Monday, Jul. 26, 1943

Protest from Brooklyn

LABOR

Brooklyn, home of Dodgerism, target of radio comedians,* and a maze to Manhattan taxi drivers, is also a city of unsubmissive businessmen. In 1935 Brooklyn's four poultry-marketing Schechter brothers defied the National Recovery Administration, and the Supreme Court threw NRA out in the famed "sick chicken" case. Last week a Brooklyn shipbuilder, Bernard A. Moran, became the first U.S. employer to challenge the War Labor Board's powers under the new Connally-Smith-Harness anti-strike act.

C.I.O.'s Marine and Shipbuilding Workers has tried since November 1938 to get a contract with Moran's Atlantic Basin Iron Works. Last month WLB ordered Moran to sign a union security (maintenance-of-membership) contract. Moran refused. Summoned before WLB, Shipbuilder Moran and his attorney argued that WLB could not even force him to compulsory arbitration.

Moran's yard converts and repairs ships for the Army, Navy and Maritime Commission. Moran's attorney contended that the Connally-Smith-Harness Act placed WLB under the Wagner act, that therefore WLB can no longer force an employer to sign any clause to which he objects. He quoted Representative Howard W. Smith, co-author of the legislation, to show that the act prohibits WLB from forcing maintenance-of-membership contracts. Retorted WLB: the House, by a 3-to-1 vote, June 4, specifically rejected such an amendment to the Connally-Smith-Harness bill.

Last week Moran bluntly told WLB he would not comply with its order. If he continues his defiance, WLB can seek to have Shipbuilder Moran stripped of his Government war contracts. Or President Roosevelt could seize the yard.

But Brooklynite Moran's faith is firm. A WLBster, discussing his refusal to arbitrate, asked:

"You believe in umpires, don't you? . . . Suppose we didn't have umpires? . . ."

Replied undaunted Shipbuilder Moran: "Brooklyn would always win."

* The Society for the Prevention of Disparaging Remarks About Brooklyn last week reported that Brooklyn had been maligned 2,623 times in 1942 on the radio, in newspapers and magazines, a drop from 6,457 times in 1941.

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