Show Clarity Is Needed iro SAY that labor is in confusion is merely to toA toI To A I say what everybody knows But a great deal of the confusion is in the fact that we as yet have no settled law or even a common concept of labor rights and duties That is not strange The labor problem in its streamlined phase is new to the United States We are fumbling our way toward settled concep- concep The Wagner act is one of our first efforts to codify rights that are by no means commonly agreed upon Neither employers nor organized workers ate entirely satisfied with it as it stands Basic concepts of labor rights are arc not yet defined and no l 1 law lv v can be successful unless it reflects agreement nt For instance A labor election was held the theother theother other day by the New York labor relations board The question usually set up by such boards is do you wish to be represented in collective bargaining bargain bargain- ing by X union or Y union But this ballot offered a third alternative that neither union be chosen as representative And when all the ballots were counted X union got 88 83 Y union 21 and the vote for neither union was Does Docs this suggest that perhaps many of our OUt labor board elections have failed to offer the chance to vote that the really wanted Industrial elections should hould show the will of em em- as regards collective bargaining Industrial Industrial Industrial Indus Indus- trial elections do not do this perfectly and here there is room for experiment Picketing rights have not yet been agreed upon A recent N New w Jersey decision is that a astrike astrike astrike strike is over and picketing is illegal when the places of strikers have been filled and business has been resumed Certainly there will be no agreement that this is the final word On the other hand suppose there are arc em- em t. t in a plant and 10 of them want to strike They do and bring allies a as pickets to t prevent forcibly the theother other 90 from entering the I plant Is that picketing There is no agreement on the right and wrong c New York electrical manufacturers are suing stung a union there under the Sherman antitrust act r charging that it constitutes a monopoly With the administration blaming monopolies for price fLing fixing fixing fix fL ing and raising costs arbitrarily is it possible that closed unions will be held to be as much in restraint of trade as monopolists in the ordinary sense Can Carl union members sue their unions if they are damaged through acts of the unions This question too is before the courts There are a thousand questions like these on which people generally must be become ome agreed ant and their concepts written into law beo before e a s smooth o th I and systematic conduct of labor relations will be possible |