Labor Classes

Meek, enthusiastic, little Samuel James Wanous (rhymes with "on us"), 37, business-administration professor at U.C.L.A., calls himself "just another of those damned bureaucrat professors" and conducts classes under the firm impression that sooner or later one of his students will shy an inkwell at him. Dr. Wanous has good reason to be apprehensive. With his colleague, energetic Dr. William Francis Brown, 33, he lectures on such contentious subjects as the Wagner Act, the Wages and Hours Act, the economic weapons of labor and management, the causes of industrial unrest. His students: management executives and union officials from the Douglas Aircraft Co.'s Long Beach, Calif, plant.

The two U.C.L.A. professors, working in the U.S. Office of Education's War Training Program, were planning a public course in labor relations when union-shy Donald Douglas suggested that instead they start a class for administration personnel at the factory. Wanous and Brown agreed, called in WLB officials as additional faculty, and embarked on an 18-week course of weekly classes. Taking off in rough weather just after Douglas had lost an NLRB election to the C.I.O., with many of Douglas' supervisors strongly antiunion, Wanous and Brown's factual, informative discussions were so successful that the C.I.O. promptly asked for classes for its organizers, shop stewards and unit chairmen.

This week the Wanous-Brown program passed its first anniversary. Not an inkwell had yet been thrown. The classes have spread to union hiring halls, high schools, other aircraft plants. Last week labor and management were still equally enthusiastic. Said O. G. Lompe, a Douglas jig builder and C.I.O. shop steward, "Sure, we like the class. They give us the straight facts. ..." Said Supervisor Robert Kennedy, in charge of building C-47s: "Yes sir, I learned a helluva lot." Said President Donald Douglas: "Most grievances grow from misunderstanding. When we learn how to analyze and understand the other fellow and his problems, most of our troubles and grievances will disappear."

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