Statement by the President Proposing Measures To Insure Industrial Peace in the Reconversion Period.

OUR NATIONAL WELFARE requires that during the reconversion period production of civilian goods and services go forward without interruption, and that labor and industry cooperate to keep strikes and lockouts at a minimum. We must work out means for the peaceful settlement of disputes that might adversely affect the transition to a peacetime economy.

We have had an exceptionally good record of industrial peace during the war. We must take the necessary steps now to insure a continuation of this record in the reconversion period before us. We must also, in this period, continue the stabilization program, modifying it to meet the changes in our economy which are now taking place. To these ends:

1. In the near future I shall call a conference of representatives of organized labor and industry, for the purpose of working out by agreement means to minimize the interruption of production by labor disputes in the reconversion period.

The foundation of our wartime industrial relations was an agreement between representatives of industry and labor, who met at the call of the President immediately after Pearl Harbor. This agreement provided that "for the duration of the war there shall be no strikes or lockouts," upon condition that a National War Labor Board be established for the peaceful adjustment of unsettled disputes. Pursuant to that agreement the President, by Executive Order 9017, created the War Labor Board, and Congress, in the War Labor Disputes Act, confirmed and strengthened its authority.

The Board is an emergency agency. Its effectiveness has been rooted in the wartime agreement which led to its establishment. As a result of that agreement industry and labor, with but very few exceptions, have voluntarily accepted the Board's decisions in the disputes which have been certified to it as affecting the war effort. A new industry labor agreement to minimize interruption of production by labor disputes during the reconversion period ahead of us is imperatively needed.

2. Pending the completion of the conference and until some new plan is worked out and made effective, disputes which cannot be settled by collective bargaining and conciliation, including disputes which threaten a substantial interference with the transition to a peacetime economy, should be handled by the War Labor Board under existing procedures. For that interim period I call upon the representatives of organized labor and industry to renew their no-strike and no-lockout pledges, and I shall expect both industry and labor in that period to continue to comply voluntarily, as they have in the past, with the directive orders of the War Labor Board.

3. The Stabilization Act is effective until June 30, 1946. During its continuance wage adjustments which might affect prices must continue to be subject to stabilization controls. With the ending of war production, however, there is no longer any threat of an inflationary bidding up of wage rates by competition in a short labor market. I am therefore authorizing the War Labor Board to release proposed voluntary wage increases from the necessity of approval upon condition that they will not be used in whole or in part as the basis for seeking an increase in price ceilings. Proposed wage increases requiring price relief must continue to be passed upon by the Board.

4. The reconversion from wartime to peacetime economy will undoubtedly give rise to maladjustments and inequities in wage rates which will tend to interfere with the effective transition to a peacetime economy. For the remaining period of its existence, the Board should be given authority to deal with these maladjustments and inequities, whose scope and nature cannot be clearly foreseen. I am therefore issuing a new Executive Order which will carry forward the criteria for passing upon wage increases as originally laid down in Executive Order 9250, and which will also vest in the Board authority to approve or direct increases which are necessary to aid in the effective transition to a peacetime economy. The new Executive Order will continue the previous requirement that any proposed wage increase affecting prices, if approved or directed by the Board, will become effective only if also approved by the Director of Economic Stabilization.

5. The War Labor Board should be terminated as soon after the conclusion of the forthcoming Industry-Labor conference as the orderly disposition of the work of the Board, and the provisions of the War Labor Disputes Act permit; and after facilities have been provided to take care of the wage stabilization functions under the Act of October 2, 1942.

6. Meanwhile, the strengthening of the Department of Labor, and the unification under it of functions properly belonging to it, are going forward under plans being formulated by the Secretary of Labor. In these plans particular stress is being laid on the upbuilding of the U.S. Conciliation Service. With the return to a peacetime economy and the elimination of the present temporary wartime agencies and procedures, we must look to collective bargaining, aided and supplemented by a truly effective system of conciliation and voluntary arbitration, as the best and most democratic method of maintaining sound industrial relations.