Mr. OWENS. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield? Mr. LESINSKI. Yes. Mr. OWENS. I think the point to be made there is that in these various States, New York, Michigan, and Illinois, they have hundreds of millions of dollars in their present treasuries, and whether or not that money should not be used before a request is made to the Federal Government for aid. Will the gentleman answer that? Mr. LESINSKI. Yes; I can answer it very readily. I think Michigan, New York, and Illinois, whatever funds they have left over for certain purposes, are already assigned and contracted for. I know your legislatures today are wondering how they will secure additional revenues by taxation. Mr. OWENS. I said surplus. Mr. LESINSKI. There is no more surplus, it is all spoken for, even in Illinois. Mr. OWENS. I beg your pardon? Mr. GWINN. Mr. Chairman. Mr. McCowEN. Mr. Gwinn. Mr. GWINN. Might I ask just one other question? We may not have a New Yorker on the stand again. Mr. McCowEN. Go ahead. Mr. GWINN. I notice in the list of subjects there is no mention whatsoever of taxation, finance, what earnings consist of, nor is any conception whatever given of the economic situation on which we rest. Do you teach any such courses? Mr. BROOKS. Yes, we do, sir. This is only a partial list. There is a complete list contained in the material I turned over to the committee. We offer labor economics. We do not have courses in finance. The students in the undergraduate and graduate schools are required to take a course in corporation finance, and they are required to take courses in government. In our extension activities, the university has authorized us to offer only courses related to industrial and labor relations. We cannot give a course in poultry husbandry. Mr. GWINN. I saw so very little evidence of knowledge as to where we are going to get this money you are asking for that I wondered. One other thing: In the bill that provides for a council that will set up standards. You are the first witness who has shown that you have already departed in New York State from the standard suggested here, in that you are combining labor-management teaching. That seems to give the variety some of the Congressmen have said we ought to have. If we have central management we will get standardization. We will keep labor from receiving the benefits it ought to have. Mr. BROOKS. We are not proposing a uniform course offering for all States; we would not want it. However, I believe the bill makes provisions that would make it possible for the States to offer the courses that are needed. Mr. McCOWEN. Your time has expired. On behalf of the committee I thank you. (The documents above referred to are as follows:) STATEMENT OF EARL BROOKS, SECRETARY AND ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, NEW YORK STATE SCHOOL OF INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR RELATIONS, CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N. Y. Since September 1946, the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University has been conducting extension activities in various centers throughout the State. These educational efforts have taken many forms, including lecture series, evening courses, discussion groups, and institutes. Approximately 7,000 residents of New York State, including representatives of organized labor, management, and the general public, have participated directly in one or more of these programs during the past year. Extension activities have been conducted successfully for joint groups of representatives of labor and management and, in addition, the school, at the request of labor unions, has planned and conducted programs specifically designed for workers. Special courses in the field of industrial and labor relations have also been conducted primarily for management groups. The phase of the school program which I am going to present this morning for consideration in connection with H. R. 4078 (Labor Extension Service bill) will emphasize the special service courses for labor in the field of industrial and labor relations. Special service courses in the field of workers' education are open to the general public and are tuition free. If the group meets within commuting distance of Ithaca, staff members of the school are usually the instructors, but if the class meets beyond commuting distance, qualified local instructors are employed on a part-time basis. Classes meet at places convenient to the group-usually one evening a week for 90 minutes. Most courses are from 6 to 10 weeks' duration and are not for college credit. Upon request, any subject within the scope of the school's program is offered to the extent that funds and instructors are available. Courses have included: Role of shop stewards in industrial and labor relations. Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947. Grievance procedures. Labor law. Parliamentary law and procedures. Workmen's compensation. History of the American labor movement. Working under collective-bargaining agreements. Organized labor, management, and the community. Economics of employment and unemployment. Labor relations as human relations. Role of law in industrial and labor relations. Personnel administration. Human relations in industry. The school has made only a beginning. We have worked as rapidly as possible in meeting the increasing number of requests in this field. Requests for additional programs are now beginning to press our facilities for meeting them. In addition to presenting lectures and instruction, Cornell has made a start in developing special-course materials, texts, bulletins, visual and audio aids, and other materials especially designed for extension teaching. There is urgent need for additional development of these materials. Because the problem of workers' education is far different from college teaching, we have found it desirable to provide special teacher training in this field. In New York State there is a real need and demand for workers' education. Very few workers are in position to participate in the usual type of resident instruction offered on a university campus. The instruction must be taken to the worker in the form that fits workers' needs. Publicly supported universities have for many years provided programs for lawyers, physicians, engineers, teachers, and other professional personnel, and also for business administrators, accountants, and other management employees. We are convinced that the educational facilities for shop stewards, research directors, educational directors, and other unions positions are just as important for the public welfare. The following quotation from the international vice president of a large union emphasizes this point in the following manner: "On the local level the crying need for workers' education is painfully evident. How can men shape their own lives and make intelligent decisions regarding themselves and their fellow men if they lack the knowledge essential to understanding the principles involved? It is evident that a democratic labor movement must be based upon the intelligent participation of its members. Ignorance and inactivity on the part of the local members can lead only to an undemocratic regime and the exploitation of the membership." LABOR AND MANAGEMENT WILL PROFIT BY STUDY [Editorial appearing in Elmira Star-Gazette, April 10, 1948] Elmira and vicinity have the benefits of extension work directed by the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations of Cornell University. The extension work of Cornell in the fields of agriculture and homemaking is recognized for its effectiveness. It has been going on for a long time. At first "book learning" in farming was ridiculed, but in due time it was realized as far more practical than governing agriculture by looking at the moon. Besides, it isn't just books. The industrial and labor relations school is different. It is new and has to feel its way to a considerable extent itself. It deals with the human element, which is often more uncertain in results than what may be expected when superphosphate is applied to soil in farming. Nevertheless, a body of information has already been assembled in relation to management and labor, and it is worth while to any community to know about it. Moreover, management and labor are adding to this information, and both are learning something, it may be believed, even though sometimes it may not look that way. The school is a first-rate sort of service station in this study. What is happening to labor and management is more or less a peaceful sort of revolution against the idea that management should decide everything, take it or leave it. This is complicated by the size of employing corporations which have taken the place of the individual employer. Informed labor and capital and reason are far better than a fight. SOME COMMENTS OF LABOR-UNION OFFICIALS WHO HAVE ATTENDED EXTENSION CLASSES OF THE SCHOOL President of an international union: "In behalf of the officials of local * * * I wish to thank Cornell University for the magnificent job which was accomplished in the class sessions for our local. For the past 10 years we really had a problem trying to educate our chairmen as to their duties. Never did we dream that the store chairmen would take time out to travel from all parts to attend these class sessions. Our problems are much easier now that they understand how to handle a store grievance and settle it to the satisfaction of both management and union." President, labor assembly: "I think the courses are wonderful, and not just from my own point of view-labor. They are contributing to an understanding between labor and management that would be hard to achieve on other grounds." Business representative: "It would seem to me that the extension courses are of more immediate practical value than the 4-year courses held at Ithaca. people and management people can pick up information in class, take it back to the job the following day, and apply it to their immediate problems. I think the courses are among the best things ever to happen in Elmira in this field." Our Education chairman: "I have been able, after attending the classes held by the labor school here, to solve many problems coming up in my shop. I am attempting to solve others on the same basis-that is, as a result of the information I have picked up in class. I think, too, that more people from the management side would profit by attending the classes." Business representative: "The courses are the best thing that ever hit this town. We have needed something like this for a long time to supplement our own training program; also, the presence of professional people at the classes is having a good reaction. We had a 10-week strike here last summer and a good many people outside labor and management had no conception of the disagreement or its conception. Now they see the reasons behind the trouble." Business agent: "If only one or two leaders on both sides are developed as a result of the courses, they will have been justified. We have needed this sort of thing for some time. I'm glad to see the courses here and I hope they continue." International representative: "This is a one-industry town and it is nearly impossible for certain classes of gripes to be brought into the open without the services of a neutral third agency. The school is serving in that capacity. People outside the labor-management area of disagreement are attending the courses and getting a clear idea of the whole involved structure for the first time." Financial secretary-treasurer of a local: "I have learned a great deal that has been of immediate practical value and I'm storing up facts that I expect to be able to use in the future. They are helping us to get the other fellow's point of view, too. I think that's important where there is a tendency to be narrow and too close to the issues." Business agent: "I attended the extension classes and thought them very goodpresented without bias-good for equalizing labor's education with management. I would like to go into the material more deeply." Number of registrations, New York State School of Industrial Relations, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.-Extension Division, March 31, 1948 (a) Lecture series: Auburn, Binghamton, Elmira, Ithaca_. 1, 176 2, 462 (c) Special service courses (8 courses): Albany (1), Buffalo (3), 389 435 4, 462 (d) Conferences (2). Total__ 3. Calendar year 1948 to March 31: 2 1 (b) School courses (32 courses): Albany (8), Auburn (1), Bing- 3 (c) Special service courses (23 courses): Albany (2), Auburn (1), Total_ 291 1, 544 953 2,788 Total registrations, September 30, 1946-March 31, 1948____ 8, 343 11 lecture series begins April 8 in Rochester. 2 During April, 22 additional school courses will begin: Buffalo (9), Corning (4), Elmira (4), Niagara Falls (5). During April. 4 additional special service courses will begin: Glens Falls (1), Ithaca (1), New York City (1), Niagara Falls (1). [From the Knickerbocker Press, Albany, February 26, 1948] UNION STEWARDS AT WINTHROP PLANT GET UNIVERSITY TRAINING ON COMPANY'S TIME (By William E. Rowley) The union shop stewards school at Winthrop-Stearns, Inc., in Rensselaer has grown up to become part of a university. It began 31⁄2 years ago as an informal forum, operated by local 61, International Chemical Workers Union, AFL, and encouraged by the company to instruct stewards in their rights and responsibilities. Now it is part of the extension program of the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University-the first union school in the program to be conducted on company time, in the company's plant, and under provisions of a labor contract. The new school's first 4-week course, "The steward's role in industrial and labor relations," has just been completed by Andrew C. Doyle, regional director of the State mediation board and a member of the State school's faculty. Union leaders and Miss Eleanor Emerson, field representative and assistant professor of the State school, are consulting to plan further courses. In its contract with the union, Winthrop-Stearns "agrees to provide union stewards a meeting place where they shall discuss on company time business relating to the duties of stewards. Stewards shall be released from their duties 1 hour preceding the close of the regular work day on the second and fourth Monday of each month to permit appropriate attendance." Into this framework the extension course was fitted after the union and the company consulted with Miss Emerson and the union approved Mr. Doyle as instructor. Thirty stewards, representing the company's 1,200 employees, met January 12 in the company lunchroom for the first class. Mr. Doyle's course stressed the responsibility of stewards to deal honestly and intelligently with grievance and other contract problems that arise in their shops. He spent a lot of time untangling the complexities of the contract, so they might understand better the "Constitution" or "Bible" that can provide a "rule of reason" in their relations with the workers and foremen. HUMAN PROBLEMS DISCUSSED The techniques of the human problem, of how to approach foremen and how to deal with workers' grievances, were discussed. Although there are "no easy ways of handling grievances," Mr. Doyle stressed some "possible ways and principles." Stewards, he said, should try to keep up a free flow of the facts, be able to express the facts lucidly, and understand the contract well enough to know whether the grievance can be settled. A steward who goes to bat on a phony grievance, not based on fact, not clearly understood by him, and not covered by the contract, Mr. Doyle said, will become less useful both to the union and the company. A difficult teaching problem arose over whether to discuss current or past grievances in the stewards' own experience as case histories. Mr. Doyle would not discuss them, for fear of meddling in company-union affairs, and drew instead on other cases from his experience as a State mediator for illustrative material. It was pointed out few grievances have arisen at Winthrop-Stearns, only 100 in the last 3 years, of which only 2 required arbitration under the contract. INTEREST INCREASED William Hamm, president of local 61, said the course has increased the stewards' interest and curiosity in their contract and "it should help grievance machinery function more smoothly." Stewards now go around with the little green contract books, "the book they learned was their Bible," in their pockets, he said. The course, he added, has made them want still more clarification on the contract and their role as stewards. The company, too, is pleased with the results of the course. Blayney J. Barton, industrial-relations director, said it should improve "our already outstanding record of good labor relations at the plant." Mr. Barton referred to a letter from the National Planning Association, which stated his company had been nominated for special study as a company "with an unusual record of successful, stable industrial relations over a considerable period of time." The association, a nonpartisan group of industrial, labor, and agricultural leaders, is studying why some industries have good and why some have poor labor relations, Mr. Barton said. When Winthrop-Stearns' policies are investigated the company will stress the shop stewards school. |