partial and designed to establish lasting peace in the industry, to promote efficiency and harmony and thereby to facilitate the completion of your naval building program without further labor disturbances and delays. Respectfully, J. F. METTEN, President. Assistant Secretary ROOSEVELT. I replied to that letter as follows: Mr. J. F. METTEN, DEAR MR. METTEN: Your letter of July 30, 1935, has been thoroughly considered, and in reply thereto I beg to advise you that the President of the United States will appoint, in the immediate future, a board of arbitrators consisting of three members, to take up the matters mentioned in my communication to you of July 27. You will note that this is in the nature of a concession to you in that, instead of a board of arbitrators being named jointly by the Secretaries of Navy and Labor, the President himself has decided to appoint the board. I trust that you will now accept arbitration by this board, on the points covered in my letter of July 27. Otherwise, the Navy Department will be forced to take over and complete the ships, as indicated to you in the letter of July 27, above mentioned. Very sincerely yours, (There was lengthy discussion off the record.) H. L. ROOSEVELT. (The subcommittee at 11:55 a. m., Tuesday, Aug. 6, 1935, adjourned to meet at the call of the chairman of the subcommittee.) RELATING TO LABOR PRACTICES OF EMPLOYERS OF LABOR IN THE SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1935 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON LABOR, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met at 10:30 a. m., Hon. John Lesinski, presiding. Mr. LESINSKI. The committee will come to order. Mr. Marcantonio has a statement to make. Mr. MARCANTONIO. Mr. Chairman, inasmuch as we have been unable to have the Assistant Secretary of the Navy here to report to us on the negotiations, as he promised to do when we met in secret session at his request, we have representatives of the union here, and, perhaps, we might be able to learn from them as to just how far the negotiations have gone and what steps have been taken looking to the settlement of this strike. I say that because we have not been blessed with any of the wisdom or information that the Navy Department has on these matters. Mr. LESINSKI. Which one of you gentlemen has the information? Mr. MARCANTONIO. Mr. Green is present, with some other representatives. Mr. LESINSKI. How many are present? Mr. GREEN. Four. STATEMENT OF JOHN GREEN, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, CAMDEN LOCAL NO. 1, INDUSTRIAL UNION OF MARINE AND SHIPBUILDING WORKERS OF AMERICA Mr. LESINSKI. For the information of the committee, state your name and connections. Mr. GREEN. Mr. Chairman, my name is John Green, and I am appearing as executive secretary of Camden Local No. 1, Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America. Mr. LESINSKI. Will you make a general statement of the conditions and of the troubles you have had up there, and a statement of the kind of negotiations you have had with the company and the Navy Department? Mr. MARCANTONIO. He has already testified in the past, Mr. Chairman, and I think we would like to have a statement from him as to what has happened recently. Mr. GREEN. Within the last 10 days? Mr. MARCANTONIO. Exactly. Mr. LESINSKI. Very well; you may proceed. Mr. GREEN. As you gentlemen are aware, the New York Shipbuilding Co. officials and representatives of the union have been at loggerheads, and it did not seem that we were getting anywhere. After a few conferences, the members of the union were able to interest certain responsible administration officials in Washington to take up the cudgels in our behalf. You have had some testimony here with regard to the efforts of the conciliator of the Labor Department. Mr. MARCANTONIO. Yes; we have that testimony. Mr. GREEN. It seems to me that the point we should start from now is the first proposition submitted to us by the Secretary of the Department of Labor. This is a letter addressed to me under date of July 19, 1935, as follows: Mr. JOHN GREEN, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, President Local No. 1, Industrial Union of Marine & Shipbuilding Workers, MY DEAR MR. GREEN: It is reported that negotiations between the officials of the New York Shipbuilding Corporation and employees' representatives have failed to result in a settlement of the strike which has now been in effect since May 11, 1935. The Department of Labor is deeply concerned over the seriousness of this situation and extremely anxious to see work in the plant resumed. It seems clear that no agreement can be reached through a continuation of conferences between the parties at interest. Therefore, I am submitting the following recommendation to settle the points at issue in the dispute: "Both parties agree that the men shall be returned to work without discrimination. That the agreement dated May 11, 1934, be renewed for a period of 1 year, and that all other matters in dispute will be immediately submitted to arbitration by an impartial board selected by the Secretary of the United States Department of Labor and the Secretary of the United States Navy Department-all decisions of such board to be retroactive to the date the men return to work." May I urge upon you and your associates the acceptance of the recommendation, as it provides a basis for the satisfactory adjustment of the controversy. I have directed Commissioners Chappen and Coivin to proceed to Camden and confer with you tomorrow. Very truly yours, FRANCES PERKINS. This proposition, with the company's proposition or plan, and the plan of the mayor of the city of Camden, was submitted to the membership in Convention Hall on July 22. Both the mayor's proposal and the company's proposal were turned down, and the men accepted Madam Perkins' plan, with the following modification: Both parties agree that the men shall be returned to work without discrimination. That the agreement dated May 11, 1934, be renewed for a period of 1 year and that all of the union's demands will be immediately submitted to arbitration by a board consisting of 1 member selected by the corporation, 1 member selected by the union, and a third member to be selected by the 2 so chosen. In the event the third member is not chosen within 7 days from the return to work, the Secretary of the United States Department of Labor and the Secretary of the United States Navy Department are immediately to name such third member. All decisions of this board are to be final and binding on both parties; are to be retroactive to the date the men return to work; and are to be rendered within 30 days from the date the men returned to work, unless the board, by a majority of votes, extends the time for decision for an additional 30 days. The men are to return to work upon the signing of an agreement to the above effect by the union and the corporation. Mr. MARCANTONIO. Those were the changes recommended. Mr. GREEN. There are really no changes there. We state specifically that th decisions handed down by the board have to be retroactive, and we also state that if there is to be an extension of the time, it would have to be by the board, on a decision by a 2-to-1 vote. Mr. LESINSKI. According to this statement, it appears that you are willing to arbitrate. Mr. GREEN. Yes, sir; that is correct. Mr. LESINSKI. Someone has made the statement that they are not willing to arbitrate. Mr. GREEN. That is not correct. Mr. LESINSKI. Someone has made the statement that the union is not willing to arbitrate. In other words, that is an erroneous statement. Mr. GREEN. Yes, sir. Mr. LESINSKI. And not authorized. Mr. GREEN. No, sir; it was not authorized. Mr. LESINSKI. Do you have any questions, Mr. Schneider? Mr. SCHNEIDER. I was not here at the beginning of the witness' testimony. Mr. LESINSKI. You were only half a minute late. Mr. SCHNEIDER. What is the present status of this matter, and what proposals are coming from the Navy Department or the Labor Department at the present moment? Mr. GREEN. This is a letter from Madam Perkins, Secretary of Labor, dated August 9, 1935, addressed to Mr. Thomas Gallagher, secretary, negotiations committee, as follows: MY DEAR MR. GALLAGHER. The New York Shipbuilding Corporation has agreed, if the employees promptly agree likewise, to submit to a board of arbitration the following issues: (1) Determination of the employees' proper representatives for the purpose of collective bargaining, as contemplated by the Wagner Act. (2) The matter of piecework or incentive work. (3) The matter of adjustment of wages. (4) Employment matters and working conditions which have been in dispute in connection with the renewal of the agreement of May 11, 1934. (5) And any other questions which may arise in connection with the settlement of the present situation at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation. The Board of Arbitration is to be composed of three members appointed by the President of the United States. It is the understanding of the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, expressed in a letter of August 7, 1935, to the Honorable Henry L. Roosevelt, Acting Secretary of the Navy, that work in the shipyards shall be resumed at once, and that an award of the Board shall be binding both upon it and its employees, and shall be retroactive to the date of reopening the yard. Acting Secretary Roosevelt has further informed the company that work will begin under a renewal of the agreement of May 11, 1934, with the proviso that this agreement shall be subject to modification in accordance with the conclusions of the impartial Arbitration Board. I expect to hear from you promptly that you have acted upon this proposal and I trust that your action will be to accept this arbitration so that the work may be resumed and the arbitration proceedings begun at once. Very truly yours, FRANCES PERKINS. Before I leave that, I would like to amplify it a little by referring to a newspaper statement of Secretary Perkins yesterday. You will note here that it says the men will return to work under the old agreement of 1934. In the press release here last night, there was another change in this, namely, that the men shall return to work under the |