Page:George Henry Soule - Recent Developments in Trade Unionism (1921).pdf/23



After America's entrance into the war, many of the unions advanced materially both in numbers and power: This was particularly true on the railroads and in the war industries such as shipbuilding and munition manufacturing. The shortage of labor, caused by the demand for production, and the shutting off of immigration placed the workers in a temporarily advantageous position. The government saw that it was wise, instead of letting the unions take full advantage of the situation, to give them official recognition, and thus to substitute arbitration and conciliation for the strikes which would otherwise have resulted. The national Railway Administration set up a series of labor adjustment boards which made easy the organization of a vast number of railway employees who had previously been intimidated by hostile employers. The same process went on under the Shipping Board and the Emergency Fleet Corporation, under the War and Navy Departments, and under the War Labor Board, which had jurisdiction over disputes in many industries necessary to the war, and not covered by the other boards. The result was an immense strengthening of unions such as the various railway crafts, the machinists, the boilermakers and iron shipbuilders, the longshoremen and transportation trades, and others.