Superseniority

It was all very simple. Abraham Fishgold, 28, got back his job as a welder after being honorably discharged from the Army. But later, men had to be laid off at Brooklyn's Sullivan Dry Dock & Repair Corp. And Fishgold was one of them, because his seniority-- including time in the service--was less than that of old hands.

That raised an immediate issue over which labor and veterans were already arguing. What does the Selective Service Act mean when it says that a private employer must, if possible, give a veteran back his job for at least one year? Does it mean that an employer must, if necessary, lay off a man with greater seniority--possibly even a veteran of World War I?

"Yes," said Abraham Fishgold. "Emphatically, yes," said the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Disabled American Veterans. "Absolutely, yes." said Major General Lewis B. Hershey, Selective Service Director. "Definitely, no," said Fishgold's own union (C.I.O.'s Marine & Shipbuilding Workers), supported by the rest of labor. It was an issue loaded with dynamite for postwar labor relations.

Last week, ripe for a showdown, New York's Selective Service Director, Colonel Arthur V. McDermott, demanded that the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn start proceedings to get Fishgold his job on a permanent basis. He snorted that local draft boards "are certainly not going to defer able-bodied young men under 30 upon the theory that they are irreplaceable when, at the same time, the shipyard in which they are employed is. denying work to equally skilled men who are honorably-discharged veterans because of lack of union seniority."

But a month ago, in an order to all U.S. attorneys, Attorney General Francis Biddle directed: "... Since the 'superseniority' interpretation is not free from doubt under the Act, the Department will expect to present the issue to the courts [when representing job-hunting veterans] with full candor."

The unions have long conceded that World War II servicemen's time in service should be counted in figuring their seniority in their peacetime jobs. At its Chicago convention last November, C.I.O. also agreed to waive initiation fees for veterans and to protect their seniority. Most A.F. of L. unions have done the same, and for the same reason: labor wants veterans as union members, not as opponents. But this does not mean that labor, to whom seniority is as vital as private property is to business, is not ready to fight for the seniority rights of its members.

Welder Fishgold had pressed an issue that may possibly breed a new antagonism between veterans and labor.

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