Destructive Creation by Mark R Wilson

Author:Mark R Wilson [Wilson, Mark R]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780812248333
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Published: 2016-02-15T05:00:00+00:00

From the No-Strike Pledge to the Smith-Connally Act

In the months that followed the shock of Pearl Harbor, when the no-strike, no-lockout pledge was still fresh, serious labor disturbances and seizures were rare. In 1942, which saw far fewer strikes than the previous year, there were only five seizures. During the first half of 1943, which saw a major increase in strikes, the government resorted to takeovers on only three occasions. Given that the number of American plants engaged in war production had grown significantly, this meant that the seizure rate for this period was far below what it had been in 1941.48

Among the relatively small number of seizures during the first two years after Pearl Harbor, moreover, several did not involve labor disputes. On six occasions between April 1942 and January 1944, the Navy Department seized plants because of what it regarded as management failures to achieve adequate production.

The seizures in response to production problems were really a subset of a larger group of cases, in which authorities in Washington pressured underperforming contractors to change management. One of these occurred at Consolidated Aircraft, a top producer of bomber aircraft. During 1941, War and Navy Department officials became dissatisfied with the leadership of Reuben Fleet, the company’s founder and president. Fleet’s persistent conflicts with unionists did not help matters, but officials in Washington also believed that the company’s plants in San Diego and Fort Worth were failing to respond quickly enough to growing military demand. So in November 1941, they pushed Fleet into retirement, by arranging to have his company purchased by the smaller Vultee Aircraft. Brought in to head the new enterprise was Tom M. Girdler, president of Republic Steel. This move was hardly applauded by labor leaders, who knew Girdler as a fervent opponent of unions. But the reorganized company, which would eventually change its name to Consolidated-Vultee, succeeded in massproducing its B-24 bombers.49

Government officials forced changes in management in a variety of other companies, including ten suppliers of merchant ships. One of these was Savannah Shipyards, an upstart enterprise led by Frank Cohen. Although he had little knowledge of the shipbuilding business, Cohen had managed in October 1941 to get a Maritime Commission (USMC) contract for twelve Liberty ships. Using several million dollars in government funds, Cohen set up his own construction company to build the yard, in Savannah, Georgia. But when there was little evidence of progress by the time of Pearl Harbor, the USMC canceled Cohen’s contract and brought in new management. The yard was completed and run by a new entity, the Southeastern Shipbuilding Corporation. There were comparable developments at an even larger yard in South Portland, Maine, where Liberty ship production was delayed by poor management, as well as labor troubles. In January 1943, after months of subpar output, congressional investigations, and strikes, the USMC ousted the old management team, which had been headed by Pete Newell of Bath Iron Works. The USMC installed a new group of managers from the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Company, part of the Todd Shipbuilding Corporation.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.