LABOR LAW - WAGE POLICY OF THE WAR LABOR BOARD

Authors

Paul M. Oberndorf, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

A dispute between International Union of Aluminum Workers and the Aluminum Company of America arose over the extension of a wage differential between the latter's northern and southern plants and the lack of a substantial differential between workers on the day, afternoon and night shifts. After the parties had failed to settle the dispute, the National War Labor Board took jurisdiction. Held, the north-south wage differentials should be whittled down, but not so drastically as to produce disruptive effects, and the night workers should be entitled to moderate bonuses. The board based its decision on two fundamental premises: (1) that the wage tribunal shall take into account the ability of the employer to pay wages above the minimum level of health and decency, and (2) that while it is not in the interest of the war program to take any steps which will lower unreasonably the standard of living, workers in the higher paid brackets have no right to expect that they will receive wage· increases which will follow day by day the rise in the cost of living. Labor, like other groups in the population, must make sacrifices in the interests of checking inflation. In re Aluminum Company of America, (N.W.L.B. 1942) 9 L.R.R. 684.

Recommended Citation

Paul M. Oberndorf, LABOR LAW - WAGE POLICY OF THE WAR LABOR BOARD, 40 Mich. L. Rev. 1260 (1942).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol40/iss8/18