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Labor Participation in the Office of Price Administration
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
Extract
The movement for labor participation in governmental agencies began long before America's entry into World War II, but no significant progress was made until the beginning of the national defense program. Recent economic pressures and the enlarged wartime influence of federal administrative agencies have intensified labor's demand for a more direct voice in the affairs of these agencies.
As early as 1939, when the National Resources Planning Board was created by President Roosevelt, labor manifested its concern over the failure to provide for its representation on the Board. At its 1939 convention, the AFL adopted a resolution providing that “on all War Boards, Labor shall be adequately represented by men appointed from the trade unions themselves.” A similar demand for appropriate representation on all important federal and state administrative agencies was made by the 1939 convention of the CIO.
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- Copyright © American Political Science Association 1946
References
1 Report of Proceedings, 59th Annual Convention, AFL, Oct., 1939, p. 510.
2 Daily Proceedings, Second Constitutional Convention, CIO, Oct., 1939, p. 235.
3 The committee was made up of six representatives of the AFL, six of the CIO, and four of the Railroad Brotherhoods.
4 In the OPA quarterly report to Congress for October–December, 1942, the functions of the Labor Policy Committee and the Labor Office were set forth at length and given prominence, and the OPA order creating the LPC was included. Further legislative sanction has been given the LPC through the annual financial appropriation to the Labor Office, one of whose major functions has been to provide administrative service to the LPC.
5 The fact that Henderson did not consult any of the labor organizations regarding Brooks' appointment was one of the earliest sources of friction.
6 Tire rationing began before the OPA came into existence, while gasoline rationing was inaugurated, on a voluntary basis, along the Eastern seaboard in May, 1942. A few months later, gas rationing was made compulsory, and was subsequently extended to the rest of the country.
7 Travelling from plant to plant in the performance of their official union duties.
8 OPA Administrative Order No. 29 officially establishing a Labor Office was issued on June 30, 1942.
9 On May 9, Brooks sent a memorandum to Henderson urging the appointment of labor liaison officers to be attached to the OPA Labor Office, and the formation of a Labor Policy Committee.
10 The Director and Assistant Director are chosen by the Administrator (with the approval of the Labor Policy Committee), and are directly responsible to him. They are not necessarily drawn from the ranks of labor.
11 June 23, 1942.
12 Official sanction of the LPC was given in OPA Administrative Order No. 30, issued June 30, 1942.
13 This was true under Leon Henderson and Chester Bowles. Prentiss Brown frequently absented himself from LPC meetings. In a memorandum to Mr. Brown on the subject of Administrator-LPC relationship, on May 6, 1943, the Committee asked him “if at all possible” to meet with the LPC at least every two weeks, and to meet with its executive committee on alternate weeks. (The executive committee is composed of the chairmen of the three constituent groups.)
14 Sec. 2 of Administrative Order No. 30.
15 OPA executives have been instructed to consult with the LPC or its representatives on all important matters of policy before orders or regulations are issued or revised.
16 It will be recalled that on October 2, 1942, Congress passed the Anti-Inflation Act directing the President to stabilize prices, wages, and salaries on the basis of the levels of September 15, 1942. On October 3, the President issued Executive Order 9250, which formulated policy and organization for stabilizing the cost of living and preventing inflation. He designated the War Labor Board as the agency to administer wage controls, and gave it the necessary jurisdiction and powers over defense industries.
17 This was during the period before the “Little Steel” formula.
18 The OPA used wages as an element in the formulation of prices. It took the position that if an employer wants to raise wages he must take them out of profits.
19 According to the provisions of the formula, wage raises amounting to no more than 15 per cent above wages received on January 1, 1941, could be granted by the War Labor Board, except in certain sub-standard cases.
20 Issued in April, 1942.
21 Civilian defense councils were branches of the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD) established in May, 1941, by an executive order of the President. Among the functions of the OCD was the recruitment of all volunteers for service in government war agencies.
22 Field Administrative Letter No. 3, relating to the nomination of local war price and rationing boards (Sec. B6), issued May 19, 1942, states that “membership of the individual boards should include members from labor and, where appropriate, members from agriculture. In the selection of labor and farm members, the nominating body should consult the recognized state and local organizations of labor and farmers.”
23 By March, 1943, there were about 1,200 union members on local boards.
24 Minutes of LPC meeting, August 19, 1942.
25 Substantially the same attitude was expressed and similar action was taken by Henderson's successors regarding local labor participation.
26 Membership on the district labor advisory committees is not limited, as in the national committee, to the three major labor groups. Serving on local advisory committees are also members of the United Mine Workers, Brewery Workers, Confederated Unions, Farmers' Union, independent railway unions, etc.
27 To promote gas and tire conservation and ride-sharing, OPA regulations required that application for supplemental gas rations and tires, in plants employing 100 or more workers in war industries, be certified by a plant transportation committee composed of management and labor representatives. Approximately 30,000 such committees were established.
According to Robert R. R. Brooks, this section of the mileage rationing regulations was “based on the common sense precepts of industrial democracy: (a) necessary restraints are more likely to be enforceable when those who are restrained share in the enforcement; (b) both labor and management representatives have channels of communication with their constituencies which should be utilized in explaining and developing the conservation program; (c) both labor and management have detailed knowledge of individual situations which is of value in making mileage rationing effective.”
28 The LPC has thus occupied a position analogous to the other advisory groups of the OPA.
29 Though full consultation with labor was favored by the OPA, it often fell down in the mechanics of carrying it out.
30 See Lee, Kendrick, Labor in Government, p. 265.Google Scholar Regarding the fear of a “corporative” state, Robert R. R. Brooks said to this writer; “It is not form that determines the corporative state, but locus of power; as long as unions remain free from state control, there is no such danger.” According to Avery Leiserson (“A Study in Representation Interests”), “… in the prevailing current of thought in public administration … the overwhelming trend of opinion favors the elimination of explicit interest representation in all forms but that of advice.”
31 An example of the freedom of criticism exercised by the LPC is its public statement of July 30, 1944, charging that the OPA canned fruit and vegetable-grading regulations “leave consumers at the mercy of unscrupulous canners who would overcharge their customers.”
32 As of December, 1944.
33 As estimated by Peterson, Florence, Chief of Industrial Relations Division, Bureau of Labor Statistics (American Labor Unions, p. 56).Google Scholar