LABOR: Kohler Loses a Round

Ever since April 1954, when 2,800 United Auto Workers walked out of Wisconsin’s Kohler Co. over a contract dispute, company and union have been in a bitter stalemate. During the strike, Kohler is operating its plumbing-fixture plant with about 2,000 non-union employees, whom it steadfastly promises to keep on the job even when the fight is settled. Just as firmly, the U.A.W. sets as its price for peace the promise that all the strikers will be rehired, and at one point it tried to organize a nationwide boycott of Kohler products. Last week, handing down a decision that may only draw the battle lines tighter in the longest major U.S. labor dispute, a National Labor Relations Board examiner upheld the union and charged Kohler with unfair labor practices.

Examiner George A. Downing ruled that Kohler must take back strikers whose jobs were not filled by June 1, 1954—even if it has to lay off non-union employees to make room for them. Under the Taft-Hartley Law, a company cannot dismiss workers who strike against unfair labor practices. On June 1, 1954, said Downing. Kohler began defying that provision; it raised non-strikers’ pay without consulting the U.A.W., later fired 143 strikers and refused to bargain with the union over the dismissals.

Downing made two exceptions to his rehiring decision: Kohler need not take back 13 members of the union’s strike committee, fired for leading mass picketing (illegal under Taft-Hartley), and it does not have to reinstate 30 other workers fired for serious strike misconduct.

Kohler will appeal the ruling to the full NLRB. The company argued that some of the discharged workers were only temporary employees, working on Government contracts, who were laid off when the contracts were terminated. As for the wage raise, said Kohler, it was offered to the union and turned down before the strike. If the board rejects the appeal, Kohler will have to open some of its books to the U.A.W. and resume peace talks on the union’s terms.