The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1937. THE STEEL AGREEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LVXIII, Issue 53, 4 March 1937, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1937. THE STEEL AGREEMENT.

For the cause that lacks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

A major change in ii:t!ii>trhil relationships i in the United States is indicated by the report of an agreement between the Carnegie Corporation and the Steel Workers" Union. To those familiar with the history of the conflict between Capital and Labour in the steel industry, such a development will seem almost incredible. The Steel Corporation throughout its history has opposed relentlessly the unionisation of its workers, and even in reeent years there has been little signs ot! any modification of its attitude. Yet now one iof its constituent companies has not only recognised the union, but has granted the union's demands. I This agreement is th<> outcome o£ a combination of circumstances, political and economic. First, President Koosevelt is unmistakably .sympathetic to the workers' aims and aspirations. The National Industrial Recovery Act, "originally written as a charter for business, became at the same time the Magna Charta of organised Labour." The famous Section 7A specified that the right of organisation and collective bargaining on the part of Labour should not be impaired. The I whole Act was nullified by the Supreme Court, but Section 7A was re-enacted in the National Labour Relations Act, which also is in danger jof being thrown out by the Court. In the last 'session of Congress there was passed the Public Contracts Act, which requires contractors doing business with the Government to maintain a fairly high code of labour standards, in the hope that these standards will become the rule. It appears that the Steel Corporation has been obliged to adhere to these standards, if only because it is expectant of large Government contracts.

The Steel Corporation's decision to recognise the union has been influenced also by the knowledge that business activity is increasing fast, and that the steel industry has before it a period of prosperity —if only it can avert labour troubles. The threat of such troubles was real and imminent, for the campaign of the Committee of Industrial Organisation, felt first in the automobile industry, was already indirectly affecting steel, and soon was to affect it directly. The industry may therefore have purchased a period of prosperity, possibly temporary, at the cost of a long-cherished principle. But, in the long view, it is preferable that Capital and Labour in one of the country's fundamental industries should come,to terms rather than that both should have terms imposed upon them by the .Federal Government.