labor Execu- Samuel Krimsley, general counsel, Mine Officials Union of America. 739-757 Charles R. Ferguson, international field representative, Mine Officials Donald Henderson, general president, United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America, Congress of Industrial Arthur J. O'Dea, Franklin G. Chapin, Jr., Anthony Meyer, Jr. 917-918 Hon. William M. Colmer, Member of Congress from Mississippi. 919-921 Mrs. Agnes Waters, Mothers Association_ Mrs. Catherine P. Brown, Blue Star Mothers- Hon. Paul V. McNutt, Chairman, War Manpower Commission 947-1041 Joseph B. Eastman, Director, Office of Defense Transportation; accompanied by Otto S. Beyer, Director, Division of Transport FULL UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1943 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE OF MILITARY AFFAIRS, Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10:30 a. m., pursuant to call, Hon. Andrew J. May (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. Gentlemen, this meeting of the committee has been called for the purpose of starting hearings on H. R. 2239, a bill to amend the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 and to provide further for the successful prosecution of the war by prohibiting acts interfering with the full utilization of manpower. The bill is as follows: [H. R. 2239, 78th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To amend the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 and to provide further for the successful prosecution of the war by prohibiting acts interfering with the full utilization of manpower Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, DECLARATION OF POLICY AND INTENT OF CONGRESS SECTION 1. (a) The Congress hereby declares that in view of the critical nature of the present war and in justice to those in the armed forces of the United States, it is necessary to provide further for the comprehensive, orderly, and effective utilization of the manpower of the Nation in support of the war effort. (b) The Congress further declares, as the general principle governing such utilization, that an obligation rests upon every person to render such personal service in aid of the war effort as he or she may be deemed best fitted to perform. (c) The Congress further declares that it is essential that those charged with the duty of managing and directing the industrial enterprises of the country in mining, agriculture, manufacture, construction, and distribution shall have, and be protected in the exercise of, adequate authority to insure uninterrupted service by those employed in such undertakings, and to prevent the useless waste of existing manpower. SEC. 2. Section 5E of the Selective Service and Training Act of 1940 is amended by inserting at the end thereof the following proviso: "Provided, That none of the provisions of this subsection relating to deferment from service shall apply to any person who violates any of the following provisions of this Act, and every employer shall on or before the 10th day of March, June, September, and December of each year report to the appropriate selective service local board the name of each employee subject to the jurisdiction of each local board who has failed to comply with the following provisions of this Act." SEC. 3. Until the expiration of days from the date on which the President proclaims that hostilities in the present war have ceased, any rules, practices, policies, or requirements of any labor organization or group of employees, or any provision of any contract, agreement, or understanding to which a labor organization is a party, which— 1 (1) prescribes, or has the effect of prescribing, the minimum number of employees to be employed in any work, project, or employment; or (2) prescribes, or has the effect of prescribing, the period or manner of training or apprenticeship as a condition of eligibility for employment on any particular work, project, or employment; or (3) prescribes, or has the effect of prescribing, in cases where there is a reduction in the amount of, or in the time required to perform, any particular work, that compensation be paid as if such reduction had not taken place; or (4) prescribes, or has the effect of prescribing, the the kind of tools or equipment which the members of such organization are permitted to use, or otherwise prohibits its members from using, or from working on any work, project, or employment on which there is used, any specified labor saving devices; or (5) requires, or has the effect of requiring, by reason of one or more individuals not members of a labor organization having been employed for any work, that there also be employed one or more individuals who are members of such labor organization for the performance of the same work to be present while such work is being performed; or (6) in any other manner interferes with the full utilization of the Nation's manpower in the present war, are hereby declared void and of no effect, and the enforcement or application of such rules, practices, policies, or requirements of any labor organization, and provisions of any contract or agreement to which any labor organization is a party, or any attempt to enforce or apply such rules, practices, policies, or requirements of any labor organization, and provisions of any contract of agreement to which any labor organization is a party, are hereby declared to be unlawful. SEC. 4. Every contractor engaged in work connected with the prosecution of the war shall have the responsibility for taking any necessary action hereunder, including the duty to report promptly any such rules, practices, policies, or requirements, or their attempted enforcement or application, to the appropriate contracting agency of the Government, or to his prime contractor, if he is not himself a prime contractor. In the discharge of his obligations to the Government every contractor shall be responsible for achieving and maintaining maximum efficiency and continuity of operations, and most effective use of available manpower, and shall have authority to take such lawful disciplinary measures within his plant or among his employees as may be necessary to insure such maximum efficiency and continuity of operation. He shall be responsible for acts of his executive, administrative, professional, or supervisory employees within the scope of their employment, and such employees shall not be eligible to membership in any labor organization engaging in collective bargaining with the contractor, nor shall such contractor be required to engage in collective bargaining with any labor organization, including any of such employees in its membership. SEC. 5. Any concerted action, or threats, by any persons whatsoever, designed to coerce any contractor to deal collectively with a labor organization, including such executive, administrative, professional, or supervisory employees in its membership, shall be unlawful and punishable hereunder. SEC. 6. The term "contractor" as used herein shall include any person, firm, or corporation producing, processing, or supplying any article or service to the United States Government or to any agency thereof, or to any other person, firm, or corporation engaged in supplying such articles or services to the Government. SEC. 7. Any violation of this Act shall be punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment for a period of not more than one year, or both, in the discretion of the court. SEC. 8. All laws and parts of laws in conflict with the provisions of this Act are hereby suspended to the extent of such conflict for the period in which this Act shall be in force. This bill was introduced by Judge Smith, a' Representative from the State of Virginia, and referred to this committeee by the Speaker. As I understand the bill, it both affects the question of manpower and the utilization of manpower and, as well, probably goes to the extent of dealing with acts of interference with production within the industries of the country. Last week, before I left Washington, I received a wire from the president of the General Motors Corporation, directed to this committee, to the Committee on Naval Affairs, and to some other committee, probably the Committee on the Judiciary. I have not my copy with me. Judge Smith, do you have a copy of that telegram? Mr. SMITH. Yes, I do. The CHAIRMAN. I should like to have it, if I may, please, sir. We are up against a situation here of having more work to do than one committee can well do. The tax bill, in which we are all interested, comes before the House today for general debate, which I understand is to last 4 days. For that reason, and knowing the practice and ruling of the Speaker that committees will not be permitted to sit during sessions of the House when bills are being debated under the 5-minute rule, I thought we could utilize these 4 days in these hearings, especially in view of the fact that we have so much work to do. Almost at once we shall have thrust into our laps the Bankhead bill from the Senate, and the Austin-Wadsworth bill will be here probably very soon; it is already here, in fact, as far as our branch of Congress is concerned. We shall just have to get down to real hard. work for a little while in order to get some of these things out of the way. In addition to that, we have a number of live, hot investigations that we thought we would pursue rather diligently. So, on account of the press of business, I have called this session for today. Judge Smith, do you care to be heard on this bill? Mr. SMITH. I should like to make a brief statement. STATEMENT OF HON. HOWARD W. SMITH, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF VIRGINIA Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I should like to make a very brief statement at this time, but I will be at the call of the committee to enlarge on that statement with further data at any time you may desire. I say "brief statement" this morning because there are here from out of the city a number of people who are interested essentially in one feature of the bill. They are from the coal operators' organization, and I am sure that the committee will want to hear as quickly as possible what they have to say. The major portions of this bill I framed several months ago, after having had some correspondence with Mr. Clark, who wrote the Austin-Wadsworth bill, and in it I sought to approach the manpower problem from an angle different from that by which the Austin-Wadsworth bill approached it. To that is added the feature that I am going to talk about this morning, relative to the organization of the supervisory personnel in industry, which has, since this bill was originally drafted, become a very critical situation, not only in the coal industry but in the other industries connected with the war effort; and it is especially stressed in the city of Detroit and in that area, where there is so much war work going on. This bill approaches the manpower problem not from the angle of regimentation of the whole civilian population of the country, but from the angle of making full utilization of the manpower now engaged in the war industries. I undertake to do it by prohibiting all practices, rules, and regulations that interfere with a workman in rendering a full day's work in the most efficient manner that he can. The thing that I am talking about is generally referred to in the parlance of the street as feather-bed rules. Those are hundreds of rules and regulations prevalent in various and sundry labor organizations that put restrictions upon a man's output and put restrictions upon the types of appliances that he may use. They are old, antiquated rules that were inaugurated for the purpose of spreading employment. At this time they are a very definite handicap, as I can demonstrate to you, in the matter of utilization of the manpower now in existence. It is my firm belief that if we get the utmost out of the manpower now engaged in the war effort, our manpower problem will be settled and solved without the use of the Austin-Wadsworth bill with its rather drastice provisions. I say this by way of preliminary statement. As I said before, I will be glad to go into this in as much detail as the committee desires at a future time. The question that we have this morning, with respect to which there are a number of witnesses present, is covered in section 4 of the bill. Section 4 imposes upon industry the very important duty and responsibility of seeing that the greatest effort is put forth in production. The CHAIRMAN. Is that subsection 4 on page 3? Mr. SMITH. That is section 4, page 4, beginning at line 16. After placing that responsibility upon management, it further provides that there shall be no right of collective bargaining exercised by the supervisory personnel of management. In other words, the supervisory personnel is necessarily a part of management itself. If they became members of labor unions, which are in constant controversy with management, you can readily see that such a movement would throw production into a chaotic state. That question has never been so important up until this time; but within, I should say, the last 30 days intensive organization campaigns have been under way in the coal industry and in other industries, particularly in the Detroit area, to organize foremen and supervisory personnel. The practical effect of that, of course, is that if the supervisory personnel, who are supposed to represent management, are members of a labor union, there will be a situation in which the union will sit on both sides of the bargaining table. There is also this very anomalous situation under the National Labor Relations Act. It has been held time and time again under that act that the employer is responsible for the acts of his supervisory personnel. Let us suppose that the A. F. of L. is organizing the supervisory personnel of General Motors and that the C. I. O. has the employees. If the A. F. of L. supervisory personnel make comments and statements derogatory of the C. I. O., General Motors is liable to be hauled up before the National Labor Relations Board for violation of the act because their supervisors are interfering with the right of organization of the men in the plant. So, if put into effect, that thing will just create chaos in the field of production. As I said before to the committee, there are here gentlemen who can talk from the practical side of this proposition, who have given it attention, who have lived with it, and who know just what the |