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United Automobile Worker
-
1949-02-01
-
Vol. 13 No. 2
-
on
-
Yy
Yy
VOL.
1949
FEBRUARY,
13, NO. 2
a
LE
—
— Call International Conference
On 1949 Economic Objectives
Page 3 ..,
REUTHER SUBMITS PLAN FOR
HOMES, JOBS AND PLANES .,..
Auto Worker Earl Zander, His Family—and Social Security
4
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ae
yr
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ETE
— Page 10
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“Should We Adopt a Compulsory
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National Health Insurance Program”
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€
‘
,
t
Nation-wide
t\
broadcast
Broadcasting
j
over the facilities of the American
Pat eane
hE
Company, Tuesday, February
8:30 to 9:30 p. m., EST.
22, from
a
Page
UNITED
6
AUTOMOBILE
WORKER
“Ay
Conference Hears Ickes Proposal
For Huge Education Trust Fund
"he man who fought successfully to
at resources from private exploitation
federal government create a trust out of
will ‘‘ provide the children of the people
is particularly
Former
essential
Secretary
of
in the democratic
the
Interior’
Harold
L.
Ickes,
addressing
the
UAW-CIO-International Education
Conference
23,
would
in
Milwaukee,
estimated
the
provide
dollars
for
ple”
resources
than
education.
would
that
27 billion
“ignorant
“govern
ignorantly” and
en million more
waiting
oil
more
Ickes warned
for
January
admission
of
spects
or
the
of
less,
gress,”
trast
the
most
late
eratives
to
economic
public
decently
Ickes
of
interred
said,
the
now,
the
con-
“was
speed
with
hastened
to lay out
13%
of dollars for instruments
and
the
military
training
vate
veer
vive.
more
Con-
which
aid
it
8?
es-
philosophy—and
to so many
effecting
democracy
democracy
the
we
kind
must
and
system
have
our
are
of
pri-|
to
sur-|
'
AND
versity
billions
of war
of our
LATIMER
HAROLD
SPEAK
S. Lynd, author of ‘MidUSA” and Columbia Uni-
sociologist,
warned
of
the
real danger from the “task forces”
of the National Association of Manufacturers, and called on organized
labor for increased political action.
Mr. Lynd favored the creation of
an
HAILS CO-OPS
the conference
are
Robert
dletown,
to education.”
LINCOLN
Earlier,
self-help—its
application
enterprise
|LYND
young manhood, while at the same
time
balking
at
$300,000,000
for
federal
on
Christian
if political
as-
80th
of government.’’
human
needs— merits
encouragement by your organization.
Coop-
1955, sevwould be
ominous
and
emphasis
its practical
schools.
He said there was a current shortage
of 105,000 teachers.
“One
form
sentially
themselves
that by
children
save the vast tidelands®
has proposed that “ the
these oil lands,”’ which
with the education that
Murray
Lincoln, President
of the
Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, call
the
cooperative
movement
“a
healthy factor in our economic life.
Its
peo-
SSNS
heard
on
independent
Addressing
Social
labor
the
party.
conference
Security,
Murray
panel
Lati-
L.
ICKES
mer, nationally known Social Security
expert,
said,
“Some
hope
that legislative processes wouldn’t
leave
much
room
for
collective
bargaining.
That just isn’t so.”
Latimer said that “the legislative
line and the collective bargaining
line
were
necessarily
supplementary and
complementary
to each
other.”
George Baldanzi, Vice-President, Textile Workers Union
of America, CIO.
TEXTILE UNION LEADER
TALKS ON FOREIGN POLICY
“Labor carries a credential which is more acceptable to the
people of Europe than that presented by the conventional diplomat,’’ Textile Worker Vice-President George Baldanzi declared
in a key speech before the UAW National Education Conference
©
in Milwaukee.
Long
known
as
a
strong
advo-
cate of closer collaboration between
American
and
European
trade
unions, Baldanzi endorsed the statement made by Supreme Court Justice William
Douglas at the CIO
convention
in Portland
that changed
conditions have made labor “peculiarly qualified to bridge a gap that
has
been
United
growing
States
and
between
Europe.”
the
NEW LEADERS
The war, Baldanzi declared, has
produced a generation of new and
hardened labor leaders in Europe,
men as determined to resist totalitarianism vas they are to fight a
return
of unbridled,
dog-eat-dog
capitalism.
Opposed
to any attempt
to strong-
arm European countries into resurrecting capitalism as the price of
Marshall aid, the TWUA vice-pres-
sag
Murray Lincoln, President of the Ohio Farm Bureau, is addressing the Education Confer-
ence delegates. From left, seatéd, are George Burt, UAW Region 7 Director, Victor G.
Reuther, UAW Education Department Director and UAW-CIO Vice- President John W. Livingston.
From “Textile Labor” (TWUA-CIO):
WHO
WANTS
an answer in the form of a $700
car.
If General
Motors
won’t
make
one,
maybe
someone
else
will.
Otherwise,
a lot of us will keep
on strap-hanging; and the record
car output predicted for this year
may go begging for buyers.
A BUICK?
Frustrated Autoist Looks at GM
“Progress'"—and Can't See It
By
The
took
KENNETH
other
papers
to
Genefal
day
full-page
ads
brag
FIESTER
in
all
about
Motors
the
its
Buick
ads
to
complete
the
show
is
a
1948
with
statistics.
to
compared
automo-
better
1928
Chevrolet—
photographs
They
that
the
were
a
modern
buy,
for
and
supposed
Chevvy
the
ades back.
reverse,
news-
biles.
These
the
same
price
as its quality
machine
commanded
two
dec-
same
This
is
progress
NO
It's
pany
to
the
PROGRESS
IN
REVERSE
can
put
to
more
us
know
are
why
important,
going
to
not.
a
wait
funds had succeeded
in
the
European
problem
one
of relief
to
recovery,
but
that there is still a long way to go.
Even 1952, he felt, might not see
the end of internal readjustment
and reorganization.
Labor’s support of European aid
does not stop with participation in
the Marshall Plan, he added.
Direct support, in goods and money,
has been given to European unions,
while
the
CIO’s
Amalgamated
Clothing Workers have sponsored
establishment
of
tive clothing
Italy.
tainly
demic
a
large
factory
no assurance
freedom.
MANAGEMENT
“The
Board
shown
in
coopera-
northern
a
distinct
of
future
BIAS
of
Regents
bias
for
aca-
has
manage-
They
have
set up ciasses
for real estate
agents,
conducted
by
private
real
estate
men,
and
classes
for
Board
of
Commerce
representatives, conducted by businessmen—but
will
not
permit
classes of workers to be taught by
the
to
combrag. |
workers
a
better
And
car
good
until
what’s
many
we
of
get
or
representatives
of
workers.”
Earlier, Barney
Hopkins,
secretary of the Michigan
State CIO,
members
will
had declared, “CIO
program
any
in
participate
not
that is cleared only with General
Motors Corporajion
and not with
the Advisory "Council
set
up
for
that purpose.”
“Tor $1,300 than it did 20 years
If $1,300 couldn’t buy a better'| ago, it ought to be able to put
But
car today than it bought in 1928,| out a better $700 car, too.
Motors
isn’t
doing
it.
General
Motors
would
be out of| General
business—or
ought
to
be.
This}
Neither is Ford, Chrysler or any
~
kind
of improvement
is part of | of the others.
|
American
life. We
not
only
ex-|
A good
many
prospective
car-|
pect it; we demand it.
owners,
including
this one,
want}
The significant point, it seems
to me, is that General
Motors’
cheapest
product
now
sells for
estimated,
ment.
see how
courage
out
Baldanzi
Arthur Elder, without
hearing or
specification of any charges, is cer-
in
General Motors can’t very well
use the argument about “higher
costs” in this case.
If the company
general,
Marshall
changing
from
RECOVERY
One lone unidentified “student” ®
=
showed up for the second class.
tor
G.
Reuther,
director
of the
“The University of Michigan pro- UAW-CIQ, Education
Department.
gram is not acceptable,” said Vic- “The
program
was
devised
and
classes reopened
arbitrarily without approval of the Labor Advisory Council.
The
discharging
of
the
staff,
including
its director,
ee s Buick is called Chevrolet;
price, than a 20-year-old Buick.
s faster, better-looking and ae
Maybe the ads had a good
entle er on gas than the ’28 model.
So}
The trouble is, there aren’t|
on
some
readers,
but
they
were| |what?
|
no
hit
with
this
car-lover.
It any Chevvies any more.
seemed to me that General Motors
was
backing
up
my
big
_gripe
against the auto industry.
In
TO
Not one student showed up as the University of Michigan
opened its first class following ‘‘reorganization’ ” of Workers Education Service to suit the whims of the General Motors Corporation and its President C. E. Wilson.
CHEVVY
hard
has
RELIEF
WORKERS NIX CLASSES
TAILORED 10 SUIT GM
To get down to cases:
What is
General Motors offering for $700,
which
is about
what
a Chevvy|
brought in 1928?
~The answer is,
“Nothing.”
BUT
ident said, “If it takes democratic
socialism to meet the needs of the
people
of Europe,
then
let them
have democratic socialism.”
AFL
Regional Director
Pat Greathouse welcomes
delegates to Region 4 and Milwaukee.
conference
STAYS
OUT
An editorial in the Detroit Labor
News,
official
AFL
paper,
said,
will
election
spring
the
“Maybe
give the people of Michigan some
new
blood on the Board of Regents. Goodness knows it’s needed!”
UNITED
February, 1949
AUTOMOBILE
WORKER
Page
| UAW-CIO OPENS DRIVE TO UNITE
ALL FARM IMPLEMENT WORKERS
9
CHICAGO—A
fast-moving campaign to unite all American
farm implement
workers under the banner of the CIO was
launched on January 27, it was announced: here at UAW-CIO
Agricultural Implement Department headquarters.
The
UAW-CIO Vice-President
director of the union’s Agricultural Imple:
vas
announcement
John
W.
Livingston,
ment
Department.
COMPLETE
THE
uniting
plement
the
all
JOB
American
Livingston
de-
in
UAW-CIO,”
the
ranks
PAPERS
The
of
the
stances
overdue
past,”
he
said,
“circum-
ranks of the
and working
to
of the
the
FE
PASSED
campaign
locals.”
OUT
opened
with
dis-
of
UAW-CIO
Region
4,
led the crew of UAW-CIO
members and organizers who passed out
the papers at the gates of International Harvester’s West Pullman
Works in Chicago,
of six million
organized
has directed FE to merge
from
DEFIANCE
OF
at
the
gates,
grabbing
workers
and
and
shouting,
EAGER
CIO
tearing
“Don’t
FOR
papers
away
them
read
up
that!”
TRUTH
Despite this rude and undemo“FE was given 60 days in which
cratic behavior of the FE leaders,
to cooperate with the CIO to work
nearly all of the workers eagerly
this
problem
out
peacefully
and| accepted
the
papers
and
carried
democratically,” Livingston contin- | ?, hem into the plant.
Many of the
ued.
“But, instead of cooperating, the
FE
top
leaders
have
chosen’ to
defy the CIO.
They have refused
to discuss
the problem
with the
committee appointed by CIO President Philip Murray
for the purpose of assisting the merger.
“Their only response has been a
stream of name-calling propaganda
aimed
at the UAW-CIO
whole CIO.
ed January
The
26.
60-day
andthe
period
end-
One
hundred
and
members
ture
at
all
the
gates
plant
at
eagerness
Following
ers from a
the distribution, worknumber of FE plants
contacted
UAW-CIO
leaders
and
voiced their eagerness
to set up
committees to assist in speeding up
the
merger
CIO
directed
policy.
work
committees
plants that
the January
is
The
of
by
night
before,
75
Chicago’s
108
(McCormick),
agreed
to install UAW-CIO
as
bargaining agent in line
policy.
workers.
even
in
by
UAW-CIO organizers distributing
Works (FE Local 101) February 3.
DETROIT—Delegates
UAW-CIO Agricultural
FE
Local
to
work
collective
with CIO
Harvester
Chicago
Tractor
—Fountain
Photo.
to the regular January
Implement Wage-Hour
meeting
Council
of the®
yoted|NURB
election,
and
we
further
unanimously here January 15 to urge the International Union| tse the International Union
to promptly mobilize its full resources for the purpose of carry-| Promptly to mobilize the full reing out the CIO Executive Board resolution ordering the
Equipment Workers, C1O, to merge with the UAW-CIO.
The action was taken following®
receipt by several delegates of telegrams
from FE-GIO
local union
leaders urging formation ef a new
CIO union in the farm equipment
industry.
The resolution
adopted
by the Council described the suggestion
in these
telegrams
as a
smoke-screen
thrown
out by FECIO leaders to confuse the issue.
Excerpts from
resolution follow:
stewards
leaflets at International
Wage-Hour Council Urges Swift
UAW-CIO Action to Effect Merger
the
text
of
the
Whereas, Reliable reports have
reached us that it is the intention
of the
FE
leadership
to steamroller through the FE convention
from
from
these
were
not covered
27 distribution.
committeemen
reception
up
proceeding,
and
tremen-
national
setting
litera-
a
to
break through the FE “little iron
curtain” and learn the truth about
CIO policy.
organizers
had
enthusiastic
expressed
Bulletin
distributing
five
McCormick
dously
UAW
workers
The
“From
here on out, the UAWCIO is going to take its appeal for
j
personally
One of the FE leadership’s “mus- |
cular reception committees” stood
UAW-CIO.”
Vf
Vice-President Livingston, accompanied by Pat Greathouse, Director
conditions have suffered because of
this lack of unity.
“This time, CIO
policy on the
problem of unification is clear and
plain for every worker to understand. The National CIO Executive
Board, speaking the democratic will |
workers,
with the
%
rank-and-file
TE
Uy
states.
have
delayed
this
longunification of farm imple-
ment workers in the
CIO, and their wages
y
tribution of a special edition of the
“United Auto Worker” to workers
in 12 FE
plants
located in four
clared.
“In
directly
to keep | membership
the job
im-
YYVe
Yey
UY
unity
farm
workers
by
&
“This campaign is going
rolling until we complete
of
made
in
March
a proposal
to
become
an
independent
union
so
that
they
may at a later date affiliate *with
District
50
of the
United
Mine
Workers
or some other organization willing to meet the selfish job-
seeking
ship.
demands
of the
FE
leader-
Farm | S°Urces of our membership to carry
out
the
tive
The
FE
leadership
has at the
same time created a smoke-screen
by promoting a scheme calling for
one
farm
implement
union
embracing all farm implement plants
presently chartered by any CIO international union.
While this plan
was conceived by the FE leader-
Board
found
have been sent to delegates of this
conference
for
propaganda
purposes; therefore, be it
Resolved, That this conference of
UAW-CIO
Agricultural Implement
Wage and Hour Council call upon
FE local unions and members to
support the national
CIO
resolution and
initiate every
effort
to
effect unity in this industry, even
though
it must
be done
through
an
of
the
CIO
resolution
necessary
to
in
assure
Execu-
all
ways
the
UAW-CIO of all tothe farm implement
industry; be it finally
Resolved, We pledge the resources
and efforts of this Council to the
implementation of the CIO Executive Board resolution.
RESOLUTIONS
Other resolutions passed by the
conference included the following:
A request that the International
Union increase its efforts to build
farmer-labor unity; endorsement of
the
St.
Lawrence
Waterway
to
help expand
employment
for Canadian
farm
implement
workers;
endorsement of the UAW-CIO 1949
Wage Policy, and a repeated pledge
to work
for the establishment of
industry-wide
agricultural
bargaining
implement
in
industry.
Is This Okay, Mr. Keller?
Chrysler Agents Indicted
in West Coast Parts Gouge
Chrysler’s replacement
were
accused
Seattle
down
Grand
December
17
Jury
was
associations,
individuals
over
$1
in
30th.
indictment
against
and
of gouging
Federal
The
parts wholesalers in Washington
who
directed
million
a
from
criminal
customers
indictment,
State
by
the
handed
o——
companies,
allegedly
jing
$9
million
from
November,
vio-| 1946, through December,
1948, it is
lated the Sherman Anti-Trust Law
charged,
by acting monopolistically in sell-|
The indictment
points out
that
ing Chrysler replacement parts and
Chrysler Corporation
selected the|
engines in Washington.
defendant companies to be the exThe
Chrysler
outlets for replacement
wholesalers
are clusive
parts and engines in the state of
charged
with
monopolistic
action
Washington.
Chrysler Corporation
which boosted the gross profit marsupplied
the
parts
gins on
replacement
and
engines|
engines from
its
29 per cent to about 40 per eent, on from
plants
throughout
the|
United
States during
competitively-produced
the time
parts from
the
66
per
and
‘on
parts
per
to
cent
exclusively
from
cent
over
it?
50
per
74
per
cent,
Western
Washington |
By
getting
together
to
“rig”
prices
and
discounts,
the
parts
wholesalers overcharged the Washington consuming public in excess
$1
million
on
criminal
was
not
Chrysler-made| but
cent to over 87 defendant.
and from 50 per cent to 65 per cent
in Eastern Washington,
of
alleged
parts
bills
total-
The
Chrysler
acts
itself
took
named
Corporation,
place
a
co-
so
far
as could be learned, has taken no
action to withdraw the franchises
of its indicted dealers,
Individuals convicted of criminal
anti-trust
charges
are
liable
to
maximum penalties of one
jail and a $5,000 fine,
year
in
Fountain
Photo
Walter Reuther pauses to chat with delegates following the UAW-CIO Agricultural Implement Wage-Hour Council Meeting in Detroit, January 15, Center, facing Reuther, are
Coy Lutes and Howard
Scamp,
af-
filiation with
eal unions in
ship, individual officers of the FE
introduced the plan through a few| OTHER
FE local unions. Several telegrams
endorsing this smoke-screen scheme
intent
delegates from Local 974 (Caterpillar Tractor), Peoria, Dl.
the
Page 10
UNITED
An Auto Worker
As workers in the auto industry go, Earl Zander, UAW-CIO
AUTOMOBILE
WORKER
and
February, 1949
Social Securit
Shop Steward and assembler at Kaiser-Frazer, is not so bad off.
As a matter of fact, he has a number of blessings.
He wasn’t laid off when the ax fell recently on nearly
5,000
of his fellow-workers at K-F. He has five bright and handsome
children. He has a home (for $29.00 a month)—not nearly big
enough, to be sure—in a government housing project. His alert
and intelligent wife budgets his wages carefully and she keeps
their four rooms neat and clean . He’s a sober and hard working
man himself.
eee
kids don’t get enough of the right
kinds of food as it is; that he buys
Yet, just one year ago, he learned
|six quarts of milk a day, but only
the meaning of insecurity. A brake-
STARTS THOUGHT
ACCIDENT
less car
rolled
and crushed
the state of
in
was
workmen’s
all.
That
compensation.
hadn’t
been
generosity
ers in the
collections
bad.
assembly
line
his leg. He got, from
Michigan, $21 a week
If it
comradely
well—it
off the
of
UAW-CIO,
for
him_
would
have
incident—or
for
his
~That
the
broth-
who took up
periodically,
been
near
just
too
disaster—
set Zander
to thinking about all}
the hazards facing him and his family. What
if he had been killed?
What if he had
What
if he got
What if members
with misfortune
or surgical care?
whole multitude
to
him
which
beyond
ON
his
THE
Zander
been seriously ill?
laid off or fired?
of his family met
requiring medical
What if any of a
of things happened
would
power
to
be
control?
SCRAPHEAP
is still
completely
a young
man.
But
having
a big family set him
to
thinking about the time when he
would be “too old to work, but too
young to die.” Maybe his children
would
get jobs and support
him
and Mrs. Zander when
the time
inevitably came when the corpora-
tion would toss him on the “industrial scrapheap.”’ But the hell with
that!
His
children
would
want
families and
lives of their own;
and, like most American workers,
he liked the word “independence”
with all the meaning given it by
American history and traditions.
SAVE
FOR
SECURITY?
Don’t ask Brother Zander why
he doesn’t save his money.
If he
didn’t decide to give you a punch
in the nose, he'd tell you that his
the.
two
youngest
get
all
they
want;
that
he
needs
more
than
four rooms for a family of seven;
that he can’t even buy one of the
jcars
count
he
to
makes
(K-F
employes,
too)
gives
and
a
dis-
shares
another worker’s car to the plant.
Mrs. Zander says, with prices as
they
are
now,
she
needs
$35
a
week
for food alone—“but
that’s
out of the question.”
Late
last
year,
some
of
this
load was taken off Earl Zander’s
mind when Local 142, UAW-CIO,
signed
an
agreement
with
the
Kaiser-Frazer Corporation.
Not
all of the load, but a good bit of
it.
Through collective bargaining,
his union negotiated a social security plan entirely (and properly)
financed
by
the
company.
Zander’s interests are protected
by his own union, which shares
on an equal basis in the administration of the fund with the com-
pany.
ALL THIS HELPS
Now, if Zander. or any member
of his family is sick, they get 120
days’ hospital care—surgery,
too,
if it’s needed—all paid for out of
the Social Security Fund. There’s
also that $30 a week for 26 weeks
for Brother Zander if he is sick
and unable to work.
Mrs, Zander and the children get
$2,000 if they were to lose their
husband and father.
The shock of a layoff is cushioned by continuation of Fund benefits.
Says the UAW-CIO Social Security Department:
“One out of every 10 workers
will have a major illness within
the next 12 months.
One out of
every
four
families
will
face
payment for a hospital bill. And,
in major illness, doctor bills can
amount
to more
than
hospital
bills.”
The
UAW
experts
continue:
“Workers cannot finance adequate
social
security
programs
earnings
current
their
from
UnZander!).
telling
(they’re
ions’ long experience with benefit plans paid for by individual
workers through payroll checkoffs or dues clearly demonstrates
that such plans are incapable of
meeting workers’ social security
obpayments
Employer
needs.
barcollective
through
tained
gaining can be used to protect
all workers.
“Payroll
other
hand,
checkoff
are
plans,
generally
on a take it or leave
And the very workers
need of protection are
on
Arthur Riordan, Assistant Editor of the National CIO News, interviews Zander at home.
Baby Irene, nine months, seems smitten with the newsman, The CIO News also used the Zander family to illustrate its story on Social Security,
the
offered
it basis.
most in
the ones
who, because of other demands
for money,
are most
likely to
take a chance and go without
Zander gets home from work...
even
the
offered.”
meager
protection
And is promptly surrounded by daughters Janet, 10, and
Barbara, 9,
At right, is UAW
Local
142 President Frank
Cotter, who is Chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the UAW-K-F Social Security Fund.
Joaquin F, Reis, representing the corporation, is Secretary-Treasurer.
UNITED
February, 1949
AUTOMOBILE
WORKER
Page
Stone-A ge Stuff
Mazey
Fight for High-Priced Health
CIO to Help Form New Organization
11
Reports on Europe
AMA's Big Medicine Men Still World's Free Unions Quit WFTU:
acl
$f
“Torward to Yesterday!’’ was about the only intelligible
battle-cry which could be deciphered this month from the mock-
anguish trumpetings of the American Medical Association as its
corps of lobbyists opened a frenzied campaign to deprive the
American people of the benefits of the National Health Bill.
Bidding
a firm
at
of
has
the
team
of
mY
program
Warren,
the
It
the
Whitaker
lo
VW
is
which
Morris
dubious
Fishbein,
of the
volume,
the
throat
that
if
Journal,
Health
new
cannot
Bill
by sheer
hirelings
can
the
DOCTORS
Meanwhile,
of the AMA’s
House
solid
to
of
bill
right
governing
Delegates,
medical
the
DISAGREE
however,
and
to
opinion
was
left.
through
a levy
doctor
member
the
in
being
Having
of
of
$25
the
pretense
organ,
opposition
punctured
railroaded
on every
AMA
to
build a $3,500,000 slush fund, this
arbitrary
body
finds itself up
against a swelling wave of opposition from outraged physicians. The
opposition
does
not
come
alone
from the substantial percentage of
doctors
who
favor
the
bill outright. Protests have been made as
well by medical men opposed to
the
bill, but equally
opposed
to
AMA's high-handed taxation without representation.
FLANK ATTACK
While fighting a rear-guard action against proposed legislation to
improve
the national health
and
health services, the AMA
is now
exposed
to a flanking attack,
mounted in large part by doctors,
against
its
exclusive
claims
to
speak for the medical profession.
The liberal Committee for the Nation’s
Health
has
recently
purposes
the
represent
ON 10 WASHINGTON
ed
in
comparison,
overwhelm-
ing
medical
opposition
preceding
passage of that nation’s _national
health plan has now been converted to overwhelming support. Editor
Fishbein has ‘recently visited Britain in search of ammunition to fire
at the American plan and has returned empty-handed, mouthing his
worn dogmas.
FISHBEIN’S
“SOCIALISM”
In a January debate with Oscar
Ewing, Federal Security Administrator and strong
protagonist
of
the Health Bill, Fishbein was re-
duced to hollow echoes of the AMA
charge that the bill is “socialistic”
estab-
are
cent
8
from
per
paunchy House of Dele-
cent
only 15 per
practitioners,
small
of the
of
the
towns,
country’s
from communities
5,000 population.
delegates
while
30 per
physicians are
with
less
than
Questionnaires
have
recently
proved that in New England and
in the Middle Atlantic States, nearly half the M.D.’s have had enough
and
have
bolted
the
AMA
line.
Similar
questionnaires,
answered
before
the
National
Health
Bill
was drafted, showed that for the
country at large only 61 per cent
of the doctors were
then of the
same view as the AMA.
With the
bill an actuality and awaiting Congressional consideration, it is estimated that the number of doctors
favoring
participation
in the national
health
creased.
In
plan
Britain,
has
sharply
frequently
in-
cit-
OSCAR
EWING
and finally obliged to give support,
as an alternative
to an effective
plan, to the same voluntary health
insurance programs which his organization has so heatedly fought
for the past decade.
At the same time, citing figures
drawn
directly
from
the
AMA’s
Bureau of Medical Economics, Sen-
ator
James
Murray
of
Montana
concluded that at least 97 million
people in the United States cannot
afford adequate medical care under
present circumstances,
cause
these
325,000
men,
women
and children cannot afford to buy
urgently-needed
health and medieal services in time.
“Physicians should be disturbed,”
Murray
warned, “because the activities
of
the
existing
medical
lobby (already spending more than
any other single registered group)
are marked for sharp public serutiny.”
But while pressure mounts for
federal investigation of how AMA
spends
body’s
s
FISHBEIN
stated
that
op-
of
the
international
or-
ganization. He anticipated that additional withdrawals of non-Communist delegations
would
shortly
reduce
WFTU
to an _ ineffectual
Soviet puppet with no claims to international representation. Joining
in the CIO walkout in Paris
the British, Dutch and Swiss
gations.
ish,
Early
Swedish
withdrawal
and
Norwegian
were
dele-
of
Dan-
parti-
cipation is expected.
NEW
ORGANIZATION
Mazey
was
hopeful
that
tive CIO-AFL action
possible
creation
of
coopera-
would make
a new
and
democratically -controlled international organization of free unions,
giving fresh
impetus
to
encouragement
non-Communist
and
unions
in what he termed the three “crucial” countries—Germany, France
and
Italy.
Secretary-Treasurer
he had gone to Eu-
rope
somewhat
skeptical
as
to
the
actual application of Marshall Plan
funds, but that careful checking on
the spot had convinced
him that
the impact of American
aid was
beneficial throughout and revealed
no instances in which it had served
purely private or corporation
interests. Democratic labor, he found,
is solidly
gram.
in
support
of
the
pro-
EXCHANGE VISITS
It is his intention, Mazey stated
further, to urge that the national
CIO expand its European staff for
the purpose of maintaining more
effective contact with free European unions, and that a comprehensive program
of material and
financial aid to democratic unions
be developed.
As a step toward a
closer
working
relationship
with
British unions, he revealed, UAWCIO will shortly sponsor a monthlong visit to American
industrial
centers of a nine-man
delegation
from the British Amalgamated Engineering Union.
Later, in turn, a
UAW-CIO
group will visit British
plants and trade union centers.
FAVOR
of
Many
LABOR
PARTY
interviews
inspection
trips
and
in
a
number
England
had
Members of the same delegation
had previously
made a carefullyconducted
tour of Soviet production centers.
Their report to the
“More
than
325,000
Americans
will die this year,” the Senator declared, “because they can’t afford
to live. Their deaths can be prevented— but they won't
be — be-
DR. MORRIS
sessions of
Concluding a month-long in spection of American industrial
facilities, a seven-man delegati on of Norwegian labor leaders
returned home early this month after expressing confidence
that American labor’s support of the Marshall Plan would assure democratic survival in western Europe Headed by Haakon
Lie, Secretary of the Norwegian Labor Party, the group was
here under ECA auspices to gat ier information on mass-produetion techniques and apprentice t raining applicable to Norwegian
&
conditions.
while 50 per cent of the nation’s
doctors
are
in
generat—
practice.
Only
Paris
EMIL
persuaded
that
MAZEY
him,
key
Mazey
measures
in
asserted,
the
Labor
Party’s reconstruction program are
successful and accepted by a heavy
majority of the people.
The national health plan, covering nearly
97 per cent of the population, he
cited
as
particularly
popular.
Questioned concerning the status
of trade unions in Germany, Mazey
reported that opposition to vigorous expansion of democratic trade
union activity on the part of the
American Military Governor, General Lucius Clay, furnished propaganda weapons to Communist and
Nazi sympathizers alike and threatened
to produce
widespread
illfeeling
toward
American
occupation government
by the Western
German working population.
Norwegian Unionists Praise
ClO Endorses
American Labor Support of ERP Candidates for
School Board
ternity.
gates, it is revealed,
cent
are
general
Mazey
The UAW
admitted that
lished that the voice behind
the
AMA loudspeaker is by no means
the voice of the entire medical fraOf AMA’s
WFTU,
position
by
Communist-controlled
member
unions
to the European
Reconstruction
Program
was
in
complete
opposition
to the
very
do
so by finesse.
SOME
at late January
the World Federation of Trade Unions, UAW-CIO SecretaryTreasurer Emil Mazey revealed to a large press conference in
Detroit early this month that the CIO delegation to the WETU
on which he served will unanimously recommend to the CIO
SOVIET PUPPET
Reviewing
the circumstances
prompting
CIO
withdrawal
from
medieval-minded
AMA
assassinate the
Bax-
Governor
apparently,
attendance
on Ma rch 2 that CIO withdrawal from
The committee, made up of Mazey,
James Carey, Rubber Worker Presiand Steelworker Secretary-Treasurer
the same time recommend, Mazey declared, that the CLO undertake, jointly with the AFL, formation
of a new international labor organization composed only of free
o—
and democratic trade unions.
insurance
by
from
national executive board
the WETU be confirmed.
CIO Secretary-Treasurer
dent L. S. Buckmaster
David McDonald, will at
skills
the
health
of 9——______
the
Leon
cut
proposed
hoped,
services
and
California
editor
the
hatchet-men,
bought
Clem
ter,
for
of efficient
AMA
to
high
Returning
its “educational” funds, that
155 delegates
hold 825,000
lives in their hands,
Dr. Vishbein
looks on @ coordinated national effort to do something about it as
treasonable
to American
institutions.
Norwegian
emphasized
erate in a
nation
on
their
that Soviet
straitjacket
the
Western
most
European
nations.
industrial
labor
| this
programs, The American tour, they
asserted, had given them valuable
information applicable to both pro-
duction
and
training.
Among cities visited
trip were
Pittsburgh,
during the
Cincinnati,
Pat McNamara
Wayne County
UAW-CIO,
the
Wayne
County
Labor,
Americans
Action (ADA), and
Schools Association.
CIO
emphasizes
the
buildings,
more
increased
the
training
and
Lovejoy,
Fed-
for
the
At the heart of the CIO platform
on education is the goal of no more
than 30 pupils to a class.
To do
VISIT DETROIT
‘
Secretary Lie, no stranger to fhe
United States, declared on the Detroit leg of the group’s visit that
Marshall Plan aid had averted an
almost certain economic
crisis in
Norway and forestalled an equally
certain increase in Communist inHAAKON LIF
fluence among
workers.
That influence, he stated, is now at a minNew
York,
Washington
and
Deimum, and the success of the Labor
troit,
where
they
were
guests
of
Party’s internal economic
Wayne
County
policies the
CIO
Council
has
been
such
as
repeatedly
to and of International officers of the
force the small Communist
UAW.
Several of their hosts exParty
to vote
along
pressed
with
themselves
the Socialist
as amazed
at
majority,
Norway's
advances,
under
Labor
Party leadership, in such fields as
PRODUCTION
PROBLEM
national
health
legislation,
social
Norway's major current problem,
security, guaranteed minimum
and
the
visiting group
agreed,
is in- annual
wages,
labor
participation
creased production in manufacturin industrial
planning,
and
public
ing industries,
This problem
will education,
despite limited
natural
be solved, they hoped, through apresources
and
the havoc
wrought
plication of advanced mass-producby the Nazi occupation on the nation techniques
and
through
imtion's manpower
and
industrial
proved
Jane
James Lincoln and
are backed by the
CIO
Council,
the
Better
finding:
of
Mrs.
| eration
of
Democratic
unidns opof govern-
war-ravaged
Education.
| Detroit
ment
control
and—that
Russia’s
working
classes
live
in
material
poverty far more severe than that
of
Three
ClO-endorsed
candidates
have filed for the February
21st
| primary
for the Detroit Board of
equipment,
The visit
is the firstin
will
by
workers
a planned series which
eventually
labor leaders
Norwegian
find
ECA
bringing
as “production teams’
to the United States from all ‘countries participating in the ERP,
need
for
trained
teachers and efficient use of school
money.
This
necessitates
an
increased
budget
from
logal,
state
|}and federal
funds.
With
smaller
classes it will be possible not only
to do an excellent job of teaching
the three R's but many additional
subjects
as
well,
including
good
citizenship and community responsibility,
The
three
ClO-endorsed
candidates,
Mrs,
Lovejoy,
Jim
Lincoln
and
Pat
McNamara,
also emphaSize the need for community
participation
in
schools
the
They
pledge to secure increased use of
school facilities for community
‘activities,
full
explanations
to
the
public
of
the
Board
of
Educa-
tion’s program
and
action,
and
a
full hearing for every
citizen dele-
gation.
a
full
where
exactly
In
they
accounting
to
the
comes
money
where
announced
the
addition
budget
it
taxpayers
is spent,
public
promise
of
from
and
with
well
hearings
is approved
before
Additional
points
of
the
CIO
platform include a school program
that will meet the needs of the 42
per cent who
leave school before
graduation,
of
high
classroom
lar,
adequate
school
space
students
per
counselling
and
building
more
dol-
Page
12
UNITED
~ ClO ASKS CONGRESS
FOR ‘1 MINIMUM WAGE
WASHINGTON—Siating
the CIO
demand
COMMITTEE
(Handles
for a $1 minimum
AFL
A.
HELPS
F. of L.
generally
witnesses
endorsed
Wagner
Act,
UAW-CIO
General
Counsel Irving J. Levy warned the
committee against loose language
in the committee print that would
Lesinski
Bill, which
was
a revision
of a
“committee print” that would have
opened loopholes for evasion of the
overtime provisions of the Act and
would not have
farm workers.
covered
any
migrant
labor
and
hired
LEVY
families
furnish
TESTIFIES
Presenting
the
CIO
the
case
fed,
clothed
FOR
UAW
legal
phase
for
bringing
widespread
eva-
shore contract would have to conform to regulations issued by the
Secretary of Labor in furtherance
of the purposes of the Act.
The economic phase of the CIO
case
was
presented
by
Solomon
Barkin,
research
director
of the
Textile Workers’
Union-CIO
and
labor
experience
under
the outdated Act was offered by Dr. Helen
Miller, of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers’ Union-CIO.
unfair competition to the operators
of family-type farms who try to
keep
their
and housed.
to
He endorsed the language of the
Lesinski Bill which, while permitting
organized
longshoremen
to
make
a contract
with
employers
that would
not require so-called
“overtime on overtime” payments
for
night,
holiday
or
Saturday
work below 40 hours, would protect other workers against being
short-changed
by using premium
pay to pay for genuine overtime.
Arrangements
such
.as the Jong-
The Lesinski Bill gives minimum
wage
protection
to employes
of
farm enterprises employing workers for 300 or more man-days during
each
of the
preceding
four
ealendar quarters.
This would affect only two per cent of the nation’s farms and only four per cent
those employing
hired labor, but
would protect half of the 2,000,000
hired
farm
workers
and
would
catch substantially all the factories
in
the
fields
that
now
employ
sweated
door
sion of the Act’s hours provision
by making it possible to avoid payment of the 50 per cent premium
wage for overtime above 40 hours
a week.
likewise
the
the
of|
the
EARLY
ACTION
The House
| expected
to
EXPECTED
Labor
report
Committee is
the Lesinski
;
;
of Crucial
Here is the roster of important House committees
whose functions are of special importance to labor.
Wage-Hour Act up to date and extending its benefits to all employes
engaged in commerce or in activities affecting commerce, as in the
open
WORKER
Members
wage, three witnesses last week also presented to the House Labor
and. Education Committee the CIO case for extending the minimum wage and overtime pay benefits of the Wage Hour Act to
at least 5,000,000 more persons, including 1,000,000 workers on
industrialized farms and many others in retailing and food processing industries not now covered.
CIO endorsement was given the
Lesinski Bill (H. R. 2033), providing an immediate increase of the
minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents
an hour, further increases up to
$1 an hour by industry committee
action
and
extended
coverage.
Amendments
to
tighten
certain
provisions of the Lesinski bill and
to extend coverage were urged upon the committee.
AUTOMOBILE
ON
EDUCATION
Taft-Hartley, minimum
cation, etc.)
& LABOR
wage, aid to edu-
«
DEMOCRATS
John Lesinski (Mich.), Chairman
Graham Barden, (N. C.)
Augustine Kelly (Pa.)
Adam C, Powell (N., Y.)
John S. Wood (Ga.)
John F. Kennedy (Mass.)
Wingate Lucas (Tex.)
Cleveland Bailey (W. Va.)
Leonard Irving (Mo.)
Carl Perkins (Ky.)
Charles Howell (N. J.)
Hugo Sims (S. C.)
Andrew Jacobs (Ind.)
Thomas Burke (Ohio)
Tom Steed (Okla.)
Roy W. Weir (Minn.)
RULES
DEMOCRATS
Adolph Sabath (Ill.), Chairman
Eugene Cox (Ga.)
Howard Smith (Va.)
William Colmer (Miss.)
Ray Madden (Ind.)
favorably,
with some amendments,
at an
early
date.
Early
Senate action is expected.
It faces
two principal dangers:
1.
A
short
bill
to
legalize
longshoremen’s
agreement,
expires
1,
March
may
be
the
which
pushed
Members of the House and Senate should be urged NOW to press
final
passage
Bill, with minor
fered by the CIO,
ruary
28.
of
the
(Ohio)
Leo Allen (Iil.)
Clarence Brown (Ohio)
James W. Wadsworth (N. Y.)
Christian Herter (Mass.)
economic
Spence
Lesinski
amendments
ofwell before Feb-
matters,
anti-inflation,
housing,
etc.)
&
rent
control,
DEMOCRATS
(Ky.), Chairman
of bills)
REPUBLICANS
Jesse Wolcott (Mich.)
Ralph Gamble (N ¥,.)
Frederick Smith (Ohio)
John Kunkel (Pa. )
Henry Talle (Iowa)
Rolla C. MeMillen (Iil.)
Clarence Kilburn CNY):
Albert M. Cole (Kans.)
Merlin Hull (Wis. )
Hardie Scott (Pa:)
Donald Nicholson (Mass.)
Indianapolis Gets First
Of Conference Series on
Women Workers' Problems
Announcement
of a conference@
| through first. This would ease the to deal primar
ily with the probpressure for action on the thorough .lems of women workers has been
made by Raymond H. Berndt; Rebill.
2. The Senate may adopt, with gion 3 director, and Caroline Davis,
director of the UAW-CIO Women’s
short debate, a bill simply raising
Bureau.
the
minimum
wage
to %5 cents,
The meeting will he held in Inpostponing
extension
of coverage
dianapolis
on
Sunday,
April
24,
to an unspecified later date.
starting at 9 a.m.
CIO is for thorough modernizaCommunications and credentials
tion now; A. F. of L. is going along will be sent to all local unions in
but, if the Lesinski Bill is delayed Region
in the near future
by
in either House, may try to get the Regional
Director
Berndt’s
office.
longshore bill through first.
However,
both
Brother
Berndt
for
(N. Y.)
Paul Brown (Ga.)
Wright Patman (Tex.)
A. S. (Mike) Monroney (Okla.)
Brooks Hays (Ark.)
Albert Rains (Ala )
Frank Buchanan (Pa.)
Abraham Multer (N. Y.)
Charles Deane (N. C.)
George O’Brien (Mich.)
Mrs. Chase Woodhouse (Conn.)
Clinton McKinnon (Calif.)
Hugh Addonizio (N. J.)
Isidore Dollinger (N. Y.)
Hugh Mitchell (Wash.)
Barratt O’Hara (Ill.)
(Sets schedule for consideration
Bill
Committees
REPUBLICANS
Brent
Wint Smith (Kans.)
Carroll Kearns (Pa.)
Richard Nixon (Calif.)
Thurston Morton (Ky.)
Thomas Werdel (Calif.)
Harold Velde (II1.)
ON
James J. Delaney
John Lyle (Tex.)
John McSweeney
(Handles
(Pa.)
COMMITTEE
House
COMMITTEE ON BANKING
CURRENCY
REPUBLICANS
Samuel K. McConnell
Ralph Gwinn (N. Y.)
Walter Brehm (Ohio)
February, 1949
and Sister Davis strongly emphasize the point that the conference
is not to be limited to women delegates alone. They are making the
request that each local union
the region also send members
in
of
the
local
Bargaining
Committee.
In this way it is hoped that real
progress can be made toward resolving the various differences and
issues concerning
women
in our
industry.
According
to Sister Davis,
the
Indianapolis meeting marks the beginning of a series of region-wide
conferences
which
are
being
planned
by the Women’s
Bureau
for the various other areas of the
International
ings,
for
the
Union.
purpose
Such
of
meet-
attempt-
ing: to. work
out those problems
which arise from time to time in
plants employing women,
will be
sponsored
-ecooperatively
by
the
UAW-CIO
Women’s
the Regional Offices.
Bureau
and
Region 3 Director Ray Berndt is shown with Fair Practices Department Co-Director William H. Oliver just before
opening the January Fair Practices Conference in Louisville,
Ky., at the UAW Ford Loca] there.
POSTMASTER:
address
67B)
3579
E.
on
and
Send
Form
copies
notices
3578
returned
(Canada,
labels
Washington
Street,
No.
of
change
(Canada,
under
29B)
labels
Indianapolis
to
7,
of
Form
No.
2457
Ind.
- od A=) 2h
HAR RY—More
than a million people saw this float, designed by the cio
for Harry 8. Truman’s inaugural parade. Seen along with floats provided by the states, plus
TO
HONOR
impressive contingents of West Point and Annapolis men, and national dignitaries, were
floats from the AFL, Machinists, Musicians, Communications Workers, and coal miners’ and
hat workers’ bands. Finishing touches were given to the float at the National Airport before
it made the long swing through the streets from the Capitol to the White House. (LPA)
4
>
- Item sets