THE KOHLER STRIKE Union Violence and Administrative Law by SYLVESTER PETRO Professor of Law New York University School of Law HENRY REGNERY COMPANY Chicago 1961 © 1961 by Henry Regnery Company, Chicago Manufactured in the United States of America. Library of Congress Card No. 61-16005 First printing January 1961 Second printing March 1961 CONTENTS PREFACE v PART I KOHLER AND THE AUTO WORKERS UNION 1. KOHLER OF KOHLER 1 2. THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS BEFORE THE STRIKE 4 3. THE STRIKE BEGINS: VIOLENCE AND BARGAINING IN THE SUMMER OF 1954 11 4. THE SEPTEMBER NEGOTIATIONS 23 5. THE BOYCOTT, THE CLAYBOAT RIOT, AND CONCLUD- ING EVENTS 31 PART II THE NLRB DECISION 6. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DECISION 41 7. THE NLRB ON WHAT PROLONGED THE STRIKE 46 1. The Three-Cent Increase 47 2. The Failure To Supply Wage Information 54 3. The Striking Shell Department Employees 60 4. The September Negotiations 67 5. The "Unilateral" Increase of August 5,1955 72 6. Alex Doottei 75 8. THE "SPYING" AND OTHER ALLEGED UNFAIR PRACTICES 79 1. The "Spying" 79 2. The "Solicitation" of Alois Forstner 84 3. The "Coercion" of Gordon Majerus 85 4. The "Evictions'* 87 PART III THE DEEPER ISSUES 9. ON WINNING STRIKES AND BREAKING UNIONS 90 10. TOWARD THE RULE OF LAW 99 1. Kangaroo Court? 99 2. Politics and Prejudice 102 3. Fundamental Defects of Administrative Law 104 4. A Return to Law 110 APPENDIX A 113 APPENDIX B 115 PREFACE I have followed the Kohler Company's struggle with the United Automobile Workers Union for years, as stage after stage of the dispute has demon- strated the things that have gone wrong in the labor policy of the United States. But its full value as a textbook illustration of the defects of our labor policy was not complete until August 26, 1960, when the National Labor Relations Board handed down its decision on the charges brought by the UAW against the company. With that decision, the dispute ac- quires an historic significance, for now it points up in a dramatic way all the principal shortcomings of our present labor policy. These are four: the toleration shown to union vio- lence by government; the governmental favoritism which has encouraged union officials to fall into greater and greater antisocial excesses; the unfair and sometimes impossibly heavy burdens which have been placed on employers, all coming to rest eventually on the shoulders of the consuming public; and finally the reposing in administrative agencies of judicial functions which those agencies have abused, to the infinite harm of society. During its dispute with the Kohler Company, the United Automobile Workers Union engaged in sus- tained violence which covered almost the whole range of illegality, stopping just short of murder. It violated the laws of all levels of government, from local tres- pass laws to the federal government's National Labor Relations Act. The Kohler Company, on the other hand, despite the burdens placed upon employers by our labor relations laws and the provocations of the union, pursued throughout the dispute a course of legality. Yet the decision of the National Labor Re- lations Board rewards the union and punishes both the company and many of the employees who came to work for it during the strike, at a time when it took considerable courage to do so. I submit this document as evidence that our labor policy stands in compelling need of reform. While the Kohler dispute illustrates all the major evils of present labor policy which I have mentioned, it focuses attention on one perhaps more forcefully than on the others: the administrative law approach in labor relations. Experience with the National Labor Relations Board in this case alone is a strong argu- ment for restoring to the constitutional courts of this country the full authority of decision in labor cases. When it is realized that the defects of the Board re- vealed by this case are duplicated in countless others, the argument becomes overwhelming. I hope that this book will serve also to correct the historical record concerning the Kohler Company and Kohler Village. Using all the methods of propaganda, the officials of the Auto Workers Union have accused the Kohler Company of being a ''feudal, reactionary, dictatorial employer." They have led people to un- derstand that Kohler Village is a regimented "com- pany town" *whose residents are little more than exploited serfs. Frankly suspicious of such charges, I made an inde- pendent investigation of both the Village and the Company's history and policies, with the results sum- marized in Chapter 1. A whole book might easily be written about the company or the village; both are models of the best in American practice and tributes to the practicality of this country's highest ideals. But since the prime purposes of this book are to set forth the facts of the Kohler strike and to reveal the in- herent defects in administrative law, I have confined myself to the barest possible account of the character of the Kohler Company's policies and of life in Kohler Village. I am indebted to the officers of the Kohler Com- pany for the unreserved cooperation they have ex- tended in my efforts to ascertain the facts. They have been, I believe, entirely candid on every subject which I chose to explore. As to all facts and issues involved in the dispute with the Auto Workers, my sources have been official documents and the tran- script of the record in the Kohler-case hearings before the National Labor Relations Board and its trial examiner. SYLVESTER PETRO New York City [...]... offer, and Mr Conger said that it could not be settled on the basis of the union' s demands Mr Graskamp asked whether the company had made its final offer and whether there was any The union' s letter of Aug 10 and the company's reply of Aug 13 are reproduced in Appendices A and B, respectively 22 Kohler and the Auto Workers Union possibility of further concessions When Mr Conger repeated that the offer... discuss with them the contract issues which they had already covered so many times On and off throughout the month of June, 1954, Mr Conger and the company's negotiating team met with the union representatives, going over and over all the previous proposals and even considering new issues raised by the union and this in spite of the fact that acts of violence were being committed by union members and imported... this, for Mr Burkart even refused the request of the mediators that the parties go over the issues again In view of the deadlock, the union negotiators said, a strike vote would be taken on March 14 The view of the Kohler negotiators was similar On March 10, in response to a request from the mediators, they summarized the issues and the company's views, and said that the company had reached its final... of the case is why under all the circumstances the union chose to end the WERB truce by resuming mass picketing." With the violence growing daily, with community bitterness constantly increasing, and the Kohler employees who wanted to get to their jobs unable to enter the factory, the WERB on May 21 finally issued a comprehensive order against the union' s obstructive mass picketing and violence The. .. final and much delayed resort to the real courts of the land, one phase of the unlawful conduct ended Under threat of a comprehensive court order, the union leaders promised again to obey the original decree of the WERB At the same time, persuaded by the judge's suggestion that it credit the promise at least until it was broken, the Kohler management agreed once more to meet with the union leaders and. . .Kohler of Kohler 3 storage of butane (Kohler was once the largest industrial user of butane in the country, and perhaps still is) The contents of these silvery tanks could blow up the whole county if carelessly handled or sabotaged But the Kohler people do what they can and must to preclude either With all its charm and peace and quiet, Kohler Village is pretty isolated... during the February negotiations on the other issues These were to include all the agreements thus far reached The union negotiators declined this offer, too On March 2, the company announced to both the union and the employees involved that termination of a government contract on June 30, 1954, The Sequence of Events Before the Strike would necessitate ending the employment of the temporary workers in the. .. process The company's losses during the early months of the strike while the union had the plant virtually barricaded were enormous The personal harm done to those who wished to work during the strike and to their families was shameful But by the end of August, when specific court orders prohibited the mass picketing and the home demonstrations, things were picking up at Kohler Employment and production,... negotiations with the union, in the hope that such an offer would move the dispute off dead center These facts emerge from Judge Murphy's testimony before the McClellan Committee The Committee's Chief Counsel at one point asked the judge whether he had gone to the company "with the understanding that you could speak for the union and perhaps settle the strike. " Judge Murphy's The September Negotiations... doubted whether the judge's opinion was well-founded The Kohler negotiators were strongly convinced, in particular, that the union would insist that all the strikers be reinstated, even those whom Kohler intended to discharge because of their participation in illegal violence Contrary to the NLRB's finding, this problem 28 Kohler and the Auto Workers Union was not raised for the first time in the September . v PART I KOHLER AND THE AUTO WORKERS UNION 1. KOHLER OF KOHLER 1 2. THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS BEFORE THE STRIKE 4 3. THE STRIKE BEGINS: VIOLENCE AND BARGAINING. THE KOHLER STRIKE Union Violence and Administrative Law by SYLVESTER PETRO Professor of Law New York University School of Law HENRY REGNERY