Memorandum, Notes on Meeting with the Labor Group

Meeting With The Labor Group About 1:30 Dr. Steelman and Mr. Stowe met with union representatives and presented them with the memorandum which the industry group had spent most of the morning preparing, copy of which is attached. After reading the memorandum the union representatives concluded that the offer was a repetition of the second offer in New York (the industry members had admitted this), though they were most interested in the last paragraph of the memorandum which reads as follows: "Each of the two offers above set forth was authorized by the executive officers of the companies in reliance upon definite assurances made by responsible government officials as to price increases that would be permitted which, while not fully compensatory, were acceptable to the industry in the spirit of sacrifice by both sides to settle the controversy and permit uninterrupted production." It was at this point that the union felt that it was quite clear that no matter what type or kind of bargaining was entered into ither by management or by labor any result would necessarily have to be contingent upon what the industry construed to be an appropriate price increase. As far as the union representatives were concerned, this represented final and conclusive evidence that the industry was not bargaining in good faith. They pointed out that not only would the industry group insist that all matters on which the WSB had ruled with the industry no longer be considered as possible bargaining points but that in addition the industry in their memorandum had eliminated Board Recommendations 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11 and had in addition placed their own interpretation on when and how to bargain the WSB recommendations