[4] His mother was seriously injured in a horse and buggy accident when he was two years old,[5] and he was sent to live with his aunt and uncle, Sarah and Jacob Fairless, in nearby Justus, Ohio.
Fairless mowed his lawn, took care of his horses, plowed the fields of farms he owned, and did other general jobs for $9 a month (including meals).
He arrived early each morning, fired the coal-burning furnace, dusted desks and chairs, swept floors, and shoveled the sidewalks for $65 a year.
(Blaine graduated from Babson College, was a lieutenant in the United States Navy during World War II, and later was an electric company executive.
)[17] The couple appeared to have marital problems in 1940, and Jane Fairless went to Nevada (at the time, the only U.S. state to offer a quick and easy divorce), but they reconciled in May 1940.
[45] Philip Murray, director of SWOC, said Fairless' actions were not discouraging and predicted that his union would soon have enough power in the ERPs to force management to accept a collective bargaining agreement.
[46] Murray proved correct: By early November 1936, Fairless had been forced to schedule a meeting for ERP representatives in the Pittsburgh area to discuss a 10 cent an hour wage increase.
On Saturday, January 9, 1937, CIO president John L. Lewis had a chance encounter with U.S. Steel chairman Myron C. Taylor in the dining room at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C.
[52] On Sunday, March 1, Lewis met with Murray, CIO general counsel Lee Pressman, and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America president Sidney Hillman and told them that Taylor had just signed an agreement agreeing to recognize SWOC as a labor union representing workers at U.S. Steel; bargain collectively with SWOC; establish grievance and seniority procedures; grant an across-the-board wage increase; establish a five-day, eight-hour workwork; and grant time-and-a-half for overtime.
[53] Negotiations on additional terms of the agreement began between Fairless and Murray on March 13, and a one-year agreement reached four days later that provided for seniority rights; a week of paid vacation for any worker with more than five years of seniority; two weeks' notice of dismissal; arbitration of grievances; a no-strike clause; and a clause guaranteeing employer neutrality during union elections.
[55] On December 8, U.S. Steel's board of directors agreed to reincorporate as a Delaware company and to move the corporate headquarters from New York City to Pittsburgh.
[57] In 1938, Fairless' first year as president of U.S. Steel, an indefinite extension was negotiated to the SWOC collective bargaining agreement, effectively preventing a major wage cut at the company.
[67] On February 19, Fairless and Ransom E. Olds (founder of Oldsmobile) met with President Roosevelt in the White House to discuss mobilization needs.
Lewis agreed to resume work after a week in order to allow the National Defense Mediation Board (NDMB; a federal agency established to provide quick resolution of labor disputes in defense-critical industries) to study the matter.
[79] On November 22, Roosevelt asked Fairless, Lewis, and Dr. John R. Steelman (professor of economics and former director of the U.S. Conciliation Service) to form a committee to arbitrate the dispute themselves.
[84] Three weeks later, Fairless personally testified before the War Production Board that several managers at Carnegie-Illinois had falsified tests so that inferior grade steel could be sold to the government, and had pocketed the money saved as profits.
[91] Fairless was infuriated by the negotiations and subsequent contract, and in January 1944 said that he favored a return to the open shop as a means of reining in SWOC's power at the bargaining table.
[94] Secretary of Labor Lewis B. Schwellenbach urged the parties to come to an agreement out of a concern for national security,[95] but Fairless refused without a price increase.
[98] But the union agreed to a 30-day cooling off period, and on December 31 President Harry S. Truman won agreement from Fairless and Murray to establish a fact-finding board to study the issue.
[105] But Murray also reportedly said that the steel industry was engaged in a "conspiracy" to destroy the labor movement, a statement which outraged Fairless and led to a breakdown in talks.
[112] Strikes during and shortly after World War II convinced many in Congress that federal labor law should be amended to prevent these threats to national security.
The legislation established a National Labor-Management Panel to advise the president on how to avoid major disruptions in critical economic sectors in the future.
The Taft-Hartley Act's provisions permitting an injunction against a strike in an industry critical to national security were invoked an hour after the United Steelworkers walked off the job on July 7.
[116] Fairless proposed a fact-finding board (which had worked in the 1946 strike) and 60-day cooling off period on July 14,[117] and President Truman accepted the plan the following day.
[118] As the fact-finding board conducted its hearings, in August Fairless publicly denounced what he called was "dictatorial" governmental regulation of wages and prices.
[123] Fairless opened bargaining with the union, and President Truman won a postponement of the strike until October 1 in order to allow negotiations to bear fruit.
[130] With all the other major steel companies resuming production, Fairless set aside his previous opposition to the pension plan and signed with the union on November 11.
[139] In September 1956, President Eisenhower appointed Fairless chairman of International Development Advisory Board, a new federal commission of leading citizens charged with studying American foreign aid policies and making recommendations regarding its distribution.
[145] Fairless was awarded the Medal for Merit for advising the United States Army Chief of Ordnance during World War II on how to eliminate bottlenecks in the steel industry.
In 1956, the Stark County Ohio Board of Education merged Navarre-Bethlehem, Beach City, Brewster, Wilmot, and Sugarcreek School Districts into one.