has been nothing but a constant succession of delays to any requests we have made. We went before the Steel Labor Board and got a favorable decision there, and an appeal in the courts. We have tried every way possible to get action. We have petitions back there with 20,000 names on them as a final attempt to do this thing in a peaceful manner. If it cannot be done in a peaceful manner, as President Green says, there is only one alternative left, because we people who have been leaders in this movement, are faced with the proposition that it is either do, or else it is too bad. These men will not wait much longer. The CHAIRMAN. You feel that this bill would help you a lot, do you, Mr. Kephart? Mr. KEPHART. Yes. The main deterrent with us is the fact that the United States Steel Corporation has never been defeated in any of its labor policies. They do not commit themselves. The United States Steel Corporation, through its vice president, admitted that it had encouraged the company union, it had manned it. The men had no voice whatever, in spite of the fact that absolutely similar plans had been declared illegal when smaller companies did the same thing. In other words, the invulnerability of the United States Steel Corporation has been so much impressed on the minds of a lot of the men that they believe that there is no power that is competent to do anything that they do not want to do. The CHAIRMAN. You have some very courageous labor leaders in that industry with the power of that big organization to meet. You men who carry the battle ought to be congratulated, as it is no easy matter. (Discussion off the record.) The CHAIRMAN. Your organization, the United States Steel Corporation, is the same organization that reduced the pay of their employees when Congress put through the economy bill cutting the Government employees' pay. At that time I stood on the floor of the House when that economy bill was up and said, "The instant you cut the Government workers' pay, these big corporations are going to cut their workers' pay; they will follow you." The day the economy bill passed I stood up on the floor of the House and read in the paper that morning that the United States Steel Corporation had just put into effect a 15-percent cut. Mr. KEPHART. That is very true. It follows up that way. Did I mention the 40-hour week and its effect? The CHAIRMAN. Not yet. Mr. WOOD. You started to mention that. Mr. KEPHART. I want to show you, gentlemen, how the purpose of it is defeated. As an example, job no. 1, throughout the depression, previous to the inauguration of the N. R. A. had been working 6 days a week. However, when the 40-hour week was inaugurated, the same amount of work was done as was done before, but, at the same time, they are very religiously sticking to the 40-hour week. In other words, there are a great many jobs in the steel industry that formerly were 48-hour-a-week jobs that are now 40-hour-a-week jobs, although the same amount of work is being done on those jobs at this time. 133130-35--16 The CHAIRMAN. That is the speed-up system. They make them do in a 40-hour week what they formerly did in a 48-hour week. Mr. KEPHART. It is not doing a particle of good insofar as the average worker in the steel industry is concerned, but it is saving the company a lot of money. Mr. SCHNEIDER. Just how is that indicated? Is it because the men are speeded up or because the machinery is speeded up, or is there an increase in production per hour for the hours worked? Mr. KEPHART. It is mostly in the office and on clerical jobs. For instance, there is one man whose job is compiling statistics. He has to go around and collect them. On the sixth day, or the day he would have his 40 hours in, his assistant does his work, but he only gets the assistant's wages. That is on Saturday, and on the first day of the week the boss does his work, and the assistant's and gets his wages. In other words, the company gets the same amount of work out of a 10-day period as they formerly did in a 12-day period. The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Mr. WOOD. Then when the assistant does the work at a lower wage, the employer is getting the work done at a lower wage? Mr. KEPHART. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. Of course, this committee reported a bill out last week, the Connery bill, and we are trying to get these things straightened out. That bill provides for equal labor representation on the code authority. Mr. KEPHART. That is very important. The CHAIRMAN. We believe that all of those things would be settled if we could get five union-labor men on with five employers, that thereby your speed-up system would be settled before the code was written. Mr. KEPHART. Yes; that is important. The CHAIRMAN. Then, as to the administration of the code, with these labor men on there, they would say, "wait", the minute they were breaking the law. You have heard what I said to Mr. Green, that if we cannot get that bill through the House, when the N. R. A. comes up in the House, I am going to try to offer it as an amendment there and see if we can get it through that way. Mr. KEPHART. That would help. The CHAIRMAN. This bill would help you. You have found that the Labor Relations Board has made wonderful decisions, but, as Mr. Green has so aptly said here this morning, it is like a court with no penalty, that cannot do anything to follow it up after they have made a decision. If you could do that in the courts, we could never get any damages or judgment for anybody, a judgment would serve no purpose. Mr. KEPHART. We have done everything we could do so far legitimately in order to help the situation. Mr. SCHNEIDER. Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Schneider. Mr. SCHNEIDER. With a continuation of the conditions as they exist today and a denial to the workers of real collective bargaining, how long will the workers continue to be submissive to that condition? Is there a possibility of a strike? Mr. KEPHART. Yes; it is very imminent. In that connection, let me cite one instance to you, gentlemen. We had a certain very well organized lodge that had gone as far as they could go through legitimate organizations. However, the company declined to do anything for them. They got recognition by the Communists who made capital of the fact that they had tried to do other things in a legitimate manner. Now, the Communists have control of that lodge, and those men who were formerly good American citizens and workers are being rapidly converted to communism. Mr. SCHNEIDER. Are you familiar with the situation in Monroe, Mich., and vicinity? Mr. KEPHART. Not entirely, but somewhat. Mr. SCHNEIDER. You know that there is quite a scattering of very radical men in those organizations up there? Mr. KEPHART. Yes. Mr. SCHNEIDER. It is largely due to the fact that very bad conditions have existed in the industry in the Detroit district, and to the denial of the majority who want to organize, and therefore, the radical element has a good chance to get control of these organizations if something is not done in the near future. Mr. KEPHART. That is true and it is general. It is not only in Detroit. I am sorry to say that unless something is done rapidly it is seriously growing in a number of places all over the country. The CHAIRMAN. In other words, your idea is that labor, the legitimate labor man, the union man, has been the bulkwark against communism in the United States. Mr. KEPHART. Certainly. The CHAIRMAN. Now, you gave an instance of where you had one of your own lodges that was well organized, and where the company would not deal with them, and would not give them their rights, where the Communists stepped in and the members of the lodge became disgruntled with living and conditions and everything else and said, "Well, let's go Red." Mr. KEPHART. That is it. Mr. WOOD. And become so. Mr. WOOD. And they proceeded to strike? Mr. KEPHART. It is part of a big combine, and their tactics now, they are going to attempt to get the rest of the lodges in this combine in the same mood, and then they are smart enough to see that a strike of this single plant would not be effective. If so, they are going to try to make a general strike in this one chain of business. Mr. SCHNEIDER. Does one shop shift their workers from one plant to another to defeat the purposes of the men in organization? Mr. KEPHART. That has been a very common occurrence. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Ramspeck, do you have any further questions? Mr. RAMSPECK. No further questions, Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Wood? Mr. WOOD. No; Mr. Chairman. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Kephart, if you desire to file a brief or any further statement or any papers for the record, you may do so. Just send it along to us. The CHAIRMAN. Was the petition you mentioned addressed to the Committee on Labor, or who was it addressed to? Mr. KEPHART. As a matter of fact, my Senator from Ohio, Mr. Vick Donahey, is on the Senate committee. We thought it should go to him. The CHAIRMAN. We would be glad to receive it, but give it to the Senator, and he will see that it goes to the proper committee. We are glad to have had you with us. We thank you for your testimony. Mr. KEPHART. Thank you. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will stand adjourned until next Thursday at 10 o'clock. We will hear Mr. Emery on Thursday and we will hear Miss Perkins the following day. (Whereupon, at 1:25 p. m., the committee adjourned until Thursday, March 28, 1935, at 10 a. m.) LABOR DISPUTES ACT THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 1935 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The committee met at 10 a. m., Hon. William P. Connery, Jr., chairman of the committee, presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. We will hear from Mr. Frank J. Dillon, general organizer American Federation of Labor, in charge of the automobile industry. STATEMENT OF FRANK J. DILLON, GENERAL ORGANIZER IN CHARGE OF THE AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR Mr. DILLON. Gentlemen of the committee, in submitting testimony before this committee in support of the Wagner-Connery labor-relations bill, I desire to confine my statements very largely to the needs and problems confronting approximately a half million of our fellow citizens who are employed in one of the Nation's largest and, possibly, the most important industries, the automobile industry. It has been my privilege to be actively associated with these people during a long period of time, and I regard myself competent to speak with some understanding of that phase of their problems which relates to employee-management relationships. In scarcely more than a quarter of a century's time the automobile industry has grown from infancy, from comparatively insignificant financial power or prestige, to a powerful empire, dominating completely the destiny not only of a half-million working people, but also small merchants and dealers to a number that would stagger the imagination of the most progressive of us. In general, the automobile industry is today the most profitable of all large industries, having contributed what is reputed to be the richest man in the world. It is, at the same time, the most pampered and favored of industries in our country. The public mind, through skillful advertising and manipulations, has come to regard it as a most efficient industry, managed and directed primarily in the interests of employees and stockholders where, as a matter of fact, the records show that these thousands of workers are today producing greater wealth per man-unit at a comparatively lower wage rate than ever before, while the few who control and dominate this industrial empire receive ever larger earnings in the form of bonuses, interest, salaries, and every other device known to high finance and clever manipulations of modern industry. |