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Home > Journals > Michigan Law Review > MLR > Volume 45 > Issue 4 (1947)

 

Abstract

This comment was originally prepared as a discussion of the decision of the District Court for the District of Columbia. Since it seemed probable that the Supreme Court's decision would be rendered before or shortly after the comment could be published in normal course, the editors decided to delay the printing of this issue of the Review so that a discussion of the Supreme Court opinions could be included. References to the opinions of the Supreme Court Justices appear in brackets.Ed.] Following a breakdown in the collective bargaining process in the spring of 1946 between the majority of the nation's bituminous coal mine operators on the one hand and the United Mine Workers of America on the other, the President of the United States, acting under authority of the War Labor Disputes Act, ordered the Secretary of the Interior to take possession of the mines where operation was interrupted or threatened with interruption. Pursuant to the order, on May 22, 1946 the United States, through the Secretary of the Interior, took possession of most of the bituminous coal mines of the nation. Subsequently, a contract, embodying changes in wages and other terms and conditions of employment, was executed by the Secretary of the Interior, Julius A. Krug, for the government and by the president of the United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, for the union. After approximately five months of operation under this contract, Lewis demanded renegotiation, relying on a construction of the contract which Krug insisted was erroneous. After a series of conferences, which began on November 1, 1946, the union and the government had not agreed on the construction of the contract or on any change in the terms of employment. On November 15, 1946, Lewis issued a unilateral notice of termination of the contract, effective November 20, in accordance with the construction of the contract for which he contended.

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