Woodrow Wilson to the District Lodge No. 55 of the International Association of Machinists

THE WHITE HOUSE
Washtington

Gentlemen:

I am in receipt of your resolutions of September 6th announcing that you have begun a strike against your employers in Bridgeport, Conn. You are members of the Bridgeport branches of the International Union of Machinists. As such, and with the approval of the National officers of your Union, you signed an agreement to submit the questions as to the terms of your employment to the National War Labor Board and to abide the award which in accordance with the rules of procedure approved by me might be made.

The members of the Board were not able to reach a unanimous conclusion on all the issues presented, and as provided in its constitution, the questions upon which they did not agree were carried before an arbitrator, the unanimous choice of the members of the Board.

The arbitrator thus chosen has made an award which more than ninety per cent of the workers affected accept. You who constuitute less than ten per cent refuse to abide the award although you are the best paid of the whole body of workers affected, and are, therefore, least entitled to press a further increase of wages because of the high cost of living. But, whatever the merits of the issue, it is closed by the award. Your strike against it is a breach of faith calculated to reflect on the sincerity of National organized labor in proclaiming its acceptance of the principles and machinery of the National War Labor Board.

If such disregard of the solemn adjudication of a tribunal to which both parties submitted their claims be temporized with, agreements become mere scraps of paper. If errors creep into awards, the proper remedy is submission to the award with an application for reghearing to the tribunal. But to strike against the award is disloyalty and dishonor.

The Smith & Wesson Company, of Springfield, Mass., engaged in government work, has refused to accept the mediation of the National War Labor Board and has flaunted its rules of decision approved by Presidential proclamation. With my consent the War Department hastaken over the plant and business of the Company to secure continuity in production and to prevent industrial disturbance.

It is of the highest importance to secure compliance with reasonable rules and procedure for the settlement of industrial disputes. Having exercised a drastic remedy with recalcitrant employers, it is my duty to use means equally well adapted to the end with lawless and faithless employes.

Therefore, I desire that you return to work and abide by the award. If you refuse, each of you will be barred from employment in any war industry in the community in which the strike occurs for a period of one year. During that time the United States Employment Service will decline to obtain employment for you in any war industry elsewhere in the United States, as well as under the War and Navy Departments, the Shipping Board, the Railroad Administration, and all other Government agencies, and the draft boards will be instructed to reject any claim of exemption based on your alleged usefulness on war production.

District Lodge No. 55,
International Association of Machinists,
and other striking workmen of Bridgeport, Conn.,
1087 Broad Street, Bridgeport, Conn.