facturing machine-gun mounts. Their contract with the C. I. O. has been ratified by the National Labor Relations Board. The Mechanics Educational Association of America members are picketing Evans and asking them to break the law. They are tipping over their trucks, hurling stones, and doing all kinds of illegal things. Now, that can be stopped, and I would suggest that it be stopped by the man who started it and that man is, with all due respect, the President of the United States, who stood on the city hall steps in Detroit and told the workers of Detroit "to go and get what they wanted; he would back them up." Now, we have got way beyond that point. He has been elected twice since then, and we are in an emergency, and if he would tell labor over the air or in any way possible that this is labor's war, and that they should play ball and work with him to take care of this defense program, I rather think that we might be able to work together and win this game, instead of having all this pettiness, with chips constantly on the shoulders of those fellows. We can work together like that and do a satisfactory job. If he doesn't do something about it, we will continue to have labor stoppages, and migration will be affected. It is practically civil war here in Detroit, and we are stepping on our own toes instead of going forward as we should as Americans. That is all I have to say. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Campbell. Our next witnesses will be Mr. Nicol, Mr. Keenan, and Colonel McSherry. TESTIMONY OF ERIC NICOL, ASSOCIATE CHIEF, LABOR SUPPLY BRANCH, OFFICE OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.; EDWARD L. KEENAN, ACTING CHAIRMAN, REGIONAL LABOR SUPPLY COMMITTEE, O. P. M., CLEVELAND, OHIO; AND COL. FRANK J. McSHERRY, DIRECTOR, DEFENSE TRAINING, 0. P. M., CLEVELAND, OHIO The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, Congressman Osmers will ask you the questions. Mr. OSMERS. We are anxious to find out from you gentlemen what we can about the possible migration of workers as a result of the curtailments and dislocations that have been created by the nationaldefense program. We are as much interested in in-migration for employment as we are in out-migration. THE BUFFALO PLAN Now, I understand that the Labor Division of the O. P. M. has devised, for dealing with the problem of priority unemployment, a formula popularly known as the "Buffalo Plan" and that you expect to extend it to the whole State of Michigan if possible. I would like to have your comment on a statement that was made yesterday before this committee by R. J. Thomas, of the Automobile Workers, who said that even in such a city as Buffalo, N. Y., where tremendous demands for national-defense labor are developing, the 60396-41-pt. 18-28 Buffalo plan by itself has provided employment up to September 20 for only 1,200 out of 3,600 unemployed automobile workers. He went on to say that in cities such as Flint or Detroit the plan would be still less effective. I notice from the statement that you submitted to the committee that those figures are substantially correct. (The statement referred to above is as follows:) STATEMENT BY ERIC A. NICOL, ACTING CHIEF, LABOR SUPPLY BRANCH, LABOR DIVISION, OFFICE OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C. The Labor Division of the Office of Production Management has as one of its major functions the provision of an adequate and continuous supply of trained manpower for the defense program. To perform this function, the Labor Division has established a National Labor Supply Committee composed of representatives of the several Government agencies which are concerned with the recruiting, training and job-placement of labor. On this committee also are representatives of other branches of the Labor Division. Among these branches are labor relations, defense training, training-within-industry, and priorities. The operating arm of the National Labor Supply Committee is the labor supply branch of the Labor Division, which coordinates the over-all program and policies developed by the National Labor Supply Committee and translates them into action. This labor supply branch functions throughout the country through 12 regional labor supply committees and local or industrial area labor supply committees, all of which are responsible for the direct application of the national program and policy for labor supply. CENTRAL AUTHORITY ON LABOR SUPPLY The efficient use of the Nation's labor supply and its training facilities requires that there be a central administrative authority which will direct the movement and training of workers toward the specific needs of defense production. The efforts of the labor supply branch are therefore shaped by the necessity of affecting the most productive employment of all available manpower. Consequently, there has been a broadening and intensification of placement of unemployed workers, of securing the highest possible utilization of skilled workers already employed and of training programs, both public and within the plants, in order that workers may be supplied in sufficient numbers in the needed occupations and at the proper time. PRIORITIES AND DISLOCATION OF WORKERS Priorities on raw materials and machinery create the problem of dislocation of workers in nondefense industry. Workers are displaced both by the curtailment of production resulting from the operation of priorities placed on raw materials such as copper, aluminum, and silk-and by the restrictions placed on output of certain items of a nondefense character such as mechanical refrigerators and bicycles. Failure to take prompt effective action on behalf of these thousands of displaced workers has a twofold effect upon the local and upon the national-defense program: First, it tends to undermine morale of the workers; second, it results in disorganization of the labor market and wasteful immobilization of manpower now critically needed. The labor supply branch is fully aware of problems incident to the labor shortages in one industry or one area and labor surpluses, including displacement of workers due to priorities, in other industries or areas. Consequently, it is attacking this labor supply problem on a Nation-wide as well as a local level. All the facilities of Government, management, and organized labor are being coordinated in a serious effort to prevent major dislocations, fruitless migration, and the consequent lowering of national morale. GOVERNMENT AGENCIES WORKING ON LABOR SUPPLY PROBLEM We should like to mention a number of these facilities and Government agencies that are actively associated with the labor supply branch in this work, in order to give the committee a picture of the extent to which all available resources have been brought to bear in the attack on the labor supply problem. The labor supply branch has the intimate and daily cooperation of four important branches within the Office of Production Management; the labor relations, the priorities, defense training, and training within industry. In addition, a similar working relationship is maintained with the United States Employment Service, and its 1,500 local employment offices. The participation of these units in the day-to-day functioning of the labor supply branch, both in Washington and in the various States and local communities, is one of closely integrated cooperation. There are seven other governmental agencies whose closely coordinated facilities, joined with those mentioned above, make it possible to anticipate labor supply and displacement problems before they become acute, thereby permitting speed and precision in developing corrective measures to be undertaken. LABOR RECRUITMENT POLICY It might be well to turn, for a moment, to the labor recruitment policy under the national-defense program. The United States Employment Service through its regional offices and through the local offices of the individual State employment services is designated by the Office of Production Management as the official defense employment agency. Employers having defense contracts are urged to use public employment offices for the recruitment of workers. No employer should attempt by any methods to recruit labor from outside his local area or engage in any advertising, local or otherwise, without first consulting with the local public employment office as to the availability of local labor and the necessity of such action and the methods to be employed. INSTRUCTIONS TO UNITED STATES EMPLOYMENT SERVICE In order to achieve a proper and orderly recruitment of defense labor, the United States Employment Service has been instructed by the Office of Production Management to carry out the following responsibilities through the personnel of State employment service offices and the regional offices of the United States Employment Service: 1. To persuade employers to recruit labor by use of the facilities of the State employment service offices in order that the labor demands of defense industries may be pooled and that necessary labor turn-over and competition between employers may be avoided. 2. To urge workers unemployed and available for placement and workers employed on jobs not fully using their skills to register with the local offices in order that, insofar as possible, the supply of labor may be known and registers maintained of persons available for employment in defense industries. 3. To obtain periodically, from the operations of State employment service offices and other appropriate local sources, current information regarding supply and demand of labor, and changing characteristics of the labor market, as well as to supply such information to other governmental agencies associated with the defense program. 4. To consult with employers concerning the recruitment of workers in occupations in which there are shortages in order that first there may be ascertained the most adequate use of already employed workers through job analysis and upgrading, as well to obtain the employers' not anticipated labor needs. 5. To provide technical assistance in order to facilitate job analysis and upgrading through cooperation with the staff of the Training-Within-Industry Branch, Labor Division, Office of Production Management. 6. To exhaust the sources of available labor supply within the locality before resorting to recruitment of labor from outside the locality, or training outside the locality in filling employers' orders. This includes the responsibility of exerting every effort to place available workers in minority groups, such as Negroes, foreignborn, and native workers of foreign-born parentage; and to use women to the extent that they are qualified and available. Furthermore, the canvass of local sources of labor supply includes methods of advertising according to approved standards. 7. To urge employers, when orders cannot be filled locally, to utilize the Employment Service clearance machinery for recruitment of labor rather than the employers themselves attempting to secure such labor advertising methods and labor scouting. 8. To notify training-within-industry and apprenticeship field officers of any defense firms or industries needing technical advisory service on training problems. 9. To relate the public training program, insofar as possible, to the anticipated hiring schedules of defense employers in order to avoid the placement of orders for workers into clearance if there are local labor reserves which can be trained to meet the labor demands. State employment service offices are instructed to determine periodically the kinds of training needed in the community and to collaborate with the training authorities in establishing the necessary training courses and in recruiting persons for training courses, referring persons to training courses, and placing trainees in openings as they occur. RECRUITMENT BY CIVIL SERVICE The Civil Service Commission, through its 13 district offices, has the responsibility for recruiting civilian personnel for the Government departments participating in the defense program, including the manufacturing and maintenance establishments of the Federal Government. TRAINING-WITHIN-INDUSTRY PROGRAMS The national-defense training and training-within-industry programs are also intimately linked to the problems of labor supply and labor displacement. Special attention of the labor supply staff is being given at the present time particularly in this area to the problem of workers displaced through the action of material shortages and priorities for defense work. The Labor Supply Committee has established a basic over-all pattern of procedure utilizing all of its constituent units. From time to time the problem of worker displacement will justify the participation of representatives of the labor supply branch in conferences with employers and labor leaders in industrial areas. Such a conference has just been conducted in Detroit. COOPERATION OF MANAGEMENT AND LABOR We feel strongly that the most important factor in carrying out this program is the cooperation of the representatives of management and organized labor. For this reason we are appointing to the regional labor supply committees and in most regions there have been appointed, labor and management representatives who are expected to work with their constituent groups to effect the orderly transfer or reemployment of displaced workers. The management representative will assume the responsibility for determining the employers concerned and securing their full cooperation in carrying out the national policy of the Office of Production Management as developed by management and labor; for getting industries to cooperate in reemploying displaced workers; and for securing cooperation in giving advanced information as to lay-offs. The labor representatives will assume the responsibility for securing the cooperation and participation of representatives of organized labor on regional, State, and local levels in the registration of workers and in determining training needs and eligibility for placement. United Automobile Workers (Congress of Industrial Organizations), for example, has set up a national policy committee on displacement problems and appointed a national coordinator to be responsible for cooperating with Government agencies in getting their displaced workers reemployed in defense production. In turn their State and local committees have been appointed to help with the program of the Federal Government in their respective areas. CONFERENCE AFTER BUFFALO LAY-OFF In Buffalo in late July, 3,200 workers in three automobile plants were laid off while their factories were being reequipped to produce airplane motors. It was announced that the retooling would take 6 or 8 months. This situation was promptly brought to the attention of Office of Production Management Associate Director-General Sidney Hillman by the Congress of Industrial Organizations United Automobile Workers Union. Mr. Hillman immediately dispatched one of his assistants to Buffalo where he investigated the situation with Walter Reuther, director of the United Automobile Workers General Motors division, and local union officials. Representatives of the New York State Employment Service and the Buffalo Board of Education were present, and the extent of their possible cooperation was explored. "Key employers," holders of large defense contracts in the area, who might be able to absorb the displaced workers were suggested. The conference recommended a formal meeting with defense plant employers and with Government representatives from Washington to develop a program of action. Mr. Hillman promptly called the conference, which met in the New York State Office Building in Buffalo on August 7, with Arthur S. Flemming, Chief of the Labor Supply Branch, Office of Production Management, presiding. Other Washington officials represented the Labor Relations and Defense Training Branches of the Labor Division and the aircraft section of the Office of Production Management's Production Division. Bell Aircraft, Curtiss-Wright, Worthington Pump & Machinery, and the Buffalo Arms Corporation were the large defense plants which were at this time represented. They offered full cooperation and the following program was adopted and put into effect: PROGRAM ADOPTED FOR HANDLING BUFFALO SITUATION 1. Federal and State agencies were to be organized, with labor and employer cooperation, to get the displaced workers registered for unemployment compensation, which would be paid during the period of training necessary for defense work; these agencies would register and classify men available for immediate employment, and would arrange for retraining the balance as quickly as possible. 2. Qualified workers of this group were to be given preference for defense jobs over applicants from outside the Buffalo area. 3. The labor union representatives agreed to provide a master list of their membership in these plants, which was substantially the same as the list of displaced men. The union sent a letter to each of these, notifying him to register at the State employment service office for unemployment compensation benefits, and to be interviewed for assignment. A special card was attached, by which the employee was asked to notify the employment service of any changes in employment status during or after his training period. 4. The State employment service arranged for its whole staff to be at its offices at night, from 6 to 9 p. m., during the week of August 11, to interview displaced workers. About 700 workers were asked by the union to report one night, a similar group the next, and so on until all were interviewed. Vocational school and union officials were present to aid in the interviews and assignment to special classes. The four big defense plants and other Buffalo employers hired 400 of the displaced workers promptly, and 400 others were absorbed in other plants in the area. Most of the remaining workers were lined up for training aimed directly at defense needs in the Buffalo area. The local employment service manager, Herbert Helwig, was designated as the Office of Production Management representative to follow through on the program with the cooperation of the employers and local union committees. RESULTS OF THE BUFFALO PLAN The committee may be interested to know more specifically the amount of success the Buffalo plan has had. The following are the figures as of September 17, 1941: Laid off by General Motors Corporation... Did not register with the employment service.. 3, 244 2, 085 1, 159 1,275 674 1, 003 781 The following is the information as of September 22 regarding the Buffalo experience as specifically requested by your committee. We believe we are supplying the information desired. In compilation, we are following the numerical order of the questions: 1. About 4,700 were employed in the General Motors plants locally. 1,800 are employed by Ford, no lay-off as yet. |