Executive Order 7154—Creating the Camden Board of Arbitration

By virtue of and pursuant to the authority vested in me, under Title I of the National Industrial Recovery Act, of June 16, 1933 [48 Stat. 195], as amended by the Act of June14, 1935 [Public Resolution No. 26, 74th Congress], and other provisions of law, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. The parties to the labor dispute at the Camden, New Jersey, yard of the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, having been unable to reach a mutual agreement with respect to matters in dispute between them, there is hereby created "The Camden Board of Arbitration" which shall be composed of Rear Admiral Henry A. Wiley, United States Navy, retired, Chairman; Robert Bruere of New York City; and Colonel Frank P. Douglass of Oklahoma City. Each member of the Board shall receive necessary travel and subsistence expenses, and in addition thereto, each member who at the time he is serving on the Board is not receiving any other salary from the United States, shall receive $25 per diem.

Section 2. The Board shall proceed immediately to investigate, hear evidence, and make findings of fact with a view to formulating, within sixty days, arbitration awards with respect to the following issues in controversy:

     (1) The matter of piece work or of incentive work;
     (2) The matter of adjustment of wages;
     (3) Matters relating to employment and working conditions which have been in dispute in connection with the renewal of the agreement, between the parties, of May 11, 1934; and
     (4) Miscellaneous questions which have been the source of dispute in connection with the recent stoppage of work at the Camden, New Jersey, yard of the New York Shipbuilding Corporation

Provided that, the Board, notwithstanding generality of the foregoing language, shall not entertain any request by Local No. 1 of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, for a preferential or closed shop, but in lieu thereof shall include in its award a provision that the New York Shipbuilding Corporation will not fill any vacant or new positions with other persons so long as employees who have been employed since August 1, 1933, are available, are competent, and willing to accept the same positions.

Section 3. In order that it may make its awards, the Board

(a) Shall request the New York Shipbuilding Corporation and Local No. 1 of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, to file with the Board, not later than noon, Tuesday, August 27, 1935, their separate written agreements to abide by the awards of the Board, and to embody them in an agreement, to be signed by the parties, to continue until the completion of the existing naval contracts.

(b) Shall request that the New York Shipbuilding Corporation file with it not later than noon, Tuesday, August 27, 1935, a signed agreement that all of the employees upon the payroll on 11 May, 1935, will, upon their application, be taken back without discrimination and under the same hours, wages and working conditions as prevailed when the strike commenced, and that the corporation will, pending a new agreement with the employees, operate the plant in every respect in accordance with the provisions of the expired agreement of 11 May 1934, except that while the Camden Board of Arbitration is in existence, questions which are not settled by the employees, stewards, foremen, general manager, or vice-president, as provided in Section 3 of said agreement of May 11, 1934, shall be referred for arbitration to said Camden Board of Arbitration, and during such time no other Board such as is contemplated in Section 4 of said agreement of May 11, 1934, shall be created, or shall arbitrate such questions.

(c) Shall request that Local No. 1, Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, file with it not later than noon, Tuesday, August 27, 1935, a signed agreement immediately to terminate the strike now in existence. Provided that no agreement requested by the Board in accordance with paragraphs (a), (b) or (c) above shall be effective or binding, unless all such requested agreements are filed.

Section 4. The Board shall transmit copies of its findings and such awards as it formulates to the President and to the parties to the dispute.

Section 5. In order to effectuate the purposes of this Order, there is hereby allotted to the Board the sum of $2,500 from the funds appropriated to carry out the provisions of the National Industrial Recovery Act.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

The White House,
August 22, 1935