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Industrial Peacemaker George W Taylor S Contributions To Collective Bargaining Edward B Shils Online Ebook Texxtbook Full Chapter PDF
Industrial Peacemaker George W Taylor S Contributions To Collective Bargaining Edward B Shils Online Ebook Texxtbook Full Chapter PDF
Industrial Peacemaker George W Taylor S Contributions To Collective Bargaining Edward B Shils Online Ebook Texxtbook Full Chapter PDF
s Contributions to Collective
Bargaining Edward B. Shils
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I N D U S T R I A L P E A C E M A K E R
George W. Taylor, 1901-1972
INDUSTRIAL
PEACEMAKER
George W Taylors Cmtribution
to Collective Bargaining
Foreword ix
Introduction 1
Ε D WAR D Β . SΗIL S
Appendix 235
Index 239
Contributors 243
Foreword
If one approaches Taylor's life and his giant contributions from dif-
ferent perspectives, it is easy to perceive that Taylor transferred the
same liberal strains from one area to another. His speeches and his
papers, as well as his conduct in high governmental office, reflect not
only a love for his fellowman, but also a dedication to make America
a better place for all citizens.
We have chosen the University of Pennsylvania Press for this book,
for George W. Taylor was a true son of Pennsylvania. He pursued both
his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Wharton School and
taught there for more than forty years. Although he may have settled
more than two thousand labor disputes in his long career, teaching
and the classroom were his first loves, and he never could stay away
from the university very long.
Taylor has often been described as a "superman" by those who
admired him. Yet, those who knew him as we did saw him always as
one who was humble and who underplayed his role in national events.
More often he was one to say "no" to a presidential request than to
volunteer for some "glamorous" service. He hated to leave his dear
wife, Edith, or to miss several days of important classroom activity.
We hope this work will help to clarify his legacy to students of
economics and labor relations and will help others find better ways to
give each citizen a "fair shake" in the battle for economic survival.
Our deepest appreciation to Richard C. Henderson, who not only
copy-edited the original text but who also was responsible for moti-
vating the undersigned into writing the Introduction and who worked
closely with him in preparing the actual text of this chapter. Kathy
Coleman also assisted the undersigned in research on the Kaiser Steel
Long-Range Sharing Plan.
Our thanks also to Walter Duglin and David Edman for help with
basic research sources and to Mrs. Shirley Johnston, Mrs. Dalia
Vilgosas, and Miss Kathleen Roming for splendid work on the manu-
script.
Edward B. Shils
Philadelphia, Pa.
Introduction
EDWARD Β . SHILS
You were bom with an innate desire to get ahead, while displaying
a rather sensitive and retiring disposition. You are, however, basi-
cally very positive. You possess a keen intuitive sense, which, cou-
pled with a remarkable memory and a naturally industrious nature,
should enable you to gain your objective. By nature you are senti-
mental and a great lover of home.
2 EDWARD Β. SHILS
In the textile and hosiery industry, Taylor had seen much violence—
street fighting, trolleys overturned, even killings—and mutual distrust
among and between labor and management, and his studious, sensitive
nature must have led him, even as a youth, to know that there should
be better ways to settle differences.
After he had earned his Bachelor of Science degree in economics
and had served in 1923 as instructor in the Geography and Industry
Department at the Wharton School, his teaching career continued the
following year at Albright College (then Schuylkill College) in Read-
ing, Pennsylvania, another hosiery industry center. There he became
chairman of the Department of Business Administration and—thanks
to having played tackle on the Frankford team and even being squad
captain one year—graduate manager of athletics.
In 1924 he married Edith S. Ayling, a fellow Frankford High School
graduate. He earned his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Arts and
Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania in 1929 and that year
returned to the university as a research associate in the Industrial
Research Department.
It was another right place and right time. The Wharton School,
which has as its symbol the anvil, was founded at Penn in 1881 by
Joseph Wharton, member of a family of ironmongers who founded
Bethlehem Steel. As the first university school of business in the coun-
try, Wharton had established its Industrial Research Department to
carry on scientific investigations of industrial organization, manage-
ment, labor, and other economic factors in several important industries,
much in the same way that scientific research had been associated—
almost exclusively—with the medical and physical sciences. Studies of
the hosiery industry had begun in Reading in 1927 following a revision
of the university's plan of economic research. Rather than focus on
one economic factor separately as it operated in various industries, the
department felt that concentrated study of the interplay of all the
factors in a single industry or group of related industries would be
more valuable for research.
Studying for his doctorate at the time, Taylor chose for his thesis a
subject then of concern in Philadelphia and Reading and one in which,
given his background, he was especially interested—the overdevelop-
ment of the hosiery industry and the virtually certain deflation which
even then was foreseen by manufacturers and union leaders alike.
Following publication of his thesis, the university asked Dr. Taylor to
undertake a study of the interplay of economic factors in the hosiery
industry with particular emphasis on the Reading situation. Results of
Introduction 3
offered him a research job during his student days, was called on to
make a memorial address to the American Philosophical Society on
1 April 1973. Taylor had been an honored member of the Society.
In his closing remarks at the memorial, Willits said,
1. This quotation and others that appear subsequently in this chapter were
made by the individuals named in footnote 2. No effort was made, nor was it
the author's intention, to specifically identify the author of each quoted statement
which appears in chapter 1.
2. Benjamin Aaron, S. Stanley Alderfer, Joseph Brandschain, Frederick H.
Bullen, G. Allan Dash, Jr., William Dinsmore, Nathan P. Feinsinger, Β. W. Flem-
ing, Sylvester Garrett, Walter J. Gershenfeld, Lewis M. Gill, William Gomberg,
Morrison Handsaker, Ronald W. Haughton, Thomas Kennedy, Charles C. Killings-
worth, Berthold W. Levy, William N. Loucks, Charles A. Myers, Eli Rock, Samuel
H. Sackman, Ralph T. Seward, John W. Seybold, Edward B. Shils, Howard M.
Teaf, Jr., S. Herbert Unterberger, Rolf Valtin, and Paul Yager. I am extremely
grateful to Edith Taylor, who examined a rough draft and made important
comments.
10 WILLIAM Ε. S I ΜΚ I Ν
fields. But his reading interests outside labor were even more extensive.
For example, Greek history and philosophy and a wide range of biog-
raphies were of special interest to him. When he was engrossed in
some critical labor dispute or problem in a public-service assignment,
he would often turn in the evening to some familiar or new philosophic
or biographic source as a release from pressure and in a search for
guidance. Although he made limited spoken references to such reading
in his teaching, he could, on occasion, quote accurately and with perti-
nence when a reading source provided special insight. It was evident
that his reading contributed much to a central theme, the development
of collective bargaining as an important institution in a democracy.
A commentator has accurately said:
Taylor might not have flourished. Fortunately for him and for us, the
University of Pennsylvania had a wider perspective. Taylor's class-
room abilities and his public-service achievements made it possible
for the university to accept the fact that his intense public activities
had to limit the number of important publications. However, the uni-
versity did accord him an honorary doctorate and honors such as the
Hamwell chair.
In the 1930s, Taylor did produce a number of writings, principally
about the hosiery and textile industries. Later he promoted and edited
two monograph series: Industry-Wide Collective Bargaining (1948)
and Labor Arbitration (1952), both published by the University of
Pennsylvania Press. He also coauthored with Frank Pierson New Con-
cepts in Wage Determination, published in 1957 by McGraw-Hill. A
book of major consequence, however, was his Government Regulation
of Industrial Relations, published by Prentice-Hall in 1948.
Recognizing that there is so much that Taylor could have written,
how is the relatively limited amount of publication explained? I would
suggest that there were two basic reasons. For prolonged periods, cer-
tainly until about the mid-1950s and probably even later, the combina-
tion of teaching and other activity left little time to write. The other is
that he found it difficult to write a book. He was a good writer of
arbitration opinions, of speeches, and of relatively short articles. But a
book was different. One friend has suggested: "He lacked the desire to
set forth a grand design and to explore it thoroughly in a book. His
mind was too restless; he was, I think, constitutionally unable to let
everything else go by and concentrate on one thing for the consider-
able time required to write a good book." One of Taylor's own state-
ments, clearly recalled by several of us, was made after the publication
of Government Regulation of Industrial Relations: Τ have discovered
that you don't write a book; you revise it. And you don't finish a book;
you abandon it." Whatever the reason or reasons, labor practitioners
have lost something in the absence of a comprehensive statement of his
concepts of labor relations and, more particularly, of the roles of medi-
ation and arbitration in the settlement of disputes. This book is an at-
tempt to fill in some of the gaps and to bring under one cover much
that is now scattered.
The dominant result of Taylor's many contributions as a classroom
teacher has been the very significant numbers of people who either
have entered the labor relations field or have continued such work
actively, primarily because of interest and enthusiasm generated in a
Taylor class. If a list were made of all members of his University of
Pennsylvania classes and the names then traced to persons active in
14 W I L L I A M Ε. S I M K I N
ference where the press had few inhibitions about asking nasty ques-
tions. He could take it and also dish it out.
As co-secretary with Judge Walter P. Stacy of President Trunran's
1945 Labor-Management Conference, Taylor would stand after an ex-
hausting day at the end of a large conference room facing a very siz-
able group of press representatives. His task was enormous. Things
were not going well at the conference in terms of specific agreements.
Among other problems, John L. Lewis and Phil Murray were feuding.
Taylor did not wish to talk down to his press friends from the former
War Labor Board group, but he needed to educate the persons who
were new. It was important not to alarm the country about the state of
labor relations in that postwar period. Perhaps most of all, he could
not afford to say anything that might impede possible progress between
labor and management representatives in the conference days ahead.
He accomplished much in these and other press conferences. Several
members of the Washington press corps who are among the best in the
United States on labor matters would be the first to give some of the
credit to Taylor.
Many teachers of labor relations and collective bargaining have
written more; some have had exposure to as many students; some may
have made roughly comparable overall teaching contributions; few, if
any, have exceeded the scope and versatility of Taylors teaching
influence.
Taylor as Counselor
archy. After the initial conference, one or more persons below the
board level would prepare a draft. Several conferences and drafts
might be required, the final draft generally one that was acceptable to
all participants. Conferences were supplemented by personal inter-
views. One former staff member recalls vividly an evening when Taylor
brought him in to his office and asked him to propose ideas for a stabi-
lization formula. As the Little Steel Formula had not yet emerged,
Taylor did not want the staff member as a sounding board; he wanted
ideas from all available sources.
Several persons have commented about Taylor's fertile mind, whether
in development of a War Labor Board policy document or in resolution
of a specific dispute.
One friend has noted how the words of Roosevelt's Executive Order
"to correct maladjustments or inequalities, to eliminate substandards of
living, to correct gross inequalities, or to aid in the effective prosecu-
tion of the war" were given life and meaning by N W L B policy state-
ments. The Little Steel Formula, treated at length in chapter 6, was a
rigid basic stabilization formula that could have persisted only in war-
time. Even then, the pressures against wage stabilization were so great
that some relief was necessary to continue basic stabilization; the re-
lated policy decisions provided a commonsense approach to such re-
lief. Most important and in contrast to the sometimes gibberish of
governmental regulations, the board's policy statements were so effec-
tively and simply worded and applied that they provided the basis for
constructive collective bargaining. Long-needed rationalizations of
wage structures and related inequity adjustments, not destructive of
stabilization, were bargained or provided by board decisions. The basic
steel industry Cooperative Wage Study program is a good example.
Taylor deserves major credit, both for the substance of what was done
and for the philosophy and methods utilized. Those who worked with
him will not forget the demonstration of effective leadership.
Three more general comments about Taylor's ingenuity are illustra-
tive of widespread opinion:
Taylor from the beginning, even though at the time I was actually only
his apprentice.
The second event was in January 1961. Taylor, G. Allan Dash, Jr.,
and I were sharing offices in Philadelphia. Taylor went out to Denver
for a meeting of the Kaiser Long Range Committee, of which he was
chairman.3 David L. Cole and John T. Dunlop were the other public
members. Arthur J. Goldberg, long active for the steelworkers on that
committee, was attending his last meeting, as he had just been nomi-
nated as Secretary of Labor by President Kennedy. Upon Taylor's
return, he said me, "Bill, I'd better warn you. You may be getting a
call from Washington soon about being director of the Federal Media-
tion and Conciliation Service [FMCS]." He did not elaborate. Later I
learned that Taylor, Cole, Dunlop, and Goldberg had had dinner one
night in Denver after Goldberg had been commissioned by President
Kennedy to find a new director. At that dinner, it appears that the four
of them hatched my prospective nomination. I had not been politically
active; moreover, I had not even dreamed of the FMCS job prior to
Taylor's warning statement, and my initial reaction to the possibility
was quite cool. Within a couple of weeks, however, the job had been
offered and accepted. It was a decision I have never regretted.
When Taylor opened a door for someone, he was not patronizing
about it. He expected no tribute of any kind. In many instances, the
person placed may not have known about Taylor's part in the process,
unless advised by someone else. This was a function he wanted to per-
form freely and unselfishly because of his devotion to labor-manage-
ment processes and because he was in a position to help find the right
person for the right place. Moreover, all of us have observed that
Taylor never put any pressure on us to accept an offer. He considered
that acceptance or rejection was a personal decision and that his role
should not go beyond the function of opening the door.
Taylor's counseling with labor and industry personalities was not
confined to advice about personnel. A sizable number of substantial
companies sought his services as a paid consultant. He did accept a
very limited number of such positions, but only under very stringent
self-imposed conditions. He refused to serve as an advocate in negotia-
tions or in any public capacity before a governmental agency or in
any labor dispute. He limited such consultation work to an in-house,
impartial approach to that company's labor-management problems.
A much more significant counseling role, unpaid and informal, was
with both labor and industry. His many friends in each camp would
Only rarely was any change made in the basic decision already written.
In the later stages of these discussions, the party representatives would
read the proposed decision in its entirety. Sometimes changes of lan-
guage would be made subsequently, to avoid possible repercussions
on other matters.
Taylor was adamant about avoidance of delay. Roughly half of the
decisions were issued within ten days after the hearing, despite what
might appear to be complicated procedures. More time was required
for the substantial volume of difficult piece rate cases that developed
out of installation of new knitting machines and other new equipment.
Also, to minimize travel expense, a sizable number of cases would be
heard on a typical four- to five-day trip to midwestern plants. The
resulting peaking of cases made it difficult to adhere consistently to the
ten-day objective. On an overall basis, the average days required per
case (hearing to issuance of final decision) during the period of my
apprenticeship were: 1939—22.0 days, 1940—27.5 days, and 1941—
23.6 days.4
Taylor's problem-solving concepts and his procedural methods in
grievance arbitration have sometimes been misunderstood or misin-
terpreted. If a grievance could be answered clearly by reference to
contractual provisions, he was insistent on application and enforcement
of the contract; he was a strict constructionist when the facts sup-
ported that type of answer. His more inventive and nonconformist
methods and procedures were utilized in that frequent type of case
where some strict constructionists have no answers or where contract
provisions have sometimes been misapplied.
An important feature of Taylor's concept of apprenticeship was that
there be no delay in breaking in the associate impartial chairman to
full responsibility status. He did not want the parties to get the notion
that I was only an assistant. Accordingly, I heard my first case inde-
pendently only about one month after starting the job, and the fre-
quency of cases so heard increased rapidly as time went on. For such
cases, the two of us would discuss the case thoroughly, and Taylor
would give careful appraisal to the written decision, often with valu-
able suggestions. However, he did not sign or countersign any decision
when he had not conducted the hearing. Consequently, by the time he
resigned in 1941, the parties had become well adjusted to an orderly
transition.
In men's clothing and in the dress industry, the impartial-chairman-
associate-impartial-chairman relationship was essentially the same as in
4. Thomas Kennedy, Effective Labor Arbitration (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1 9 4 8 ) , Appendix A, Table 15.
George W. Taylor: Teacher—Counselor—Friend 25
tion and after hearing a difficult case, several would say to themselves,
"I need to have lunch with George." When the invitation came, Taylor
would surmise what was ahead but he usually accepted. On those
occasions, he was careful to avoid deciding the case. He did not be-
lieve that anyone could fully understand a case unless he had person-
ally heard it and observed the people at the hearing. Moreover, he did
not want any individual in the Philadelphia group to become too
dependent on him. However, he was quite pointed in indicating dis-
approval when he was reasonably certain that someone was on the
wrong track. He also would attempt to stimulate more thinking by
asking pertinent questions. In short, he used much the same tactics that
he frequently employed with parties at a hearing or with students in
his classes.
There is no stereotype of a "Philadelphia arbitrator." Fortunately for
us and for the parties we serve, we are individuals with our own minus
or plus characteristics. However, it is fair to say that most of us would
be proud if we could believe that we had really earned the sometimes-
voiced application of "a Taylor-made arbitrator."
Taylor as a Friend
Conclusion
When all the many and varied aspects of George Taylor's role as a
teacher, counselor, and friend are combined, it is no exaggeration to
conclude that, over the long span of his working years, he had more
constructive influence as an impartial activist in labor relations than
any other individual in the United States.
2
Early Years: Grievance Arbitration
WALTER J. GERSHENFELD
EARLY INFLUENCES
George Taylor and grievance arbitration, the man and the institution,
are deeply intertwined. George Taylor is remembered as an architect,
leading practitioner, and thoughtful analyst of grievance arbitration.
Taylor came to the labor-management field when the modern form
was coming of age. His first exposure was as a student and professor
in the 1920s. He was aware of early arbitration efforts including T h e
Protocol" between the International Ladies Garment Workers Union
and the clothing industry and other arbitration activity, principally in a
number of small industries in New York City. He often mentioned the
millinery industry as a pioneer in arbitration.
Undoubtedly, however, the strongest early influence on Taylor's
ideas on arbitration came from a series of local-market agreements
establishing impartial chairmanships in the men's clothing industry.
Here, he considered the agreement between the Amalgamated Cloth-
ing Workers and Hart, Schaffner & Marx a breakthrough. Taylor fre-
quently acknowledged the intellectual leadership provided by leading
men's clothing industry arbitrators, notably Harry Millis and William
Leiserson. He also benefited from the early studies on arbitration by
Edwin Witte.
WALTER J GERSHENFELD
HOSIERY
It was against this background that Taylor was appointed the second
impartial chairman by the Full Fashioned Hosiery Manufacturers of
America, Inc. and the American Federation of Hosiery Workers. The
impartial chairmanship of the hosiery industry was the first national
arbitration arrangement among union manufacturers in the United
States. A heavy concentration of these manufacturers was located in
Philadelphia and environs, a large number of companies operated in
the midwest, and New England was represented by a few companies.
The parties had named Dr. Paul Abelson as their first impartial
chairman for the years 1929-31. When Abelson stepped down, George
Taylor was an easy choice as his successor. Taylor had lived and
worked in Philadelphia and Reading, both hosiery centers. He had
published research studies of the hosiery industry and was known as
an expert in the labor relations field. Taylor was appointed impartial
chairman by the parties in 1931 and continued in that office until 1941.
Three characteristics of the agreement under which Taylor worked
are worth noting. It included lengthy lists of virtually universal piece
rates, substantive clauses were frequently skeletal, and the impartial
chairman was given broad jurisdiction and authority to handle almost
any grievance. He was also expected to sit in on contract negotiations,
where his principal role was to learn firsthand what the agreement of
Early Years: Grievance Arbitration 31
MEN'S CLOTHING
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