VI. Wartime Handling of Labor Disputes and Seizure

A line is generally drawn in discussions of methods of handling strikes between those to be invoked during a wartime emergency and those in an emergency situation while we are not at war. This clear distinction has been somewhat eroded since the end of World War II by the continuing episodes of the cold war, Korea and, today, Vietnam. For our purposes here, the lessons of the war are clearly set forth in the account by the late Edwin E. Witte. Dr. Witte was a public member of the National War Labor Board.

The possible solution which survives from the World War II experience and the Korean war is that of seizure. This has been the traditional wartime solution for emergency strikes (see items "a" and "f").

When President Truman tried seizure after the war, however, he found his wartime authority had lapsed; and that, in providing an emergency disputes proceedings under title II of the Taft-Hartley Act, Congress had, in the Supreme Court's view, indicated that an alternative method was to be used.

Exactly what is the present legal status of the Presidential seizure power, or whether such power exists, may be judged by the reader after studying the 130-page Supreme Court decision on this question, Sawyer v. The Youngstown Steel and Tube Co. For those whose time or taste make an alternative source desirable, included is a summary on the seizure problem by Archibald Cox. (See also items "c" and "e," under VIII, below.)

It should be noted that the unspoken assumptions behind seizure are; (1) that it will serve to prevent or end a strike because the workers become, at least temporarily, employees of the Federal Government; and (2) that strikes against the Federal Government will not take place. Included also in this section is a copy of a law (item "e") prohibiting the employment by the Government of individuals who engage in such strikes.

The history of seizure as a means of labor dispute settlement indicates that what usually happens is: (1) the Federal Government takes over the plant; (2) it gives the workers some or all of what they couldn't get from their employer; (3) the strike emergency ends; (4) the plant is returned to private management; and (5) the employer has, in effect, accepted a settlement he would not accept in the first place.

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VI-a. (Source: Congress of the United States. In U.S. 57 Stats. 163, ch. 144. 78th Cong. (1943))

CHAPTER 144]

WAR LABOR DISPUTES ACT

AN ACT

Relating to the use and operation by the United States of certain plants, mines, 2nd facilities in the prosecution of the war, and preventing strikes, lock-outs, and stoppages of production, and for other purposes.

Benacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the "War Labor Disputes Act".

54 Stat. 892.

$309.

DEFINITIONS

SEC. 2. As used in this Act

(a) The term "person" means an individual, partnership, associa tion, corporation, business trust, or any organized group of persons. (b) The term "war contract" means

(1) a contract with the United States entered into on behalf of the United States by an officer or employee of the Department of War, the Department of the Navy, or the United States Maritime Commission;

(2) a contract with the United States entered into by the United States pursuant to an Act entitled "An Act to promote the defense of the United States";

(3) a contract, whether or not with the United States, for the production, manufacture, construction, reconstruction, installation, maintenance, storage, repair, mining, or transportation of— (A) any weapon, munition, aircraft, vessel, or boat; (B) any building, structure or facility;

(C) any machinery, tool, material, supply, article, or commodity; or

(D) any component material or part of or equipment for any article described in subparagraph (A), (B), or (C); the production, manufacture, construction, reconstruction, installation, maintenance, storage, repair, mining, or transportation of which by the contractor in question is found by the President as being contracted for in the prosecution of the war.

(c) The term "war contractor" means the person producing, manufacturing, constructing, reconstructing, installing, maintaining, storing, repairing, mining, or transporting under a war contract or a person whose plant, mine, or facility is equipped for the manufacture, production, or mining of any articles or materials which may be required in the prosecution of the war or which may be useful in connection therewith; but such term shall not include a carrier, as defined in title I of the Railway Labor Act, or a carrier by air subject to title II of such Act.

(d) The terms "employer", "employee", "representative", "labor organization", and "labor dispute" shall have the same meaning as in section 2 of the National Labor Relations Act.

POWER OF PRESIDENT TO TAKE POSSESSION OF PLANTS

SEC. 3. Section 9 of the Selective Training and Service Act of 509. U. s. C. app. 1940 is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following new paragraph:

Authority to take mines, plants, etc., useful in war effort.

"The power of the President under the foregoing provisions of this section to take immediate possession of any plant upon a failure to comply with any such provisions, and the authority granted by this section for the use and operation by the United States or in its interests of any plant of which possession is so taken, shall also apply as hereinafter provided to any plant, mine, or facility equipped for the manufacture, production, or mining of any articles or materials which may be required for the war effort or which may be useful Strikes or other la- in connection therewith. Such power and authority may be exercised by the President through such department or agency of the Government as he may designate, and may be exercised with respect to any such plant, mine, or facility whenever the President finds, after investigation, and proclaims that there is an interruption of the operation of such plant, mine, or facility as a result of a strike or other labor disturbance, that the war effort will be unduly impeded

bor disturbances.