shall have jurisdiction to approve agreements and to decide disputes submitted to it, subject to the provisions of said directive order and the limitations and principles contained therein. B. The commission at Boston, Mass.-With respect to the 25 New England cotton and rayon companies and the 6 New York and Pennsylvania rayon companies covered by the Directive Order of February 20, 1945, and such other companies as the Board may from time designate, this commission shall have jurisdiction to approve agreements and decide disputes submitted to it, subject to the provisions of said Directive Orders and the principles and limitations contained therein. II. Each commission shall consist of three members to be appointed by the Board, one of whom shall represent labor, one industry and one the public. The public member shall act as chairman. The Board may at any time appoint alternates or substitutes for the members of each commission. The labor and industry members of each commission, whether alternate or substitute, shall serve on a per-diem basis and shall be appointed by the Board from nominees submitted by the labor and industry members of the Board, respectively. The presence of all three members of each commission shall be necessary to constitute a quorum and a majority vote shall determine the decision of the commisison. III. The rulings of each commission on wage or salary adjustments and its directive orders in dispute cases shall have the same effect, and be subject to stay and review by the National War Labor Board to the same extent, as rulings and orders of the Regional War Labor Boards, as set forth in parts IV to VI of the Board's Rules of Procedure, as amended, except that, in addition to the review therein provided for, the Board shall in any case consider the merits of a petition for review from any ruling or order of either commission which is claimed to conflict with one or more of the "guideposts" or other limitations and principles set forth in the applicable Directive Orders of February 20, 1945, referred to above. IV. Each commission shall transmit regularly to the Board copies of its deci sions and rulings and such additional data and reports as the Board may from time to time require. NATIONAL WAR LABOR BOARD PRESS RELEASE For immediate release B-1963 F (Cleared and issued through the facilities of the Office of War Information) The National War Labor Board today released the following letter from the Director of Economic Stabilization approving the recent textile decisions: OFFICE OF ECONOMIC STABILIZATION, Re: 23 Southern Cotton Textile Companies, 25 New England Cotton and Rayon Companies, 6 New York and Pennsylvania Rayon Companies, and the Textile Workers Union of America, CIO (Cases Nos. 111-5110-D, 111-6308-D, 1115822-D, 11-2527-D, 111-7739-D, 111-4841-D, 111-6534-D, 111-4593-D, 1116301-D, 111-7107-D, 111-7159-D, 111-8105-D). Hon. GEORGE W. TAYLOR, Chairman, National War Labor Board, Department of Labor Building, Washington 25, D. C. DEAR DR. TAYLOR: I have received a report from the Office of Price Administration with reference to the price consequences of the textile wage increases granted under the War Labor Board's Directive Orders of February 20, 1945, as supplemented by its Orders of March 13, 1945, in the above cases, Neither this Office nor the Office of Price Administration have taken into consideration the wage adjustments that may possibly result from the provision of the Board's February 20th orders which direct the parties to negotiate "a more balanced and properly aligned wage rate structure" as more specifically indicated in those orders. If the Office of Price Administration subsequently reports that the adjustments ultimately approved or ordered by the Board in that connection will require price relief, this Office will make a final determination thereon. The Office of Price Administration reports that the authorization of wage increases for the 54 companies involved in the wage proceedings would not in itself require an industry-wide increase in the maximum price of any of the major items which such firms produce, although some of the participating companies may become entitled to individual price adjustments. Insofar as the principles approved in the wage decisions may be applied to companies not participating in the proceedings there might likewise be cases in which the company would become entitled to an individual adjustment, but the Office of Price Administration finds that it is unlikely that individual adjustments, even if the wage increase becomes industry-wide, would materially affect the level of industry prices. Whether an extension of the wage increase generally throughout the industry would at some future time require price increases for major textile items cannot be positively determined at the present time, but the Office of Price Administration concludes that any such future price increases would be of small percentage amounts even if it could be assumed that the wage increases would result in equivalent increases in labor costs, without offset for increased productivity, and that wage increases in the amount authorized will immediately become general for all firms in the industry. It is recognized that these assumptions are in some measure contrary to fact or probability, that the War Labor Board found that the proposed wage increases would increase labor productivity, and that any improvement in labor supply would make possible increased production which would materially affect labor costs. Furthermore, the Office of Price Administration calls attention to certain offsetting factors which might so change the situation in the future that no over-all price adjustment would become necessary in any event. A majority of the War Labor Board found the wage adjustments granted in these cases to be "clearly necessary to correct substandards of living," in accordance with Executive Order 9328, paragraph 2. Under these circumstances, I have not hesitated to approve such wage adjustments. For the foregoing reasons, and pursuant to the provisions of title II, paragraph 2, of Executive Order 9250, the wage increases granted by the War Labor Board's Directive Orders of February 20, 1945, as supplemented by its directive Orders of March 13, 1945, in these cases are approved and may be put into effect. } I take advantage of this opportunity to call the attention of everybody concerned-management, labor organizations, and the workers themselves-to the fact that an immediate and substantial increase in the total production of textiles is of supreme importance to the stabilization program. The acute need for greater production of textile goods is of almost unique significance in its critical relation to the fight to hold the cost of living down. I believe that the decisions of the War Labor Board have laid a broad foundation for sound employee relationships and for productive employment conditions in the industry. I urge everyone to now take full advantage of this favorable situation and by concerted action to plan for and achieve higher and higher levels of textile productions. I hope that you can convey to the interested parties the views expressed in the foregoing paragraph when you notify them that the wage adjustments may now be put into effect. Sincerely yours, WILLIAM H. DAVIS, Director. Senator TUNNELL. Is there anyone else who would like to be heard? Mr. POTOFSKY. Mr. Chairman, I am the general secretary-treasurer of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Miss Gladys Dickason, the director of research, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, has arranged the program of witnesses. Senator TUNNELL. All right, Miss Dickason. Miss DICKASON. I wish to present, members of the committee, Mrs. Lucille Durham, of Fayetteville, Tenn. TESTIMONY OF MRS. LUCILLE DURHAM, AMALGAMATED CLOTHING WORKERS OF AMERICA, FAYETTEVILLE, TENN. Senator TUNNELL. All right, Mrs. Durham. What is your work Mrs. DURHAM. I worked in the Blue Ridge Shirt Manufacturing Co. until I was laid off on a phone call this summer. Senator TUNNELL. What do you do? Mrs. DURHAM. Setting pockets on shirts. Senator TUNNELL. How long have you worked there? Mrs. DURHAM. I began working in the factories in 1930. Senator TUNNELL. At what wages did you begin working in 1930 Mrs. DURHAM. I started in at $2.50 a week. Senator TUNNELL. Do you mean $2.50 for a 6-day week? Mrs. DURHAM. No, sir; five. Senator TUNNELL. Have your wages been increased? Mrs. DURHAM. Well, I worked about 3 months at $2.50, then the plant shut up. I did not go back to work there. I got married and in 1937 I started to work in L. N. Gross & Co. in Fayetteville. is a dress factory. That Senator ELLENDER. Do you know why the plant shut down? Mrs. DURHAM. I think they went bankrupt. I won't say that for sure, because I don't remember. Senator TUNNELL. Probably it was the high wages. Mrs. DURHAM. I have been told that several lost money in it. I started working for the dress factory in 1937. Senator TUNNELL. How many hours a day? What did you get there? Mrs. DURHAM. Eight. I worked for 6 weeks on a 5-day week for a dollar a day. They raised me a quarter and I worked 6 weeks longer for $1.25. Then they raised me to $1.75. I worked 6 weeks for $1.75, and then they raised me to $2, and Mr. Gross came down from Cleveland and said if we did not go on piecework he was going to close the plant. We went on piecework and I could make more on piecework than the $2 a day. Then, when they found out that the hands could make more working like that, they began to cut down on the piecework rates. They moved from one thing to another so that we made just $2 each day we worked. I worked there along until the first of 1940 and then the plant shut down, or, anyway, it closed down for the lack of work, and I was off a few months, and then I went back. Senator ELLENDER. Why did it close down? Mrs. DURHAM. Lack of work, they said; they could not get the material. Senator ELLENDER. Oh. Mrs. DURHAM. Then, I went back and worked 2 months and then I was off again, on account of lack of material. Then, I went to the Blue Ridge shirt factory and went to work. I started in there at 25 cents an hour. Senator TUNNELL. Twenty-five cents an hour? Mrs. DURHAM. That is right. Senator TUNNELL. When was that? Mrs. DURHAM. In 1941. I worked, I think it was 6 weeks before I got 32 cents-I think it was; I think they raised it from 25 to 32, but I won't say for sure. Then, I worked until the night shift was laid off, and I went back to the L. N. Gross & Co., and worked awhile there. In 1942, if I am not mistaken, we got 40 cents an hour, and I worked there until we got short of work and I was laid off, and I went back to the shirt plant to work, because I have three children to support. Senator TUNNELL. How many? Mrs. DURHAM. Three. I went back to work at 40 cents an hour, and I worked for 40 cents an hour, which is all I ever got. Senator TUNNELL. Are you and your husband living together? Senator TUNNELL. And you have three children to support? Senator TUNNELL. You get 40 cents an hour; how many hours a week do you work? Mrs. DURHAM. Forty. Senator TUNNELL. That is $16. Do you have your own home, or do you rent? Mrs. DURHAM. I rent two small rooms in what has been a barn and made into a dwelling house now. Senator TUNNELL. Did they change it? Mrs. DURHAM. I think they just floored it, that is all. Senator TUNNELL. You have two small rooms in a barn? Mrs. DURILAM. Yes. Senator TUNNELL. Are there other apartments in the rest of the building? Mrs. DURHAM. Yes, sir; it is made into a six-room apartment house. Mrs. DURHAM. No; three families live there; two rooms each. Mrs. DURHAM. $1.50 per week. Senator TUNNELL. That leaves you about $14.50 after you pay your rent? Mrs. DURHAM. Well, when they get through taking out on my check, I only have $15.64 left. Senator TUNNELL. Then you pay $1.50 out of $15.64? Mrs. DURHAM. Yes, sir. Senator TUNNELL. That leaves $14.14. Mrs. DURHAM. I haven't got figures on it. I can't tell you how much is left. Senator TUNNELL. Well, can you support yourself and three children on that? Mrs. DURHAM. No, sir, I certainly can't. Miss DICKASON. May I ask the witness some questions? Senator TUNNELL. Go ahead. Miss DICKASON. In the first place, will you tell the members of the committee how far you went in school? Mrs. DURHAM. I got to the sixth grade. I had got started in it. My mother died. She left four babies. She left one 4 weeks old, one 6 years, and she left one 2 years, and I was the oldest, and I had to stay home and take care of them. Miss DICKASON. How old were you then? Mrs. DURHAM. Eleven. Miss DICKASON. How old were you when you started working in the factory? Mrs. DURHAM. I was near 14, but I told them I was 16, to get t work. Senator TUNNELL. You say you do not get enough to live on. No how much do you think you would need to live decently? Mrs. DURHAM. Well, several things. Senator TUNNELL. All right, tell us. Mrs. DURHAM. If you cooked beans and potatoes, and things h that, every day, would you call that living? Senator TUNNELL. I am trying to find out what the condition is. am not saying that it is right. Mrs. DURHAM. I cannot have any clothes for my children. We h to cut down on the food we got. Miss DICKASON. Where do you get your children's clothes? Mrs. DURHAM. My brother and my daddy give me all their clot and I make them over. Miss DICKASON. Do you make the suits for them yourself? Miss DICKASON. Where did you get the dress you have got on? Miss DICKASON. How much did that dress cost you? Mrs. DURHAM. $3. Miss DICKASON. So, you make your boys' clothes out of the clothes that your father and your brother give you? Mrs. DURHAM. Yes, ma'am. Mrs. DICKASON. How old are your boys? Mrs. DURHAM. I have one that will be 14 in December, and will be 12 Sunday, and I have one 10 the 29th of November. Miss DICKASON. Are all three of your boys in school? Mrs. DURHAM. No; my oldest boy works for the Pure Milk Co. Fayetteville at 75 cents a day. He has been out of school 2 years. Miss DICKASON. Why did you take him out of school? Mrs. DURHAM. Because I could not afford it. Miss DICKASON. When did your husband die? Mrs. DURHAM. The 8th of January this year. He was unable work 3 years. Miss DICKASON. Your husband was sick and you had to take y boy out of school and he went to work and was making 75 cents a d Mrs. DURHAM. Yes, ma'am. Miss DICKASON. How much a week does he make? Mrs. DURHAM. $5. Miss DICKASON. What does he do with his money? Mrs. DURHAM. He takes it and keeps himself in clothes, shoes, things he has to have, and helps me with the other two children. Miss DICKASON. You let him keep his money, but he buys clot for himself, shoes, and things for the other children? Mrs. DURHAM. No; I don't let him keep his money always. If need coal or food I take it from him. Miss DICKASON. Do your other boys do anything to help you out Mrs. DURHAM. I have one that has taken a paper route a week s He gets $1.50 a week. Miss DICKASON. Did either of the boys work during the summer Mrs. DURHAM. I had one to pick apples in the summer to buy school clothes. |