Walter P. Reuther Digital Archive · United Automobile Worker

Title

United Automobile Worker

Date

1949-09-01

Alternative Title

Vol. 13 No. 9

extracted text

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VOL.

13, NO. 9

ZZ

EH

fy

SEPTEMBER,

Zo

1949

Ford Told to Negotiate or
Get Contract End Notice
Page

Three

How the Fair Deal Fares— Congress Roundup
Page

Five

UAW, GM Agree to Add to CofL Index

Page Seven

FORD “OLD TIMERS” AT PENSION RALLY

va

—= =

;

Gathered on the platform at Cass Tech High School,
Detroit, are these Ford workers—all of whom have more
than 35 years’ seniority with the Ford Motor Company.

The men in the front row, seated, all have more than 40

years’ service—a total of almost 500 years. Pictured with
the “old timers”? are UAW-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Emil
Mazey, President Walter P. Reuther and Ford Department
Director Ken Bannon,

September, 1949

Se.

MANY

eG

oR

y

:

PPA
We WER

STEEL WORKERS

recalled the bloody event pictured above when President C. M. White, of Republic Steel, told
the Presidential fact-finding board: “We don’t like strikes, and
they are expensive and bad. I’ve been on a picket line a hulluva
lot. I have been knocked down on a picket line from behind. So
I know what it is and they are tough things. But if that is the

way it has to be worked out, why—every strike comes to an end.

CES

Oe

us

I have never been in one that didn’t com e to an end.

And there
are worse things than a strike. Everybody gets a lot of things
off their chests and they say a lot of dirty things. And they feel
awfully good after it is all over and they are back at work.”
Shown above is a scene from the Memorial Day 1937 Massacre
at Republic’s South Chicago plant. Ten lost their lives and many
were injured.

New Press Service
For Labor Papers

Local 5 Has Exhibit
At South Bend Fair
When Studebaker Local 3 went
to the fair, about
all the
union
committee went along. Last month
at the St. Joseph County 4-H Fair
in South
Bend,
Local
5’s educational, PAC, insurance, credit union

A press service for labor papers—Labor Press Association—
was launched this month, with staff correspondents stretched
across the nation.
..
““LPA will carry the message

working

people,”

wrote

Winn, UAW Director of
lations, endorsing
the
service.
“Labor editors
waited for a medium of

and

big

of

Public Renew
press
have long
this sort.”

the

Allan Swim, National CIO Publicity Director, joined in placing his
official blessing on the new service.
Paul Sifton, UAW Washington representative,
will
serve
on
LPA’s
executive board along with Swim
and press officials from AFL and
independent unions.

and

cartoons,

that

will

bring

to working people information that
will be useful and entertaining.
“We
racy

of LPA
where

believe

free

trade

in a democunions

can

oppose totalitarianWe
function.
ism and dictatorship whether it be
Fascist or Communist.”

A denial of House
press gallery privileges

>).

this month,

LPA
bers

and Senate
loomed ear-

on the ground

that

is not a daily service.
Memof the press gallery committee

later voted to reverse their rules,
as spokesmen pointed out that LPA
was
formed
“free
of
ideological
taint” to serve 12 million readers
of
180
labor
papers.
Federated
Press, LPA’s competitor with less
coverage, has access to the Capitol
press

galleries

Worker,
daily.

because

The

its chief customer,

Labor Press
five years ago,

Daily

appears

Associates, formed
has steadily grown

the

crowd

with

UAW-CIO

and

they

a

exhibit.

was
tent.
with
films.
lured

streamed

in

them,

during

the

four

days

of the fair. The tent was filled to
capacity all the time, officials of
the

editor.
Working with Fagan will
be Alvaine Hamilton and Cushman
Reynolds,
veteran
labor
editors.
Nathan
Robertson,
Auto
Worker
columnist,
will continue
to be
?2PA’s featured columnist.

tures

in

had

for a drink of water, CIO leaflets
and free movies.
Nearly 20,000 people passed
through
the UAW
tent, taking
over 50,000 pieces of literature

Philadelis LPA’s

“Policies of the association will
by its client-memhe determined
bers,’ LPA
has announced.
“The
association was formed to help the
nation’s
labor
press
.balance
our
daily newspapers.
Its energies will
be devoted to producing and distributing news
and features,
pic-

hand

committees

Every side of union activity
displayed
under a 30 by 60
There were continuous movies
comic shorts and educational
A loudspeaker atop the tent

Frank

Irving
Fagan,
former
phia
Record
newsman,

cooperative

16} <1 PE US

FAGAN
into
a sizable
enterprise.
Many
UAW
local
papers
subscribed
to
LPA
after
its inception
in 1945,
and have hailed its enlarged operations.

Hate Group
Plans Drive

MONTGOMERY,
Ala.
(LPA) —
Knights of the Ku Kux
Klan
of
America, a new nation-wide Klan
group,
was formed
last week
by
Klansmen from six states.
Lycurgus Spinks, a former BapA hard-fought
organizing
campaign last month ended in a UAW- | tist minister and long-haired oraCIO victory at the Gunite Foundry | tor, was chosen by the 40-odd offiin Rockford, Illinois. Final vote in | cials present as imperial emperor.
Spinks said the Klan would start
the NLRB election was 237 workers for the UAW-CIO, 229 for no an immediate organizing campaign
throughout the 48 states. He claimed
union.
265,000 members for the new group,
Previous attempts by the Mine,
principally in Alabama, Mississippi,
Mill and Smelters and the UAWTennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and
AFL had ended in failure.
Close
Louisiana.
cooperation between Region 4 orThe group,
meeting
in a hotel
ganizers and UAW locals in Rocknear where
the Alabama
legislaford aided the triumph.
Company
officials were guilty of favoritism ture recently passed an anti-maskand lay-offs and resorted to des- ing law, all wore masks except for
The organization
adopted
perate
last-minute
propaganda
to Spinks.
thwart
the
union.
The
Gunite a rule against the wearing of masks
Foundry election is the second to in public.
be won in Region 4 since the naIf such a rule is followed, its eftional convention.
fect on membership
can only be

Win Close One

At Foundry |

| Anti-ClO

Sheet

Folds

MINNEAPOLIS (LPA) — “Heavy
unemployment”
was given as the
reason for the folding this month
of Midwest Guardian, weekly publication

started

a

year

ago

to

op-

pose the official organs of the Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois CIO,
The Guardian had followed the proCommunist line in its criticisms of|

CIO

local

report.

The social security exhibit was
popular with many farmers
— who
are not covered by its provisions
now.
Brother Al Rightley’s talks
about cooperatives attracted many.
Rightley, Co-op Director of the International UAW-CIO, is a member
of Local 5.
“This is our second venture in
the field of farmer relations,” states

R. W. Huddleston, chairman of Local 5’s education committee.
“Last
year we did the same thing on a
smaller scale with great success.
This year the results have still improved. This will probably become
an annual affair of the local.”

policies.

Rep. Rooney

Okay

The
July
Auto
Worker
listed
Rep. John J. Rooney
(D., N. Y.),
as “absent”
on both housing roll
call votes in the House of Repre-

sentatives. We have since learned
that he was called home
by the
death of his mother.
Rep. Rooney
has been a consistent supporter of
housing and other Fair Deal legislation.
guessed at. Three days before the
meeting, Spinks announced a 1,000-

man parade of Kluxers in Pell City,
Ala. Despite the fact that most of
the
marchers
wore
dark
glasses,
the anti-mask rule apparently had
an effect, for only 58 Klansmen appeared for the event,

17. <ti>

My

”

©1949 GR

Stamwite

“Of course he’s only haifa man! He
gets union wages but doesn’t insist
on union products!”

FF

UNITED

September, 1949

AUTOMOBILE

WORKER

Page 8

GET DOWN TO BUSINESS OR
FACE STRIKE, FORD WARNED
~%

The UAW-CIO told the Ford Motor Company last ?
week that “unless the company demonstrates a will- °
ingness to accept its responsibility and get on with
the practical job of negotiating a fair solution to the
issues in negotiations still in dispute, the union will
be compelled to serve its notice terminating the con-

tract.”

eran

This statement: was contained in a letter from President
Walter P. Reuther to John S. Bugas, Ford Vice-President in
Charge of Industrial Relations. It was handed to Bugas at the
conclusion of the morning sessién of negotiations, Thursday,
September 1.
The letter was written at the instruction of the National
UAW-CIO Ford Negotiating Committee and the International
Union’s Wage Contract Policy Committee. The action was directed by a unanimous yote of the joint committees at a meetmg where the status of Ford negotiations was thoroughly discussed and reviewed.*

4

jie

P

LU

NINETY-DAY TALKS
In his letter, President Reuther pointed out that despite negotiations over a period of nearly 90 days, the Ford Motor Company ‘‘has failed to meet the needs of Ford workers with respect to a pension plan, a health program, a wage increase and
a number of highly important contract issues.
Among the important contract issues, Reuther listed the
following:
Production standards.
Temporary layoff provisions.
Farming out of work to outside contractors.
Promotion clause.
Loans and transfers of workers from one department to
another.
Committeeman structure and representation.
EXTENDED 45 DAYS
President Reuther’s letter said further:
Kaiser-Frazer workers voted
“In an effort to win an equitable settlement of the issues
20° to IY for°a union shop in involved without resorting to strike action, the union’s Nationan election conducted by the al Negotiating Committee has demonstrated extreme patience,
NLRB last month, Ed Cote, co- We have extended the contract on a day-to-day basis and have
director of Region 1A, has an- continued negotiations for 45 days since the normal contract
nounced. Out of 5,078 workers expiration date.
:
voting, 4,638 production work“The needs of the Ford workers are simple and compelling,
ers and 104 engineers and tech- and, as we have indicated earlier, they cannot be ignored nor
nicians voted for the union can they be denied through the device of indefinitely prolonged
shop.
negotiations. By any reasonable standards, 90 days of bargaining is more than adequate time to arrive at a fair settlement in
any contract negotiations,

Li

Ford “Old Timers”
Rally for Pensions Back Union
A different kind of an old timers’ meeting
UAW-CIO Sunday, August 21.
In

contrast

to

the

usual

was

company-sponsored

held

by the

gathering

for

workers with long years of service—where they are presented a
medal and a pat on the back—the union’s meeting brought a
pledge from UAW President Walter P. Reuther when the next
Ford contract is signed it would contain a pension program.
Ford

the

audience

UAW

were

members

60

over

3,000

years

Reuther said the union would
not call a strike until “all efforts
to reach
a peaceful
settlement
with the company had been exhenstsae?
mands

a health

for

and

ae

of|0Mic

age or over.
Hundreds more had|
to be turned away after the Cass
;
:
focal
Technical High School auditorium
:
had been filled to capacity.

A strike to back the UAW’s

:

©

In

responsibility. When

a cost-of-living

wage

program

Aid

permits

nomic section of the contract.

and | on

boost was en-|

which

pensions for executives and denies them to production workers,
“We have made a little progress
in the negotiations on the non-eco-

$100-a-month pensions,| there

welfare

Wersen

UP with the company, you will have
the best contract you ever had and
:
a
pension
plan for all Ford workEe
P
ers.
Reuther
again
attacked
the
“double-standard”

de-|

:

our

has

medical

been

demands

care

no

progress

for

program

at

and

NEW

all

a

a wage

dorsed by a 7 to 1 margin recently | increase.
in a state-conducted ballot.
“Unless the company changes its
“But if a strike results,” Reuther| position, we will have to win these
declared, “the Ford Motor Co. will demands
the
hard
way—through
have to assume the moral and eco- strike action.”

Chrysler Workers

YORK

(LPA)

unions—the

Auto

by

Potofsky;

— Four

Workers,

CIO

Amal-

gamated Clothing Workers, Steelworkers
and
Textile
Workers —
have each donated $1,000 to a fund
for relief of families left homeless
by the earthquake in Ecuador. Announcement of the gift was made

But

pensions,

to Ecuador

Jacob

S.

Amalgamat-

ed president and chairman of the
CIO Latin-American Affairs Committee,

Vote Strike

Chrysler workers cast heavy votes last month for strike action in@
support of their 1949 economic demands.
Negotiations have been in
progress for over a month without tangible results.
Majorities favoring strike in the 14 Chrysler locals who had voted
before the AUTO
WORKER
went to press ranged from 78 to 95 per
There was brisk organizational
cent. Two locals, Chrysler 7 in Detroit and $71 in New Castle, Ind.,
activity in many states this month,
had

Organizing Drives

not voted.

UAW-CIO

the

votes

file support

Chrysler

were

unusually

Department
heavy,

and

for the union’s demands.”

4

Director
that

this

Norman
denoted

LET'S BUILD A
STORM CELLARI

Matthews

said

“real

and

rank

a

roundup

petitive

at

plant

in

the

UAW-CIO ComDepartment shows.

Shops

Biggest

tory

of
event
the

was

the

union

Bundy

new

Hometown,

Pa.,

vic-

Tubing

Where

the

UAW swept an NLRB election affecting
more
than
300
workers,
This
new
UAW
plant
is strategically close to a new Auto-Lite plant
just built In Hazelton, Pa.
Over
1,000 workers at the Hercules Motor plant in Canton, Ohio,

are

responding

to

UAW

organiza-

Carburetor

plant

in

tional efforts there, while a strong
membership
drive is afoot
at the

Holley

Tenn.
A petition
tion at the Carter

in

48

Denver,

Colo.,

a successful

for NLRB
Carburetor

is

expected

organizational

Paris,

elecplant
soon

drive

winds up there,
In Ohio the UAW
js organizing
several
foundries,
among them the Farrell-Cheek
Foundry at Sandusky,

COMPANY RESPONSIBLE
“The Ford workers, in a national strike vote eonducted
within the constitutional machinery of the UAW-CIO, voted
better than seven to one for strike action, and.in a state-conducted poll in Michigan they voted 65,001 to 9,445 for strike
action, if such action were necessary, The Ford workers do not
want a strike. They want justice. However, if they are compelled to strike in order to win justice, the company must accept the full moral and economic responsibility for such ‘action,
The company cannot indefinitely rely on
Ford workers as a substitute for meeting
the Ford workers and their families,

the patience of the
its responsibility to

“In view of the extended negotiations to date and in light
of the above facts, the union is notifying the Ford Motor Company that unless the company demonstrates a willingness to accept its responsibility and get on with the practical job of negotiating a fair solution to the issues still in dispute, the union
will be compelled to serve its notice terminating the contract.

“This letter is writfen at the instruction of the National
UAW-CIO Ford Negotiating Committee and the International
Union’s Wage Contract and Policy Committee. This action was
directed by a unanimous vote of the joint committee meetin
g
Wednesday afternoon, where the status of Ford negotiati
ons
was thoroughly discussed and reviewed.’’

2,000 Students Teach 60,000

More than 60,000 UAW mem- | between
discussions,
workeao
bers
in local
tnions
will
be shops and
bull sessions.
Emtaught by some 2,000 studen
| pha
ts
sis was on “‘doing’’
instead
who attended UAW-CIO school|sof *‘listening.’?
Some
of this
this summer, Selected by their year’s student body will
return
local
unions
for’
courses
in }as faculty next year. Theme of
|

collective

bargaining,

political

.

the

schools

I ry
y
action,
steward
training
and
leach
union administration, students
Three UAW

attended
11
UAW
summer]
schools seattered
from
North
Carolina to California,

Daily

sessions

were

”

“Training

is

schools

and

to

ehil-

dren’s camps will be held next
year on camp
sites at Sand
Lake,
Mich.;
Pottstown,
Pa,

divided|and

Ottawa,

I.

UNITED

Page 4

AUTOMOBILE

UNITED AUTOMOBILE WORKER|An Editorial
OFFICIAL

Aircraft

PUBLICATION,

and

Agricultural

International

[Implement

Union,

Workers

United

of

Automobile,

America,

affiliated

with the CIO. Published monthly.
Yearly subscription to members, 60
cents; to non-members, $1.00. Entered at Indianapolis, Ind., November
49, 1945, as second-class matter under the Act of August 24, 1912, as
a monthly.
Please send notices of change in address on Form 3578, and copies
returned under labels No. 3579 to 2457 East Washington Street, Indianapolis 7, Indiana,
Circulation Office: 2457 E. Washington St., Indianapolis 7, Indiana
Editorial Office: 411 West Milwaukee, Detroit

WALTER P. REUTHER
President

RICHARD

GOSSER

EMIL MAZEY
Secretary-Treasurer

and JOHN

Vice-Presidents

International
CHARLES BALLARD
RAY BERNDT
GEORGE BURT
DONNEL CHAPMAN
ED COTE
MARTIN GERBER
PAT GREATHOUSE
CHARLES H. KERRIGAN
HARVEY KITZMAN

Executive

LEONARD

W. LIVINGSTON

Board

WOODCOCK

Members
MICHAEL F. LACEY
RUSSELL LETNER
NORMAN MATTHEWS
WILLIAM McAULAY
JOSEPH McCUSKER
Cc. V. O'HALLORAN
PATRICK O'MALLEY
RAY ROSS
THOMAS J. STARLING

FRANK WINN, Editor
BARNEY B. TAYLOR, Managing
CLAYTON

Members,

W.

FOUNTAIN,

American

Editor

Associate

Newspaper

Editor

Guild, CIO

“Press Ignores Big Story
By NATHAN

ROBERTSON

WASHINGTON (LPA)—Our
story about the Minnesota Medical Association trying to bribe
the press into a stronger fight
against health insurance by
permitting doctors to take out
advertisements was a national

scoop and still is—as far as the

daily press is concerned—with
one exception.
We are not
bragging about it. We are
merely pointing it out as important evidence of the sad
state of the American press.

Our scoop was not the result of
enterprise—but
the
result
of
a
blind spot in the press generally.

The story was available to daily
newspapers—in fact it was offered
to them on a silver platter. Some
of the best newspapers in America
had it. But none of them printed it.
So far it has appeared in no newspaper except the labor papers
served by Labor Press Associates
and the Minneapolis Tribune which
used the story circulated by Labor
Press Associates on its front page.
The commercial press is giving the
story the silent treatment
it accorded earlier this year to other
press scandals.
Any fair-minded newspaperman
would agree, we are sure, that the
story was a big one.
It disclosed
how Minnesota editors had hinted
to the doctors of that state that
they could not carry the ball for
the doctors against the President’s

health insurance proposal “without
remuneration.”
As a result, the
Minnesota Medical Ass’n voted to
..Jrop its long standing ethical rule
against advertising. Most damaging
of the disclosures was that news of
this action had been passed around
to the papers in a confidential bulletin from the Minnesota Editorial
Ass’n in June, without any backfire from the press. In other words,
it was a state-wide scandal involving both doctors and editors.
Newspapermen here who heard
about the story agreed it was a
sensational one.
Robert S. Allen,
one of the best, gave it a big ride
in his radio program
over WOR.
Some correspondents sent the story
to their papers, but so far it has
not appeared anywhere except in
labor papers and the Minneapolis
Tribune.

ae
Sx

NO

SURPRISE

The result is no surprise to working
newspapermen.
It merely
proves again that nothing is easier than scooping the press on a
scandal involving the newspapers,
or on any other news they don’t
like, such as stories friendly to labor, or critical of big business.
I
know because I’ve made my living
writing stories of that kind for
years,

s

For six years I wrote Washington news for PM and during that
time I scored many beats.
But

most of them were of this kind—
stories that the other newspapers
could have had if they had been
interested.
They
were
exclusive
news

were

in

PM

stories

only

the

other

not want to carry.
PM was filled with

kind—news

that

because

the

papers

news

other

they

did

of this
papers

did not want to carry, or did not
regard
as news.
Some
of PM’s
stories represented great enterprise
and hard
digging.
But many
of
them were just as available to other papers
as they were
to PM.
Before
PM
was
ruined
by poor
management it had made a commercial
success
selling
news
of].
that kind.
One year I received a

dividend
check
representing
share of the paper’s profits,

IGNORE

my

PROFITS

Some of the best stories in PM
were stories of the way other papers distorted the news. I remember one in which Leon Henderson,
then price administrator, made a
speech comparing the rise in profits, wages, and farm income during
the war. His figures showed profits had risen more than any of the
others.
But with one exception—
the big newspapers and the Associated Press all played up the rise
in wages,
or farm
income,
and
ignored the rise in profits.
Stories on profits are the hardest
to get into most newspapers. They
just are not interested—or at least
not interested in telling their readers about them. About a year and
a half ago I write a rather sensational story about big corporations
inspired by the Nat’l Association of
Manufacturers—were
using newspaper advertisements to fool the
public about the profits they were
making. I tried to sell it to several
liberal newspapers and magazines
without success.
One editor told me frankly that
I couldn’t expect newspapers which
were “an integral part of our distribution system to attack that system.” Finally the story was bought
by the Progressive—a
monthly
magazine—but
most newspaper
readers have not yet seen it.

NEW

PRESS

SERVICE

The failure of the commercial
press to cover the news is the reason why labor papers are flourishing today. More and more they are
concentrating on the big news the
newspapers
will
not
print.
This
failure of the press is also why the
announcement
this week
of the
formation of a new cooperative labor news service to be known as
Labor Press Association is important to all union members.
It assures them a supply of legitimate,
balanced news which they cannot
get today from their regular newspapers.
Think how the daily press would
have
splashed
that
medical-press
scandal if it had involved a deal
between unions and radio stations
instead of doctors and newspapers.
If you want both sides of the news
read your labor paper.

WORKER

September, 1949

as

|

We Stand With British Labor
Big Business and its bought-and-paid-for
press have discovefed a new technique for

sticking a knife between the meatless ribs
of America’s social welfare legislation.
The fresh angle in the constant corporation-fostered attack on liberal legislation in
this country is to feed the American public
a ceaseless diet of editorial bilge to the effect. that Britain’s present dollar crisis is a
direct result of the internal reform policies
of that nation’s labor government.»
For
weeks now the Hearst; Scripps-Howard and
Knight chains have poured forth the Big Lie
like Oklahoma gushers in full flow. The
pound sterling, they tell us, has been undermined by a domestic policy of ‘‘reckless socialist experimentation.’’ Britain, they tell
us, has squandered the heritage of centuries
of capital accumulation in four extravagant
years of ‘‘welfare statism.”’
This campaign, which is only now reaching a climax (as British and American officials sit down to work out a solution for a
delicate and highly complicated problem), is
more than a Big Lie of super-Goebbels dimensions, more than an ignoble and gratuitous offense to an embattled British people
whose sacrifices during and since the war
have been of heroic proportions. It is a gross
and perverted assault upon the decency and
intelligence of the American people.
Let’s look at the facts: Britain is in financial trouble—serious trouble. Her foreign assets almost completely liquidated while she
stood alone against the military and economie resources of a Nazi-dominated Europe,
Britain found herself at war’s end free—but
bankrupt. We will.add honorably bankrupt.
Few nations in the history of the world have
paid such a stupendous price in wealth and
lives for their freedom.
The war over, standing in the bloody
wreckage of what had taken centuries to
build, the British people delighted common
people the world over—and shocked reaction

from Wall Street to the Kremlin—by voting
the Labor Party into power. They did it

overwhelmingly, with the clearest mandate°
ever given a modern government by a free
people—a mandate to take into public safekeeping a number of monopoly-ridden and
obsolescent basic industries—to create a
system of health, job and retirement insuranee—to school the unschooled, house the
unhoused, feed the underfed.
The Labor Party has carried out that
mandate with an efficiency, fairness and farsightedness which have made its fulfillment
an ineradicable part of British life. The
political democracy which was the hall-mark
of Great Britain has at last been matched
by the economie democracy which was its
most gaping need. Step by step, the Conservative Party has been obliged, in reluctant honesty, to concede that the policies
of the Labor Government have been both
sound and inevitable. Like the Republican
‘Party when faced by the massive inevitability of the New Deal, the Tories have been

forced to reduce their pretensions to power
to a weak and unwilling ‘‘Yes, but we can
do it better.’’ Domestically, Britain’s adventure in social democracy has been an
unqualified success.
But Britain is an island, tiny, congested

and far from self-sufficient.
To live, she
must import and export, primarily with
dollar-area nations, The wartime sacrifice of
virtually her entire resources in foreign
holdings has placed the pound sterling, once
the undisputed currency of the trading
world, at the mercy of the dollar and uncontrollable movements in foreign exchange.
To what extent could this decline in the
purchasing power of the pound have been
avoided? Britons have worked far harder
than any other nation in Europe to restore

internal
her

economie

export

strength

stability

to parity

and

with

to

bring

her

port needs. The effort has not entirely
ceeded. Her dollar balance is perilously
The kept press in America says
Britain has taken Marshall Plan funds

im-

suclow.
that
and

‘used them to further social security for her

masses rather than to bolster the failing
pound. The facets brand this assertion a lie.
Security legislation in Britain has been
financed wholly out of internal taxation.
The poison penmen whose quills bend
with every NAM
breeze write that Britain has slacked on the job, that she has
not “‘tried’’ to strengthen her export industries and thereby increase her ability to acquire dollar exchange. The facts say that
Britain has raised her ratio of exports to
imports by ninety per cent, that her manufacturing production this year is close to
fifty per cent higher than the pre-war average when the Conservatives were in power,
that agricultural production, thanks to the
most intensive cultivation effort in the history of modern farming, is twenty-five per
cent above pre-war levels, that productivity,
under the Labor

Government,

has jumped

to

131 per cent of pre-war. standards.
This is what the facts say about a people
who took five years of pounding from the
Nazi bludgeon without so much as a whimper and who have uncomplainingly endured
four additional years of rationing, wageregulation and general austerity unimaginable to most Americans.
What, then, is the real crime of which our
plush money changers would find this hardpressed nation guilty?
It is the crime of having established a
measure of economic democracy. The crime
of government subsidies for children’s milk.
The crime of unemployment compensation,
health insurance, old age insurance.
The,
crime of decent educational opportunities
‘for all. The crime of nationalizing and renovating a handful of industrial monopolies
and putting them at the service of forty-

nine million Britons.

;

That is the true bill of particulars, but
why the false indictment? Why is American
Big Business conspiring to put into circulation the counterfeit claim that Britain’s external monetary crisis is the outgrowth of
improvident internal policies?
~
Not one responsible member of the Conservative opposition to the Labor Government
has maintained
that the dollar
shortage is anything more than the unhappy
but inevitable consequence of Britain’s wartime sacrifices. Not one dares suggest that
the present exchange situation would have
been a whit less serious had the social welfare program been abandoned or had the
Conservatives been in power throughout.
So why?
Why does our commercial oligarchy pursue a lhe which Mr. Churchill disdains?
The question concerns us deeply, for the
wilfully propagated lie is a deadly weapon,
a weapon which in this instance is actually
aimed at the American people. The harassment of Britain is no passing flurry of shallow vexation. It is the first move in a
planned action to destroy those advances in
social legislation already achieved by American working people and to deflate the
impulse toward more complete achievement
whieh is now gathering. This campaign is
not part of an honest difference over what
caused or what to do about a problem in
foreign exchange. It is a bitter maneuver
in a hidden class war. If British social demoeraecy ean be lamed by withholding of
further American aid, a telling blow will
have been struck at the aspirations of millions: of American working men and women
who indorse what the Labor Government
has thus far accomplished for Britain, with
so little,,and who
are determined
that
America, with so much, shall accomplish no
less.

This back-alley propaganda offensive
against the common people of both Britain
and the United States will drive no wedge
between them. Big money is going to discover, to its fatal chagrin, that it has simply succeeded in welding an indissoluble
union of interest and aspiration between
the labor movements of this nation and
Britain. A knife, even one reserved for
use in the dark, cuts two ways.

UNITED

Page 6

AUTOMOBILE

WORKER

September, 1949

Bell Strikers Use New Weapon
In Struggle with Wall Street

They walked in, walked around...

BUFFALO—Wall

Street bit off more than it could

chew here when it took on the UAW-CIO in an arrogant attempt to wreck our Bell Aircraft Local 501.
In a strike that started June 18, the company has
tried all the old union-busting tricks in the book and
has even designed a couple of new stunts—but all of
them have flopped and failed.

Not to be outdone in ingenuity, Local 501 itself came up
with a secret weapon on August 19 that sent shivers of fear
up and down the spines of anti-labor employers from coast to
coast. That was the day that more than a thousand members
of Local 501 accepted the company’s back-to-work invitation
for 40 minutes and persuaded the few scabs to come back out
of the plant.
©—
WALL

STREET

GRAB

The strike was forced upon the
local by a Wall Street coup that
put
Bell Aircraft
Corporation
in
the grip of a clique of holding companies. The grab was made by the
First
York
Investment
Company,
which bought up 48 per cent of the
Bell
stock
by
paying
$2.00
per
share
above
par
a few
months

ago.
UAW researchers promptly traced
the deal and discovered that First
York is controlled by the American
General Corporation, which in turn
is held by the Equity Corporation.
A little more research revealed that
Equity
Corporation
practices
a
policy
of
treating
labor
unions

out again—

roughly.

This

explains

the

about

face of Bell Aircraft, which
had
previously managed
to get along
fairly well with Local 501.
The union-busting policy was admitted by Lawrence D. Bell, President of the company, on August 22,
when he told the New York Times
that the strike was “smashed” by

the
back-to-work
movement
launched on August 11. “Local 501
no longer represents its membership,” Bell told the Times reporter.

NO ALTERNATIVE
The company forced
by

insisting

two-year

that

the

contract,

the strike
local sign a

without

wage

increases
or
pensions,
and
that
there be no reopening of negotiations on wages and pensions for 12

months
after the signing of the
contract.
Before
the
strike
was
called, the union proposed an extention of the old agreement while
negotiations

new

Georgia Thugs

Oust Denham,
Union Demands
Charged
dalous

deal’

companies,

Union
to

under
ham

counsel

making

with
the

is asking

remove

eral

with

Oil

oil

Workers

President

Truman

Denham,

gen-

NLRB,

Long

the

fire for anti-union
is accused

“scan-

California

CIO

Robert
of

a

bias, Den-

of:

1) refusing
to
onethe discharge

hear
evidence
of 235 workers

whom

says

for

the

union

union

activities,

were

fired

and

2) giving
a
verdict
before
hearing evidence by blurting to
the press that the workers were
fired for “violence on the picket
line.”

~

Denham,
say the Oil Workers,
made a deal with lobbyist Cerard

Reilly to dismiss the case of the
Reilly
235 discharged oil workers.
is a notorious Washington lobbyist
who does the footwork for many
of
America’s
most
vicious
antiunion concerns.
“We deeply resent this unfair
form of finding men
guilty before trying them,” the Oil Work-

ers Executive Council has wired
Truman,
“and
urge
that
Mr.
Denham be removed from office
because he is prejudiced and unfit to administer the law.”

Stooge Sheriff
William

Beat Workers

Unchecked violence by company thugs, encouraged by all
the loop-holes in the Taft-Hartley Act, nearly ended in the
death of two Georgia trade unionists last month.
The pair,

Mr. and Mrs. Bernell Rochester,

were victims of a wave of brutality that is sweeping the mill
town

of Tallapoosa,

Mobs

and

armec

clubs

tacked

a

union

with

few

Ga.

pistols,

days

organizers

knives

earlier

at-

distribut-

ing leaflets outside the gate of the
American Thread Company, where
the CIO Textile Workers of America was
organizing.
A
court injunction to halt this company-inspired violence went unheeded, as
company
officials ignored
lame
threats of legal reprisal.
Mr.

Rochester

was

attacked

by

mobsters while passing out copies
of the Georgia Labor News Digest.

All alone at the time, his wife
rushed to his side only to be caught
She
beating herself.
in a savage
was struck many
times, disfigurwere
Bystanders
face.
her
ing
threatened with a gun if they atto intervene, but finally
tempted
managed to carry away to safety

Hillger,

President

of the

one.

continued

The

company

to

reach

flatly

a

re-

jected this proposal.
The union then proposed a fourmonth
postponement
of
negotiations on wages and pensions, immediate settlement of minor issues,
and a resumption of bargaining on
wages and pensions after a nationThis
established.
was
al pattern
proposal was also rejected by the
company.
This
left
the
local facing
the
alternative of working without an

Lockport CIO Council, is making
Niagara County Sheriff Becker rue
the day he ever chummed
up so
of
no assurance
with
agreement,
close to Larry Bell.
wage
or pension
gains
this
With the full support of his con- any
stituent unions, Hillger is pressing year, or striking the plant.
charges before the Niagara County INJUNCTION GRANTED
Board
of Supervisors
asking that
On July 12 the company secured
Sheriff Becker
be disciplined
for
an injunction limiting pickets to 15
collusion with Bell Aircraft Corpoat each gate, always in motion and
ration.
not less than 10 feet apart.
After
Hillger is collecting evidence to
the back-to-work move was started
prove that Becker
is loading his
staff with Bell employees who oppose the strike; that Becker signed
a wire to Governor Dewey which
was written by a Bell press agent;
that Bell loaned Becker a helicopter, and that food and other refreshments
are
furnished
to the
Bell strikers are not too busy
deputy sheriffs at the expense of
winning their strike to forget that
the Bell Aircraft Corporation.
PAC is also a high priority union
activity. They were reminded forcboth
unconscious
bodies
of
the ibly of it Sunday night, August 21,
Rochesters.
at a pep rally for strikers and their
Appeals for Department of Jus- wives.
Congressr#@n Anthony F. Tauritice intervention by the TWUA atwho
represents
torney, Warren E. Hall, Jr., have ello, a Democrat,
Washingin
constituents
been made. The union has also re- Buffalo
ton, came to the meeting to express
quested legal action by the NationHe said
al Labor Relations Board and has his views on the strike.
demanded
protection
from
local that he was working hard to get
authorities.
So far these appeals Air Force Secretary Symington to
intervene and get Bell to negotiate
have gone unanswered as employers wrapped in the lop-sided and a settlement.
“No United States plane should
of the Taftambiguous language
Hartley Act continue to instigate be built in a scab shop,” Tauriello
mob violence and intimidation told the cheering strikers.
| He was backed by PAC last year.
against labor unions,
peur
4

Strikers Hold

PAC Rally

by the company on August 11, the
company secured a show cause order charging 34 union leaders with
contempt of court.
In addition to these tactics, the
company loaned a helicopter to the
Niagara County Sheriff to be used
in
hovering
over
the
heads
of
pickets in an open attempt at intimidation.
The company has also
chartered a DC-3 which it uses to
transport office workers and a few
scabs over the picket lines into the
Bell company airport.
There have been no negotiations
since the company started its backto-work campaign.

RANKS STAY SOLID
Despite close collaboration

of the
company
wtih
the
two
Buffalo
daily papers, in an attempt to create the impression that the strikers
are deserting their union, Local 501
is carrying on a militant offensive
to win the strike. The New York
Times
debunked
the company’s
claims
on
August
24,
when
its
special correspondent reported that
he
had
inspected
the
plant
and
found
production
“virtually
at a
standstill.”
The entire CIO on the Niagara
frontier is backing Local 501 all the
way.
On Friday, August
12, one
day

after

the

the

street

company

announced

its back-to-work drive, about 5,000
CIO members marched out to put
on an impressive demonstration on
leading

to

the

gates

of

the plant. The Buffalo CIO Council
is conducting a campaign
to get
every CIO member in the area to
contribute $1.00 per week to the

Local 501 strike fund.
Crews of Local 501 solicitors are
appearing regularly at the gates of
other CIO shops to collect cash and
canned
food
donations.
Expectations are that the total cash collection will run about $15,000 per
week within a few days.

DEWEY REFUSES TROOPS
Bell officials were thrown into

a

panic by the August 19 demonstration
during
which
the
workers
flashed

their

badges,

marched

into

the plant and persuaded
the few
scabs
to
come
out
with
them.
Company
President
Lawrence
D,
Bell
screamed
about
“anarchists
and
goons”
and
wired
Governor
Dewey to send
in state
troopers.
Dewey
refused
flatly
to furnish
police or troops.
When the union
wired him a request to appoint a
commission
to
investigate
the
strike, he responded
by ordering
the
New
York
State
Board
of
Mediation to attempt a settlement.
On
issued
ing

August
for ten

disorderly

degree
19

20
warrants
were
union leaders, chargconduct

assault

during

demonstration

Among
on

those

bail

and

inside

arrested

were

the

August

the

and

Martin

third

plant.

released

Gerber,

Di-

rector of UAW-CIO Region 9; Edward F. Gray, Buffalo UAW-CIO

Sub-Regional Director; and
Siegler, President of Local
The
labor

pany

union

filed charges

practices

on

accused

August
the

against

23.

cf unfair
the

The

company

Robert
501.
com-

complaint
of

refusing

to bargain in good faith, of interfering in the affairs of office workers Local 51C and of trying to start
a company union.
Strikers are now getting unemployment
compensation
checks of
$26 per week
and they
are de-

termined
tory.

to

fight

through

.

to

vic-

=

-

UNITED

September, 1949

AUTOMOBILE

WORKER

Page 7
A

UAW and GM Agree to Add Rent
Factor to Cost-of-Living Index

The UAW-CIO and the General Motors Corporation have
reached an agreement providing for the addition of eight tenths
of a point to the Cost-of-Living Index published by the Bureau
of Labor Statistics, it was announced late last month by T. A.
Johnstone, Director of the General Motors Department.
The

long

addition,

overdue

which

recognized

a

“understatement”

on

new unit rental costs, will have no
effect on GM workers’ wages this
quarter. There was a slight decline
in the Index, but it was not enough
to affect wages—with
or without
the addition of the rent factor.
“This

agreement

substantial

gain

figure

remain

ers,”
will

for

Johnstone
will

be added

represents

GM

said.

work-

“The

constant

each

a

rent
and

quarter.”

Johnstone,

locals

and

in a letter

plants,

to all GM

credited

UAW

Research
Director Nat
Weinberg
and President Reuther with having
convinced the BLS that “the equity

and interest of the General Motors
workers demanded recognition” of
the “new unit bias” in the Index.
Weinberg said there was a strong
possibility that the additional eight
tenths of a point would result in
one-cent pay increases in the next
two

quarters.

His remarks were broadcast over
the UAW radio station WDET.,
INSURANCE CO-OP
Elsewhere
on the consumers’
front, insurance
clients were offered mutual life insurance through
Michigan
cooperatives.
Co-op
insurance also includes fire protection and will soon be extended to
auto insurance.
“Workers
will be able
to put
their money out of the hands of the
monopoly

hy

EL

Emil Mazey, UAW-CIO secretary-treasurer, speaks at
opening ceremonies of the new clothing co-op in Detroit.
With him is Al Rightley, Director of the UAW Co-op Division.

WASHINGTON—When a Representative or Senator is ‘‘too
old to work and too young to die,’’ he can get a pension of up
salary

of $12,500,

increased by $2,500 from $10,000 about the time the pension plan
was hatched.
that
the
least
you
can
draw
is
Of

he

course,

must

to

have

get

the

paid

in

maximum,

$750

a

year,

$1,875 a year. No wonder
are puzzled by the fact

W.

V.

groups,”

Torma,

of

Cen-

wot
tion
worn
gpm
I IO,
to, ppm POLI
if
MY
Y
yl
ag pur OMIM
Wy
Voting,
Md
Mop
CWI él
Ye
gL
cl

me

Wttrrrnnygiprmemunayy
yy emma»

mmm

Le

observers
that one

reached age 62 and have served at
ex-lawmaker takes a mere $592,
least
30
years.
Forty-seven
exSenators
and ex-Representatives NEW BILL
Average old age and survivors’
are collecting annual incomes under
the pension plan ranging from $592| insurance benefits under the Social
Security
Act
would
be increased
to $7,040.
The details of the plan, set up from $25 to $45 or $50 a month, or
$540-$600 a year, under a bill just
three years ago, came out last week
Ways
when
it became
known
that
ex- reported out by the House
Representative Andrew May of and Means Committee.
Kentucky

$273

was

getting

a month

a pension

or $3,336

a year.

of

May

is out on bail, pending decision on
his appeal from a conviction for accepting a bribe
ment
contracts.

to

other 46 pensions
dential,” although
ernment

fix up
Identity

governof
the

is kept “confisalaries of gov-

employees

are

not.

HOW TO DO IT
Entrance is easy and the benefits
are considerable.
To get a Congressional pension
the first thing you do is get elected.
The next problem is to make sure
you

stay

This is easy
resentatives
After

in

Congress

for Senators,
don’t always

you've

been

up

six

With

known,

Congressional

we

now

have,

not

pensions

a double

for

*IF

9,375 a year

$

600
a year

workers,*

the

bill

passes

present the average
or $300 a year.

in

1950.

six

NEW UNION ACTIVITY:
DOG TRAINING CLASSES

your
worries
are
over,
provided
you are 62 or older. You can retire
or you can
be defeated,
but you
still eat. In fact, even if you don’t
last six years in office, all is not

lost

for

you

receive

a

lump

ment,

Of
cent

|

|
|

course,
Or

$750

you
of

have
the

to pay
$12,500

draw in salary into the fund
want a pension,
The pension
amounts to 2%
per cent of
basic salary multiplied by the
ber of years you serve,
The ceiling is 75 per cent of

UAW

ation

you

cedure
=

pam.

“Ul I'd
have

Qs

Carl

CARL Sramware

troit

joined a union, I could
been a journ
an

now —instead

ing mani?”

of a

ee

e

local unions, I agreed
in the capacity of Gen-

eral
Motors
Director.
Following
my injury and during my period of
convalescence, the major responsi-

bilities

of

the

General

Motors

partment were assumed by Brother
T. A. Johnstone, who has during

the past 18 months, been
General Motors Director.
Following

vention

the

of July

acting

Milwaukee

11,

1949,

as

con-

it was

felt

that a formal-shift of the directorship should be made and Brother
Johnstone should be designated as
the General Motors Director, and
Brother E. S. Patterson should be
designated as assistant director.
These
appointments
were
approved by the unanimous action of
the Executive Board last week. In
transferring

the

General

Motors

Directorship from myself to Brother Johnstone, I want to thank the

General Motors locals, both officers
and members, for their past cooperation and I am certain that this
same cooperation will continue between ourselves and Brother Johnstone so that the General Motors
workers can go forward and win
for themselves the things to which
they are entitled.
With

every

good

wish,

Fraternally,

WALTER

De-

P. REUTHER,
President,

Congress to Investigate Labor
Relations, Monopoly, Lobbies

WASHINGTON—The lack of morals may be just as great,
but the current commotion over ‘‘five per centers’’ and per-

fumes that somehow
Arabian camel seems

smell
small

no sweeter than the lee side of an
and unimportant stuff compared to

four investigations that are in the works and should start pércolating before the end of the year.That is,-in terms of jobs,
security, opportunity and the su rvival of democracy.
1, A SPECIAL SENATE LABOR COMMITTEE INVESTIGATION INTO LABOR MANAGEMENT RELATIONS, to be headed by Senator James E. Murray.
Taft may insist on being a member. Senators Aiken and/or Morse
In
members.
be minority
may
any event, this committee will go
life
after the real facts about
under the Taft-Hartley Act, why

lutions,

one

gation,

one

teach

Locals

advice

600

of

and

2,

Detroit

both

programs,

Object

of

of

trainrecre-

the

classes is to instruct union pooches
in their doggietiquette, and to assist
the pups’ masters
in proper pro-

if you
itself
your
numyour

the

which
recently started dog
ing classes as a part of their

6 per

last salary or $9,375 at the present
scale, but you must serve 30 years
to get it. Simple arithmetic says

Ts

That's

pay-

number of
to continue

Danger

If your local union is going
to the dogs, why don’t you just
switch the direction and bring
the dogs to your local?

years

the

for

a

for

House

investi-

joint

House-

a

Paul

Douglas

(D.,

DL),

4. MONOPOLY.
If done boldly
and
carried
through,
this
will
bring up the biggest fish of all.

is $25 a month,

but Repmake it.

by

will relate dollars to people—although Douglas has gone off the
deep end in the current McClellan attempt
to make
President
Truman
cut
ALL
expenditures
five per cent, regardless,

At

years,

approved

International Executive Board.
Locals were informed of the shift
in the following letter sent to all
GM units:
Since 1939 1 have had the honor
and responsibility of serving as Director of the General Motors Department of our union and, while
I have had other assignments, I can
say in good conscience that I have
always considered the General Motors assignment closest to my heart
and one that has afforded me an
opportunity to participate with the
General Motors workers in some of
labor’s
most
basic
and
historic
struggles.
Upon
my election to the presidency of the International Union,
there
was
some
question
as
to
whether I would be able to continue as General Motors Director due
to the pressure of increased responsibilities.
Following the 1947 convention, based upon the urging of a

Senator

for Congressmen,
to $

was

When—and If—
Your Congressman
Comes Home

folks” and repair political fences,
UAW-CIO
officers and members
can find out if their Representative

Senate Committee. If the Senate
If he is, you can
doesn’t agree, the House will go is coming home.
use the report from Washington on
it alone, probably under Buchanan’s chairmanship.
This should Page 5 of this Auto Worker as a
bring
up from
the deep
some | check list for subjects of conversavery
big and some
very queer tion with him. Undoubtedly you can
fish and
explain
a great
deal think of others.
about
a lot of happenings
in
scared and cut the line. ChairWashington.
man Emanuel Celler of the House
3. FISCAL POLICIES. Special
Monopoly
Investigating CommitSenate
Committee,
headed
by
tee will start hearings
late in

standard, but a triple standard for
those “too old to work
and too
young to die’’:
for management, $25,000 a year
up

action

The
House
of
Representatives
has suspended business until Sept.
21.
A handful of Representatives
will show up once every three days
organization
has
been
almost) |to hold ‘no business” sessions—to
stopped cold in the South, union- comply with the Constitution, which
neither House
cane adbusting tactics by employers else- says that
where, real services that unions journ without the consent of the
render their members and their other.
Some Congressmen are going on
It has $25,000 to
communities.
in
other
counstart with and is loaded for bear, “investigations”
tries; some probably will go fishbut grizzlies.
But many prob2.
LOBBIES.
Representative| ing or swimming.
Buchanan (D., Pa.) has two reso- ably will come home to “meet the

SASS

Congressmen, Including May,
Get Pensions Up to $9,375
cent of the present

insurance

tral States Cooperatives, “and the
money
accumulated
in insurance
premiums will be available to help
buy their own businesses.”
MICHIGAN DRIVE
A drive to increase membership,
volume,
and
capital in eastern
Michigan cooperatives was also underway, and is expected to enlarge
co-op operations by 20 per cent. A
special co-op paper will be sent to
starting
Sepall co-op members
tember
12.
Other
plans call for
extensive promotion among member families and a revival of union
co-op committees to stir up new
interest in defending the wage dollar with co-ops.

MULE

per

The

Detroit shoppers packed the new
Consumer Clothing Center at 3423
Livernois last month to buy co-op
priced
merchandise
selling at 20
per cent below market levels.
UAW Secretary-Treasurer Emil
Mazey addressed the opening of
the
glant
co-operative
clothing
warehouse.
Mazey
praised
the
joint union and co-op enterprise
and said, “The union must
not
only work to increase the pay
check, but must work to increase
the buying power of that check.”

commented

a year—75

UAW-CIO President Walter P, Reuther last month turned
over the directorship of the General Motors Department to T.
A. Johnstone, formerly assistant director.

Clothing Co-op
Opens in Detroit

big

to $9,375

T. A. Johnstone Named Director
Of General Motors Department

Club,

for

Sine,

directs

hobby

dogs

president

Sportsman's

Started
the
600,
Helen

whose

making

classes

Dog

at

obey.

of

the

De-

‘Training

Local

2 and

Instruction
at Local
and
Chris
D'lorlo,

is dog

training,

now

Helen
we're

the

is

that

dogs

D'lorio
not

at

partial

someone

the

pointed

may

Ford

out,

to any

get

local.

“And

breed,

But

I must
say, it’s always easler to
train dogs than people.”
Dogs are learning simple obedi-

ence,

such

as

how

to

sit,

stay,

come,
and
heel
on
command,
Graduates
of
the
eight-lesson
course are expected to be able to
walk
with
thelr
masters
on
the
street,
behave
at home,
keep
out
of fights with other dogs, and be
good travelling companions,
Local 600's classes are sponsored
by the Detroit Recreation Council,
and
meet
each
Monday
at
7:30
Classes cost 50c for each two-hour
Session,
All unlon dog owners, or

relatives
and
members,
are
thelr dogs,

friends
welcome

of
to

union
enroll

October.

Purpose:

strengthening

creasing

penalties

for

the anti-trust laws.
Celler said
investigation
will deal with inviolations,

the

anti-trust

trend

toward

in-

creasing
concentration
of
economié
power
and
legislation

needed

to

conflicts

meet

of

this

law

and

situation;

policy

with-

in the government,
particularly
in military procurement;
the
Reed-Bulwinkle
law
exempting
railroads
from
the
anti-trust
laws;
the
Webb-Pomerene
law

exempting

exporters

anti-trust laws; tax
encourage
breaking

ness;
tween
ism.

and
the
monopoly

Next

year,

committee
cult

questions,

tration
hands

of

dustrial
ance

of

should
trust

ing

into

such

as

law,

the

and

the

diffi-

concen-

capital

companies

the

more

commercial

companies,

be

announced,

equity

for a more
legitimate

incentives to
of big busi-

go

large

the

relationship
beand totalitarian-

Cellar

will

from

life

in

the

and

in-

alleged

insurneed

accurate
definition of
union
activities
that

excluded
and

the

competition

price” industries
few companies,

from

need

the

for

anti-

restor-

“administered

controlled

by

a

«

UNITED AUTOMOBILE

Page 8

WORKER

September, 1949

Dixiegop Coalition Splits
On Minimum Wage Bill

WASHINGTON—A revolt against NAM and C. of C. leadership by manufacturers in unionizing higher-wage areas outside
the South and a temporary break away from the Dixiegop coalition by Republicans from imdustrial states, led by Senator Robert A. Taft, resulted August 31 in Senate passage of a bill to inthe

minimum

wage

from

40

cents.to

75

cents

an

hour.

Final Senate action, on substituting the Senate bill for the ripper bill previously passed by the House, was by an unrecorded
voice vote.

The Senate bill, which now goes
to Senate-House conference, would
raise the wages of about 1,500,000
employees by $365,000,000 a year.
Except
for provision
tightening
the Act’s child labor section and
authorizing the Secretary of Labor
to. sue

employers

on

behalf

of

em-

ployees for unpaid wages due under the Act, the bill would make no
other improvement in the present
Act.
200,000

OUT

At least 200,000 employees
tail and service employment

be deprived
under
the

amendments

and

carried

ments.

who

tained

of the Act’s protection
Holland
and
George
redefining

exempting

when

was

on

However,

retailing

manufacturing

in

in charge

from

in rewould

retail

Senator

establish-

Pepper,

of the bill, ob-

Senator

George

a state-

ment of legislative intent which, if
accepted by the House and later by
the courts, will prevent big stores
and chains from getting exemption
on their own say-so and for employees in captive factories feeding
products exclusively to stores and

chains.
Even with this limitation,
labor attorneys predict that manufacturers will regret this opening
of the door to sweatshop competition by exempt monopolistic manufacturing-processing-wholesalingand-retailing “retailers”.
The fight now shifts to the House
which,
by a vote of 215 to 188,
adopted the Lucas bill as a substitute for the Lesinski bill. By changing the definition of the word “produced” by striking out ‘necessary
to production” and substituting “or
in any

closely

related

process

or oc-

Fair

Deal

averaged

A

shift

188

of

220 op-

supporters
votes.

the

have

voting

toric
by

In key votes in the House, the
Dixiegop Coalition:
Weakened Rent Control—227
to 188.
Defeated T-H Repeal—217 to
203.
Slashed minimum
wage coyerage—225 to 181.
On all Fair Deal measures the
averaged

Senator

Hubert

three-day

Humphrey’s

speech

align-

ment
of 20 liberal votes is
needed.
In the Senate,
the Dixiegop
Coalition:
Weakened Rent Control
— 45
to 35.
Maintained Filibuster rule—46
to 41.
Passed 1949 version of T-H—
46 to 44.
On
all Fair
Deal
measures
the Dixiegops have averaged 46
votes.

Fair Deal forces have averaged 38 votes.
The election of only 5 liberals
in the Senate is needed.

the

called
Labor
of

CIO.

The

“The

Case

Policy”

for

and

the

reprinted

68-page

booklet,

a Fair

is a meaty

information

his-

against

Taft-Hartley Act has been

BOX SCORE

Dixiegop forces
position votes.

Against T-H

Deal

collection

argument

for

repeal

of the Taft-Hartley Act.
The UAW-CIO
edition has been
cleverly indexed by Luther Slinkard,

sub-regional

director

in

Kan-

sas City, Mo. The pamphlet traces
the story of how labor unions grew
up

into

legal

respectability,

monopoly corporations fought
rise of unions, how the Wagner

gave

nity

their

working

to

own

peoplé

organize

“into

choosing,”

action is seeking
ism
by
putting
laws.

an

and

how
the
Act

opportu-

unions
how

of

re-

to destroy unioncrimps
in labor

There are choice
Congressional
exchanges
between
Senator
Taft
and Senator Humphrey, since the
entire text has been
lifted completely from the Congressional Record. Copies are available from the
UAW-CIO Washington Office, 1129
Vermont
av., N. W., Washington,
DIC:

it will be necessary for about 23
House members who voted for the
Lucas Amendment to swing around
to acceptance of the Senate substitute.

“The Lucas bill would have farreaching
effects
upon
employees
and employers in every conceivable

business,”

says

the

CIO

analysis.

“Like the Taft-Hartley Act, it would
cupation
indispensable
to producthrow even the 4uestion of minition,” by exempting manufacturing| |} mum wage and hour protection inby so-called
retailers, commercial
to the courts for a 10-year period
Jaundries, peckerwood
sawmills,
of litigation
before
it could
be
rural
home
workers
and
others |known
just
what
the
new
act
and by redefining “hours worked,”
meant.
the Lucas bill would
“The Lucas bill is utterly hypowipe out the normal 40-hour
16. 'S36EDS ©1949 CARL Stamwitz
critical and deceptive,” in offering
work week for ALL employees;
to increase the minimum wage to
deprive at least 1,000,000 work“This is my husband . . . His union
75 cents an hour while at the same
ers now covered of ANY protec_Just won a retroactive pay raise!
time stripping millions of workers
tion;
of the present sure protection of
more
2,000,000
least
at
put
the Act, the analysis points out.
area of production exemption and
workers in a twilight zone of unotherwise extend coverage. At least}
ten
take
would
that
certainty
FAIR DEALERS RETREAT
there should be a record vote for
years of litigation to clear up.
Going into the Senate fight, the the 1950 elections.
These are the conclusions of a
Fair Dealers accepted amendments
House Republicans are going to
19-page analysis of the Lucas bill
to their bill that knocked out promade by the CIO Committee on Rehave to accept or repudiate Taft’s
| visions
extending
coverage
to 5,vision of the Fair Labor Standards
statement, made during Senate de| 000,000 workers not now covered.
| bate, endorsing the Minimum Wage
Act.
The
UAW-CIO
Washington
This was done to hold Republican
Office is mailing that analysis to
principle, approving a 75-cent mini| Senators who were ready to vote
mum as “a safe figure,” and saying
Regional Directors with an Action
for a 75-cent minimum wage, less
that “if there are very low wages
Sheet pointing out that, while their|
than
wages
prevailing
in
their
in an industry in one part of the
Representatives
are home,
UAW| states, but who agreed with Democountry, that holds down the wages
CIO members
and officers should
cratic
Senators
from
low-wage
and the standard of living of people
urge them to get the House to “re| Southern states that the Act should
in that industry in other parts of
cede and concur,” that is, to acnot
be extended
to cover- more
the country.” Taft called this “uncept the Senate bill.
workers. In stripping down the bill
fair competition”
because
of its
NEED SHIFT
now to get passage this year, Pep“generally bad effect upon the conTo get even the one-third of a per promised that an attempt will
dition of workers in other indusloaf represented by the Senate bill, be made next year to abolish the

GM Pays Ex-GOP Senator
Bargain-Basement Ball

The price tag on Joseph Ball, former Republican Senator
from Minnesota, was $3,475—a fairly faney price for shoddy
merchandise.

The purchasers were wealthy suckers—General Motors Corporation and General Electric Corporation; and the broker, or
middleman, was another ersatz former ‘‘publie servant,’’ Gerard Reilly, erstwhile National Labor Relations Board member,
who had long since joined Tishaminy Golden Boy (a prize bull)
as one of General Motors’ President C. E. Wilson’s prized possessions.

Reilly,

who

helped

write

the®

Taft-Hartley
Act, disclosed
last|write a “tougher” Jabor bill than
month
in his report—required
of Taft-Hartley as a member of the
him as a paid lobbyist—that he had Senate Labor Committee.
paid
the
former
GOP
senator
Ball was formerly a Minneapolis
$1,737.50 from his General Motors
newspaperman.
His
associates
in
lobbying fee of $7,864, and $1,737.50 his early newspaper days—in
the
from his General.-Electric fee of mid-thirties—say
that
even
then
$6,000.
he was giving clues to, a future of
Ball
-was
not
registered
as
a moral
elasticity.
As a “cub”
relobbyist as required by law.
porter, he was a rabid and radical
member
of the American
NewsREILLY AND GM
Guild.
At
Guild
meetings
General Motors workers will re- paper
call Reilly as the “impartial” agent during contract negotiations with
his employers,
the shaggy,
unof
the
federal
government
who
conducted hearings in 1946 in the kempt Ball was always the one—
at times the only one—to insist on
dispute growing out of the UAWCIO’s charges against GM
of re- strike action. He affected bohemifusal to bargain.
His eagerness to anism in appearance and conduct.
serve GM then was so strong that
he took the virtually unprecedented action of taking over as a trial
examiner although he was a member of the board itself.

TOOK

OUT

INSURANCE

WHAT

MONEY

CAN

DO
With a few promotions and pay
raises, however, Ball resigned from
the Guild and became one of that
union’s tireless opponents. When he
quit
son:

the
“I

Guild,
don’t

he gave as his reawant
to
associate

This latest revelation about Ball,
sometimes
called the “rich man’s with clerks and janitors.”
Lincoln,” confirmed the beliefs held
A
close search
of Minneapolis
by many
observers that Ball had }now would disclose no respectable
an
eye
to future
earnings
from clerks or janitors willing ‘to associcorporations while he was trying to |}ate with Ball.

tries.”

TAFT-TALK

THE THREAT OF
UNEMPLOYMENT
KEEPS MEN ON

However,

sition
week
that

HE MEANS
'T KEEPS ‘EM
ON THEIR

HIS PROFIT,
FIGURES!

—=

Guernsey-Montgomery for the Economie Outlook, ClO.

Taft

repeated

his oppo-

to the normal 40-hour work
provided in the Act, saying

“certainly

as

opportunities

for

employment
increase, the number
of hours should also increase” (before penalty overtime begins).
Justifying his vote for the Holland amendment excluding 200,000
workers,
Taft
said
the
Supreme
Court was constitutionally all wet
in holding in the Roland Electric
Ca. case that sales or service to
commercial
users are NOT
retail
sales or service and
hence
NOT
within the retail and service: exemption in the present Act. He said
they are retail, should be exempt,
and Congress should make its wishes plain to the Supreme Court. The

Senate agreed with Taft on this, 50
to 23, 23 absent or not voting.

Courtesy Institute for American Democracy, Inc.

ee

crease

Humphrey War

UNITED

September, 1949

AUTOMOBILE

WORKER

RUBBER WORKERS STRIKE
FOR PENSIONS, WAGES

UAW Spokesman Sees Common
Goals for Farmers, Workers

“Labor wants food as cheap as it can buy it, but not af the
expense of sweatshop farming.’’ So said Don Montgomery, chief
of the UAW-CIO Washington office, in an address last month
before the American Farm Economics Association at Laramie,
Wyoming.

y

“This is not based on sentiment but on a recognition of com-

mon

e

~~

ee

*

interest.’’

In
fact,
charged
Montgomery; (asset
“organized labor has little reason stroy its collective bargaining powto be grateful to organized farm- er and to drive it back to comers.” For “hostility from that quar- petitive wages.”
ter” almost
caused
“a fatal rift WAGES AND MARKETS
between them.”
Labor supports the farm
price
But
“many
organized
workers
support program because it is dewere
born
on
farms
and
many
termined
to “achieve
steady full
more
have
family
ties
reaching
employment
and production
at
back to those who work the land. good wages, Only full employment
They know farming is hard work
can assure good markets and price
and hazardous.”
supports
are in peril if markets

“Workers

principal

crop—his

ters—come

and

fight

workers

human

manities

SAME

have

seen

sons

the farmer’s
and daugh-

to the factories

side

to

by

side

with

other

against

the

inhu-

protect

beings

of

the

PURPOSE

to work

their

factory

rights

as

system.”

Farm price supports and collective bargaining have the same purpose, Montgomery noted—“to provide human
security against
the

onslaught

of

economic

forces.”

The attacks upon farm price supports have
come
from
the same
financial and industrial sources that
still hope to divide labor, to de-

collapse.
The
farm
family
supports is as
curity which
wins through

security which the
wins
through
price
vulnerable as the sethe worker’s family
collective bargaining.

“A return of depression can destroy
both.
Curtailed
production
and
employment
is welcomed
by
big

business

precisely

because

it

holds out the hope of cheaper labor and cheaper raw materials.
“Labor will not achieve its goal
unless farmers share in the winning of it. Nor will the two together make headway unless they
and other groups of people get into
politics.”

Rightwingers Lead in UE

DAYTON (LPA)—More than 17,000 members of the United
Rubber Workers, CIO, have struck the B. F’. Goodrich Co. in a
drive for retirement pensions, wage increases, and a health and
welfare program.

AUTO-LITE DRIVE
CENTERS IN OHIO

The

LOCKLAND,
0.—A
UAW-CIO
drive to organize the huge AutoLite plant in this town got in full
swing this month.
Organizers reported
a steady
influx
of UAW
members
among
the 2,700 AutoLite production workers,
Auto-Lite officials are making a
desperate bid to block UAW organization in enormous runaway shop.
Employment is expected to multiply in the giant plant which formerly housed 40,000 wartime Curtiss-Wright workers.
The company’s union-busting and
union-splitting is helped by the divisive
tactics of the AFL,
IAM,
and a company union. A UAW organizational staff is on hand under
Bill Grabber, an Auto-Lite worker
from Springfield, O.
Vice-President Richard Gosser,
director of the UAW Auto-Lite Department, G@nnounced the UAW is
determined
to establish a strong
industrial union in this open-shop
hideaway. American taxpayers built
the Lockland plant for $40,000,000
during the war, but the Auto-Lite
Corporation bought it for $8,500,000
afterwards.
NLRB
hearings
are
scheduled soon, as the UAW-CIO
prepared to fight for a complete
victory to protect UAW wage rates
and werking conditions against the
threats of a rich corporation,

Election; CP Puts on Heat
DAYTON
(LPA)—Scheduling of
a Progressive (Wallace) Party conference ‘on jobs and the economic

crisis”

in Cleveland,

two

days

prior

to United Electrical Workers, CIO,
convention there has drawn comments from rightwing UE leaders.
The Wallace conference is set for
September 17 and 18. US convention opens the 19th in the same

city.

William Snoots, secretary of the
rightwing UE conference, declared
last week that “it is far from a
coincidence
that
the
Progressive
Party mob is holding this meeting
so close to our national UE convention.”
“It means,” said
Communists
from

country will remain
UE
convention
for

Snoots, “that
all over the
over for the
any kind of

dirty work they may be assigned
to, including the balcony demon-

strations.”

“The
obvious
selection
of date
for this conference shows that the
UE leadership is panicky and that
the Communists, to help them out,

are

going

to

concentrate

as

much

of their forces as possible in Cleveland
to pressure
and
intimidate
every UE delegate who may not be
instructed or committed.”
Leftwing
CIO
unions,
such
as
United
Office
and
Professional
Workers, have sent letters to all
their
locals
recommending
that
they send delegates to the Wallace
conference.
UE
stack

1,677;

1,195.

1,316;

charge,
charters

are
resorting
to
of rightwing locals

der to keep
convention.
history the
dentials to
in after the
view of all
eredentials
vention,

lifting
in or-

them away from the
For the first time in
union is returning crelocals which got them
August 15 deadline. In
this a bitter fight on
is expected at the con-

JUST IGNORE HIM, MIKE,
HE 1§ TRYING TO TAKE
OUR MINDS OFF THE
PENSION,

began

August

26

after URW’s contract with Goodrich expired.
Union President H.
R. Lloyd charged
that the company not only refused to bargain
on current demands, but also wanted to take away existing benefits
in the old contract.
Rubber
workers’
demands
this
year are similar to those of other
CIO
unions.
They include a 25c
hourly
wage
increase,
monthly
pensions of $100 for workers 65 and
over, a health and welfare plan,
ending of wage differentials in
plants throughout the country, and
extension of the six-hour day with
no reduction in pay.

Public Power
Gains in Senate
WASHINGTON—Good and
unusual was the news out of
the Senate this week when votes
for the people over-rode votes

for the electric power industry.
As the bill goes to conference
most of the devices which the
power lobby got into it to eripple public distribution of publie power had been stricken out.
It may be further improved in
conference.
Publie power took a licking,
however, when the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee
failed to confirm the reappointment of Leland Olds as Federal
Power Commissioner.
Olds is
an outstanding authority in
power and natural gas and for
ten years on the Commission
has fought a great fight for the
public. That’s why some Senators are in no hurry to confirm
him for another term. A sub-

The
company’s
policy,
Lloyd
asserted,
“is influenced
by the
policy of American industry generally to refuse to restore the
purchasing power of its workers
and to refuse to take care of its
aged workers.”
Attempts to weaken the old contract provided, among other things,
that the union agree to a no-strike
pledge which would have rendered
it liable for illegal acts committed
by employees who were not even
members;
that
the
company
be
given the right to file grievances
against

the

union;

that

overtime

rates
originally
granted
by
the
War Labor Board be taken away;
and that workers be compelled to
stay at their machines for an entire shift.

The
strike
was
voted
unanimously by the Goodrich section of
the International
Policy Committee.
Members
of Goodrich
locals
had previously voted 15 to one to
strike if necessary.
Company-wide negotiations have
resumed
in
Dayton,
Ohio.
The
struck plants are at Akron, Ohio;
Los
Angeles,
Cal;
Oaks,
Pa.;
Miami,

Tenn.;

Okla.,

and

Cadillac,

committee

Ala.

it has been announced
Gerber, Director of Re-

CIO

“That non-union repairman
made a fine roaster out of
my refrigerator!”

has

bership

gion 9.
They were formerly members of
the Precision Electrical .and Ma-

Stamwire

CARL

Gina

DEE

7.

unfriendly,

“The
weakness
of independent
organization,” was cited by Garland
Quinn, spokesman
for the group
now seeking a UAW charter, as a
reason for the action. “The UAW-

More than 200 members of an
independent union in Newark, N.
J., have voted to affiliate with the

UAW-CIO,
by Martin

the

chine Workers’ Independent Union,
which has a collective bargaining
agreement with the Kearfott Manufacturing
Corp.
of Newark,
ex<
piring December 12, 1949.

Mich.;

Tuscaloosa,

of

Senators will hold hearings on
him. Meanwhile, he is out of
office.

200 Join UAW

unknown,

Rightwingers figure they need to
pick up 411 of the undecided votes
in order to win the convention.
Present
union
leaders,
they

walkout

Clarksville,

Convention
votes
so far
up as follows: Rightwing,
leftwing,

Page 9

been

based

aggressive

selected

and

on

by

their

our

mem-

record

intelligent

leader-

ship within
their million-member
organization,” Quinn said.

ClO Leader Talks
To N. Y. Farmers

SYRACUSE, N. Y. (LPA)—
Industrial workers and small
farmers have common economic
and political interests, Jacob S.
Potofsky,
president
of the
Amalgamated Clothing Work-

ers

of

America,

CIO,

told

a

farmer-labor conference here
on August 30. The conference
was sponsored by the New York
State Democratic committee.

Nearly 60 million gainfully employed industrial workers and their

families
mers of

are
farm

the
greatest
products, Mr.

consuPotof-

sky said, and denounced “reactionary efforts’ to set industrial workers and small farmer's against each

other,

He

said

wanted

which
lent

he
of

that
direct

a

the CIO
parity

described

minimum

as

specifically
payments

the

wage

equivafor

in-

dustrial
workers,
Other
demands
which he listed in detail included
a national food allotment plan in
case of serious deflation or unem-

ployment,

tection

for

rural

farm

electrificatio
n,
pro-

cooperatives

a government housing
farm area residents,

program

and

for

When the income of farmers goes
up, the
income
of workers
goes
up.”
Mr,
Potofsky
maintained.
“When the income of workers goes

down, the
down,”

Income

of

farmers

goes

Sa Peat ae
Pe

Nae a,

a

whe

ALL KINDS OF STRIKE
bers of United Auto Workers,

of

cea Oe

ae

eS ‘

BREAKING—Striking

mem-

CIO, at Bell Aircraft Corp, in

Buffalo have been subjected to a series of strikebreaking at-

tempts by the company, Loyal unionist 8am Mercurio points
to the injunction which limits UAW to 15 pickets at each
gate, The court order was the first step by the company to
clear the way for scabs, Their efforts, however, have been
unsuccessful, The strike is still on, (LPA)

UNITED

Page 10

AUTOMOBILE

WORKER

September, 1949

Well-Heeled Anti-Co-op
Drive Is Under Way

WASHINGTON—Members
of Congress, including liberals,

are being

pounded

barrage of ‘‘tax
propaganda.

EDDIE CANTOR
APPEARS ON WDET

Eddie Cantor, famed comedian and entertainer, appeared
before the UAW-CIO Station
WDET in a special broadcast
on August 18.
When asked if he would speak
to WDET’s audience, he said,
“Sure, I'll answer your questions, any and all of them.
That’s what’s wrong about so
many
people
these
days.
They’re afraid to discuss
things.”’’
Cantor talked about a lot
of subjects, from the Marshall
Plan, which he supports enthusiastically, to Boysville Foundation, for which he currently
is giving benefit performances.
Recounting experiences on his
recent trip to Europe, Cantor
declared that everywhere he
went people asked him about

the evils of racial prejudice in
America. ‘‘How can you, they

said to me, talk about re-educating us in democracy when
you allow discrimination to go

on and on in America?’’

Calling for an end to racial
and religious intolerance, Cantor lamented the fact that there
are in America “‘too many Gentiles and not enough
Christians.’’

Biel ey

by a mail

the

Co-ops’’

A pamphlet, ‘Sudden Death on
Main
Street,”
with
a space
for
writing in the sender’s name and
address, is being used.
It charges
that small independent store keep-

ers are

being

put

out

of business

by the co-ops because co-ops enjoy
unfair tax exemptions.
Of course,
co-ops pay all state, county and
local taxes paid by other businesses—except taxes on profits. Co-ops
do not have profits.
Letters from
co-op
committees
giving the co-op side of the argument tend to offset the anti-co-op
barrage.

The
size
and
backing
of this
anti-co-op campaign are indicated
by this LPA story:
The National Tax Equality Association, the outfit that spends a lot
of time
and- even
more
money
fighting
cooperatives,
has
come
perilously close to outsmarting it-

self.

It turns out that NTEA consists
of a couple of publicity artists and
not much else
ness
interests

except
which

the big busiput
up the

money. Or that’s the way it seemed
when
Scott & Schuler,
organization
counselors,
appeared
before
the House Committee on the Problems of Small Business of which
Rep.
Wright
Patman
(D., Tex.)
is chairman.
The
committee
is
looking inte “phony”
small business organizations which really are

big

business

organizations.

The firm’s Mr, Scott, whose first
name is Vernon, is executive vicepresident of NTEA.
The Chicago
office of Scott & Schuler is—guess
where—right in the NTEA
office.
Meanwhile,
the
other
partner,
Mr. Loring Schuler, is executive
director of the National Associated
Businessmen, Inc. By the strangest
of
coincidences,
the
Washington
office of Scott & Schuler is in the
offices of NAB, Inc., whose main
purpose is to distribute propaganda and lobby for NTEA.
In short, Scott & Schuler, instead
of
representing
NAB,
Inc.,
and

en ae oe

NTEA
as
“organization
counselors,” are running them.
To make
the
picture
a
little
clearer,
it
should Be pointed\out that NAB,
Inc., has been called “a small business front” for the big business interests financing NTEA,

UTILITY MONEY
Scott told the Patman Committee
that his firm had only one client
besides NTEA and NAB, Inc., and
mentioned
the
Indiana.
State
Chamber of Commerce. But it was
brought

NTEA

out

at

gets most

or more

the

hearing

that

of the half million

a year it uses to fight the

cooperatives
from
the utilities
which hardly qualify for the “small

business” class.
While
Scott was
looking
none
too good before the Patman Committee
in
Washington,
one-time
liberal Congressman Jerry Voorhis,
now secretary of the Cooperative
League, was charging in Chicago
that NTEA was deliberately violating its agreement with federal authorities to stop distributing
the
“phony bucks” carrying a “tax the
co-ops” message
NTEA
has been
handing out,
>

FUNNY

MONEY

The phony bucks were made to
resemble dollar bills, and the govyernment decided that they violated
Treasury rules prohibiting the use
of advertising matter showing any
marked
similarity
to
money.
NTEA’s
answer was to come
up
with

line

a

of

new

phony

tinguishable

and

slightly

bucks

from

the

‘almost

revised

indis-

original ones.

Radio station WCUO-FM goes into the plants for its
“Rank and File’’ program. Here Richard Wallace interviews Herman Paul, right, president of Local 1050, Cleveland, and Ed Stokowski, publicity director of Local 1050.

Skilled Tradesmen Hear
Encouraging Reports
With

unemployment

workers,

to launch
tracts.
A

the

new
:

number

troit’s

East

of
Side

UAW-CIO

drives

tool
were

dropping

Skilled

shops

on

recently

add-

constitutional amendment
adopted
by the recent UAW-CIO
Convention, The council hailed this new
step as “a great advance for the

Region 4 Dedicates

reads the amendment
adopted
at
Milwaukee, “they shall be submitted to the Skilled Trades Department in order to effectuate an industry-wide
standardization
of

New Union Center

A new Union Center was dedieated on Labor Day by UAW-CIO
members
in Region 4 at opening
ceremonies in Ottawa, Ill. Speakers, according to Regional Director
Pat
Greathouse,
included
UAW
Secretary-Treasurer Emil Mazey,
Senator

Paul

Douglas

of

Illinois,

and Congressman James V. Buckley from the fourth district of Illinois.

The $300,000 Union
Center
includes a 14-acre tract of land with
21 cabins, two annex buildings, and
a main lodge.
It will be used by
union members and their families
for a summer
camp, vacation resort, union schools and week-end
institutions.

ers must
Trades

skilled

work-

according

to

be submitted to the Skilled

Department,

a

skilled workers.”
“Before contract or supplement
demands affecting skilled workers
are

submitted

to

the

Detroit

Council

and

met

tool

to improve

last

and

union

die

month

eon-

De-

According to Voorhis, Mr. Vernon Scott said, “We don’t stop our
program at the whim of some government official.”
Last year
Scott was
active in
Minnesota
where
he
directed
a
publicity
campaign
to
save
the
Senate seat of ex-Senator Joe Ball.
However,
Hubert
Humphrey
was
elected
to
the
Senate,
and
Joe
Ball became a lobbyist for General
Electric and General Motors.

affecting

Trades

for members

ed to the UAW
following
union
elections, with assistance from the
Competitive Shops Dept. and the
tool and die locals, 155 and 157.
Contracts

among

employer,”

agreements on wages, hours, apprenticeship programs, journeyman
standards and working conditions.”
The council sessions in Detroit
were
chaired
by
Brother
James

Foundry De pt.
Established
A Foundry

staff

members

action
tive

Department

of

was

the

Board

of

a

tional

Foundry

tion

the

request
and

a

submitted

Wage

the

fol-

Internaand

Convention

the

Hour
resolu-

Board

The Board acted during its August session in Detroit.
Vice-President
Richard
Gosser,
director
of
the Foundry
Department,
announced the appointment of Heinz
Szeve as assistant director of the
new union
branch.
Szeve’s headquarters will be at 281 West Grand
Boulevard, Detroit 16.

Bowden,
of
Lansing,
assisted
by
Appearing before the IEB on bevice-chairman
Roy
Welch,
South |half of the new Department were
Bend. Bowden was re-elected chair- officers of the Foundry Wage and

man, and after Welch declined to Hour
Council,
including
Robert
run, Brother Clyde Newton, of De- Lee, vice-chairman;
James Arena,
troit, was elected vice-chairman of |secretary-treasurer;
Jeff
Haire,
the Skilled Trades Council. Its next chairman
of Subcouncil
2;
Sam
quarterly meeting will be held in Rizzo, chairman
of Subcouncil
5,
Dayton.
and Earl Penn, Local 539.

CIO at Fairs

Farm-labor unity
of displays which

was the theme
appeared
at

countless fairs throughout the middle-west this summer. While farm-

ers
browsed
livestock
and

through
exhibits of
machinery,
they

stopped off at CIO tents to examine
exhibits sponsored by the buyers of
farm products and the makers of
farm tools.
The CIO exhibits told the story
of why farmers and workers must
work together politically to protect

_

Ww Copp

—_——~

&. MORE #UMAN TREATMENT

4. MORE DIGNITY ON THE JOB

and advance common economic objectives. In Michigan farmers read
about farm-labor unity in a leaflet
called “Tractors for You—Ham and
Eggs for Us.” In Indiana and Wisconsin farmers watched CIO movies
on the TVA
and, human
rights,
while in Iowa they heard their
political activities praised by a farm
state governor, William S, Beardsley.

for

action.

Local unions have contributed
generously to the purchase of the
valuable property, which will see
year-round use among 65,000 UAW
members in Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska.

2. A CHANCE TO ABVANCE

by

Execu-

UAW-CIO
by

to

two

established

International

lowing
Council

with

George Edwards, Detroit Common Council president and
leading contender in race for Mayor, stricken with polio,
continues weekly reports to public about actions of Council
on WDET Public Service program, ‘‘You and Your City’’.
Mr. Edwards was photographed in his sickroom at his home,
recording the program for WDET’s listeners,

UNITED

September, 1949

Board

Acts

The resolutions on this page were approved by the
Convention Resolutions Committee and were referred
to the International Executive Board for action. The
following were adopted by the Board at its last meeting:

EUR

Veterans’ Program

998

gurl

at
“tt
44

Ay
i

WHEREAS: More than 15,000,000 World War II veterans have returned to civilian life and have found that the
promises by all political parties of steady employment and
proper living conditions are not fulfilled. Over 28 per cent
of the UAW-CIO membership are veterans, and their demands for jobs, security, housing, education, and a decent
standard of living are identical with the demands of the
labor movement
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED:
That the UAW-CIO
seek to make the G. I. Bill of Rights effective by: repealing time limits on veterans benefits, establishing a minimum
of $25.00 unemployment
compensation,
increasing
pensions to disabled veterans, liberalizing provisions for
purchase of homes, farms and businesses by veterans, and
forming an impartial appeal committee to handle claims
denied by the Veterans Administration.
That we assist in special arrangements between union
and management
to provide jobs for disabled veterans.
That we support:
adjusted service pay (Federal bonus),
priority in the purchase of surplus properties to veterans,
legislation to credit all members of the armed forces. and
merchant marine with social security accounts of $160 per
month,
mustering
out pay
to veterans discharged
for
essential civilian occupations, full protection of job rights
to

veterans,

democratization

of

the

armed

cooperation wtih the rank and file and liberal
elements of all existing veterans organizations.
*

*

%

forces,

and

progressive

*

have

318

established

local

Fair

unions

covering

Practices

750,000

Committees,

workers

though

a seg-

ment of -our, local unions still remain which have not
complied with the specific provisions of our International
Constitution which make it “mandatory that each local
union shall set up a Fair Practices and Anti-Discrimination
Committee” which shall “endeavor to eliminate discrimination affecting the welfare of the individual members of the
local union, the International Union, the labor movement
and the nation.”
THEREFORE,
BE IT RESOLVED:
That the UAWCIO reaffirms its determination to eliminate discrimination because of race, creed, color, political affiliation, sex
or

marital

status

from

America;

that

locals

which

have

not created Fair Practices Committees be mandated to
comply with the provisions of the Constitution, Article 25,
Section 5; and that future negotiations take steps to prevent management’s policy of discrimination at the point
of hire.

gh

eee

Robert Denham

WHEREAS:
Robert Denham, General Counsel of the
National Labor Relations Board, has consistently demonstrated a deep prejudice against organized labor, a prejudice manifest in his repeated attempts to force upon the
National Labor Relations Board such extreme and insup-

portable interpretations of the Taft-Hartley law as to
cause that body to rebel; a prejudice also manifest in his
public utterances and in the exercise of the discretion
vested in him in respect to the securing of injunctions, and
has consistently demonstrated
an overweening
lust for
personal power,
He

has

attempted

to concentrate

in himself increasingly

tight control over every act of NLRB regional directors;
he has with apparent malice and evil prejudice against
labor organizations imposed exaggerated requirements of
precision and particularly in the execution of the nonCommunist
affidavits, and on the basis of fly-specking
scrutiny has caused such affidavits to be rejected for the
most technical and insubstantial irregularity in their execution, all for the evident purpose of delaying, harassing,
and frustrating labor organizations in the exercise of their
constitutional liberties.

THEREFORE,

BE

IT

RESOLVED:

That

the

UAW-

CIO denounce the administration of Taft-Hartley by Robert Denham as arbitrary and prejudiced, and call upon the

President
office,

of

the

United
*

City of Hope

States
%

to

*

remove

Denham

from

*

ne

s

WHEREAS:
The
Los Angeles
Sanatorium—City
of
Hope—was founded by labor-minded people and has been
making its facilities for the care and cure of needy tuberculars to trade unionists for some 37 years, and has embarked on a building program to expand its services 80
that all long-term illnesses can be treated at this institution,

BE

i

}

IT,

THEREFORE,

RESOLVED:

Page 11

Loyalty Investigations

WHEREAS:
It is the duty of government to protect the
nation against spies and saboteurs acting in the service or
interest of foreign powers.
But we must make sure that
the security measures employed to protect our democracy

do not destroy the very democratic rights that they are designed to protect.
The rights of the individual under our democratic system require that he shall have a full and fair hearing
subject to all the constitutional safeguards of our system.
The irresponsible witch-hunting of the House Un-American Activities Committee has created an atmosphere of
hysteria which seriously endangers the democratic rights
of the individual.
Loyalty investigations of government
employees and of workers in private employment engaged
on “restricted” government contracts lack safeguards.
The shocking disclosure of the type of gossip, slander
and malice collected wholesale by the FBI for use in
loyalty investigations brings to light the hazards to which
loyal citizens are subjected without their knowledge and
without opportunity to protect themselves.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED: That the UAW-CIO
calls upon President Truman to establish a national commission of outstanding citizens from all walks of life to
make

an

exhaustive

review

of

all

loyalty

procedures,

in-

cluding the FBI, and to report and recommend measures
which will fully protect democratic rights while guaranteeing national security.
That

the

procedures

employed

in loyalty

determination

provide all the safeguards of law which form the basis of
civil rights; that the accused be presumed innocent until
proven

guilty;

that

he

be

advised

of

the

charges

against

him and the evidence upon which such charges are based;
and that he have the right of counsel and the opportunity
question

his accusers.

That the decision must be made by responsible people
competent to distinguish between rumor and evidence, who
understand our democratic ideals of due process, and can
see clearly between disloyalty and belief in a liberal social
and economic philosophy or adherence to an unpopular

WHEREAS:
Discrimination in any form endangers the
labor movement and is a violation of the UAW-CIO Constitution and the American
ideal.
The UAW-CIO
Fair
Practices and Anti-Discrimination Department has made
substantial gains for all minority groups by opening up
thousands of new job opportunities on the shop level and
has given members of minority groups the chance to utilize
their highest skills on the jobs that have been previously
denied them on the basis of race, creed, color or sex. These
gains are best protected through our contracts and the
alertness of Fair Practices and Bargaining Committees.

than

WORKER

Additional

to face and

Fair Practices in the
UAW-CIO

More

on

AUTOMOBILE

That

the

UAW-

ClO, along with other International Unions throughout
the country, endorse the aims and purposes of this national

hospital and offer it support in the expansion of their
facilities to restore the health of American trade unlonists.

idea.
=
That the accused must have the right of appeal to regularly constituted courts, and when charges of disloyalty
are cleared he shall be reimbursed for costs and loss of
income caused by loyalty procedures.
That we applaud the courageous defense of academic
freedom
by colleges and universities which have defied
the presumptuous attempt of the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities to censor textbooks.
%

*

*

*

Fair Employment Practices

Committee

WHEREAS:
The central theme of our American heritage is the importance of the individual person. We tolerate no restrictions upon the individual which depend
upon irrelevant factors such as race, color, religion, or
the social position to which he is born.
We are faced with problems of mounting unemployment
and know
by experience that when jobs are scarce in
America, discrimination increases and those who feel the
brunt of discriminatory practices in employment are the
minorities in our population. The failure of Congress and
many of our states to enact FEPC legislation lends encouragement to those groups who profit by discrimination.
THEREFORE,
BE IT RESOLVED:
CIO calls upon the 81st Congress to fulfill
American people by enacting a Federal
Practices Act prohibiting all forms of
private employment based on race, color,
origin, and to remain in session until
passed,
Me
a

That the UAWits pledges to the
Fair Employment
discrimination in
creed, or national
this legislation is

Credit Unions
WHEREAS:
Loan sharks and usurious lenders habitually prey on working people and siphon off buying power
through excessive interest and other charges.
More than
200 credit unions serving UAW-CIO members have proved
their effectiveness in helping working people solve their
financial problems.
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED:
That the UAW-CIO
endorse the organization of credit unions in every local
union where possible.

Hie

me

Speed-Up
WHEREAS:
This union was built out of a fight for
dignity in the shop, against the dollar-sign mentality and
the speed-up practices of the corporations.
The militancy
of our membership
and the vigilance of our leadership
have been responsible for real progress in this struggle
against speed-up and exploitation on the production lines.
Employers are turning to their speed-up artists—the
production engineers and the publicity agents with their
fear psychology. They issue an old bag of tricks and whips
to their foremen with new labels: “human engineering,”
“scientific cost-saving” and “productivity stimulants.”
Increased buying power, not increased sweat, is the key to
our current economic crisis.

Resolutions

Long Range Planning

WHEREAS:
The hope of free men
throughout the
world to achieve world peace based upon political liberty
and economic security depends on the vigor of our political
and economic democracy in the United States.
We see already how quickly prosperity can be dissipated and turned into recession and unemployment, and
how such developments at home threaten to undermine

our aid to the democratic forces overseas. We see notorious or reactionary isolationists make common cause with
reactionaries
of the so-called Left in their efforts to exploit
trouble at home as a means of defeating our democratic
purposes abroad,
We must conserve our natural resources. We must expand the capacity of our basic industries in line with our
needs.
We must maintain that economic balance which
will assure full employment and production of farm and
factory products.
We must learn how to distribute what
we know how to produce, so that a high standard of living
is made possible for every family and our requirements for
defense and for international aid can be met.
To give substance to economic democracy, the people
acting through their government must have a larger voice
in the shaping of democratic decisions and in the formation
of public policies which affect the welfare of the individual
and the nation today and their security tomorrow.
This
requires democratic public planning with broad participation of all economic
groups
at every level—local
and
national.
Those vocal and powerful interests in America who oppose and condemn planning are not opposed to planning as
such, but to public planning. Private planning by big business, big banks, and industrial combines and monopolies all
too often invades the areas of public planning and subordinates the public good to private gain.
Powerful private
planners set themselves up as a private economic government whose decisions affect the lives and opportunities of
millions of people.
Government, as the agency of the people, must plan the
steps that are necessary to break the stranglehold of
monopoly
and scarcity and overcome
the present and
growing deficit in our capacity to produce steel, power and
other basic industrial needs.
BE IT, THEREFORE, RESOLVED:
1, That the UAW-CIO join with other organizations to
call upon government to establish practical machinery for
the application of economic democracy, and to insist that
public planning for public welfare must prevail over private planning by monopoly for its selfish interest.
2. Government, acting as agent for the people, must
establish a public planning program with respect to productive capacity, power supply, fuel supply and the con<
servation

of

our

mineral,

land

and

timber

resources,

3. Government must also accept responsibility for stab<
ilizing production and employment,
4. Government must break the basic industrial bottlenecks of monopoly.
When private enterprise fails or re<
fuses to make the investment in new productive capacity
required for maintaining full production and employment,
the government
must see that the necessary productive
capacity is provided and used.
5. Government must protect and conserve our natural
resources against wasteful exploitation at the expense of
future generations.
6. Public planning activities of the government must
be carried out with the democratic participation of all
economic groups to plan and recommend public policies,

6

Taxes

Meee

WHEREAS:
State and Federal tax policies since the
war have shifted more and more of the tax burden away
from
corporations
on
to
individuals,
and
away
from
wealthy individuals to those least able to pay. Taxpayers
with incomes below $5,000 a year are now paying 54 per
cent of the total Federal income tax, whereas, before the
war they paid only 10 per cent of the total.
The 80th Congress passed a save-the-rich tax program
which

had

the effect

of increasing

net

income

(after

taxes)

by only 3 per cent for the $2,500 family, but by 18 per
cent for the $25,000 family and 58 per cent for the $250,000.
This

Congress

further

legalized

various

tax-evading

de-

vices for taxpayers with large incomes, and granted tax
exemption
to a family of four on only $2,400 incomes
when
such a family requires at least $4,000 of tax-free
income to meet minimum standards of health and decency,
The dangerous drift toward recession now makes an
immediate overhauling of the tax laws imperative,
More
taxes must, be collected from profitable corporations which

are hoarding their funds and from wealthy individuals
who
are saving
faster than in any previous peacetime
year.
Smaller taxes must be collected from medium and
low-income
families who
need more
money
to buy
the
necessities of ‘life and
in whose
hands every
dollar of
reduced taxation means an increased dollar in needed pure
chasing power.

THEREFORE,
BE IT RESOLVED:
That the UAWCLO calls upon Congress to:
1. Increase the personal income tax exemption to $1,500
for the taxpayer; $1,500 for his wife and $600 for each
dependent;
providing a tax-free income of $4,200 for a
family

of four,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That this Executive
Board reaffirms its policy adopted on April 28, 1949, which
sald in part:

2, Close the loopholes
capital gains taxes which

“Reductions in the unit cost of production must be
made
possible
by improved
technology
and
production
processes and in efficient engineering and management, and
not by placing unfair work-loads on workers,
“It is our policy to authorize strike action in any plant,
large or small, big corporation or small shop, when the
facts show that an employer is attempting to drive his
workers to make them produce more than a fair day's

paid worker earns for a full year’s work,
3, Reduce all excise taxes at least to thelr prewar level,
4, Provide for the individual taxpayer, as is now done
for corporations, that when his income falls below the level
of his tax exemption he shall be entitled to a refund from
the Treasury out of Income taxes paid in earlier years to
bring his Income up to the exemption level,

work,”

earn

5.

tions,

more

through

Impose

tax

in the income, estate, gift, and
now permit a $50,000 family to

evasion

in

one

year

than

a highly-

a tax on the undistributed profits of corpora.

’

UNITED

This Labor Day finds us in a period of twilight. We have
neither prosperity nor depression in America—neither peace nor
war in the world.
On this Labor Day, America must reaffirm its faith in basic
human values, and must reassert the sovereignty of people over
profits. The American economy is freedom’s greatest asset in
peace as it was in war.
Organized labor insists that American democracy has the
will, the strength and the practical know-how to meet the challenge of peace. We reject the planned depression om the prophets of doom, the men of little faith and less vision who would
lead us back to ‘‘normaley’’ with its recurring booms and busts
—its feasts and famines. American labor demands total all-out
economic mobilization for peace as the only way to achieve and
maintain a full production, full employment economy.

We reject any efforts to limit arbitrarily our claim to a higher standard of living. The right of the American people to enjoy a fuller, richer and more secure life should be limited only
by our ingenuity, our technology and our resources. The timid
economics of monopoly and scarcity must yield to the bold economics of full production and abundance on every sector of our
productive effort.

ALA,

SHUM

CD)

Pits

yc beta ees

ME,

Sparkman
(D)
..........
—Hayden
(D)
......

are considered “right” in the CIO’s opinion, and are
indicated by “R.” Votes against public power are
indicated by “W,” for “Wrong.” “PR” means “Paired
Right.” “PW” means “Paired Wrong.” “GP” means
“General Pair.” “A” means “Absent.”

—Brewster

(R)

ARK,

—Fulbright"(D)

.......

MASS,

Smith (R)
....
—O'Conor
(D)
,
Tydings
(D)
a
—Lodge
(R)

CAL.

—Downey

....

MICH.

—Ferguson

MINN,

—Humphrey
Thye (R)

ARIZ,

(D)

McFarland
McClellan

(D)

(D)

Knowland

(R)

....

..

coL,

—Johnson

CONN.

—Baldwin
(R) ...
McMahon
(D)
.
—Frear, Jr. (D) ...
Williams (R)
—Holland
(D)
....
Pepper’ (D) ........

DEL,
FLA,
GA,

(D)

—George

(D)

IDA,

= Miler

ILL.

—Douglas (D)
Lucas TCD) jee

IND.

Jenner

KAN.

—Reed

LA,

UD)

—Capehart

-—Gillette

KY.

(DIM

AVION

IOWA

...

(D)

Russell

.....

ecco

(R)

(R)

(D)

oan

(R)

Schoeppel
—Chapman

Withers
—Ellender

cata

corcrak

.......
scenes
.

.

(R)
(D)

(D)
(D)

ACD) PS

(R)

:

..

<

.

.

....
.......

Ou. coer

Saltonstall

Vandenberg

(R)

Militant and courageous action on the bargaining front coupled
with strong and vigorous political action by labor, farmers and
liberals together can insure that the vast resources and productive
power of our country will provide abundance and happiness for all

its people.

“Quit” CP
There

een

(D)

Communist

tight-rope

Boge

oo

this month,

The
latest
Commie
acroF batics
found
union
officers : telling
the
=
always be
Commu
nist Party “we'll
:
:
friends,”
then handing the NLRB
weren’t
they
docum
Sworn
ents
:

Communists.

Three of the carnival artists who
:
resigned
from
the Communist]
party melodramatically were: Donald Henderson of the Food and ToWorkers,

of

Travis

Maurice

Work-

Mill and Smelters

the Mine,

ers, and Max Perlow of the Furniture Workers. The top brass of the

Workers
CIO United Electrical
were expected to follow suit.

——_—__

—__

POSTMASTER,

of

granted

a

UAW-CIO

pany harks) eaves antiolcnarter ses, Local 016, Vice-Prest:

Communist affidayits'to the NLRB.|

bacco

Another Borg-Warner plant—
Norge Appliance Service in Easton,

Pa.—was

address

67B)

and

on

rrr

Send

Form

copies

notices

3578

returned

of

(Canada,

under

ont

Richard

Gosser,

director

of

the Borg-Warner Department, has
8
Pp
announced.
Contract negotiations are under
way throughout the Borg-Warner

chain this month

Detroit,

phis and

Rockford,

Windsor.

Organizational

in local unions at

Muncie,

work

Mem-

continues at

the Spring Division plant in Bellwood, Ill., where a company union
is stromgly.
entrenched.
International Representative
Leonard
Thomas and Joe Mooney, assistant
director of the UAW-CIO
BorgWarner Dept., are assisting in the
Bellwood drive.
change
Form

labels

No. 3579 (Canada, labels No, 29B) to 2457
E.
Washington
St., Indianapolis 7, Ind.

ae

PA,

ni

R.

1

POLEH CR) chev ciea kh ve.
—KeIirs(D) sy cuvecwn ©

Myers
—Green

CD)!
(D)

Ss. C,

MO.

Ss. D.

-—Gurney

MONT.

—Ecton

TENN,

NEB.

-—Butler

(R)

.

NEV.

—Malone

(R)

...

N.

—Bridges

(R)

H.

Kem

(R)

(R)

Murray

..

(D)

Wherry

.

(R)

McCarran
Tobey

(R)

Smith

(R)

..

wiGEe

..

(D)

a a

eer

N. J.

—Hendrickson

N.

—Anderson (D) ......
Chavez (D) ..
—lIves (R)

M,

(R) ..

Dulles (R) ......

-—Graham
Hoey

—Langer

(D)

(D)

Young

PW
WwW

......

Ww
Ww
Ww
Ww
Ww

.

Ww

(Riuatcoee

(R)

TEX,
UTAH
vt.

Maybank

(D)
(D)

(D)

(R)

—McKellar
—Connally

,

......

.....

(D)

Johnson

...........

(D)

= Thomas,
Watkins

......

(D))o
(R)

(D)

WASH.
W.

—Kilgore

wyo.

.

(D)

Robertson
—Cain
(R)

wis,

ven

EN

Mundt
(R)
.......
—Kefauver (D) ...

—Byrd

VA,

eae

Ww

:. eee
....

—Aiken
(R)
Flanders
(R)

VA.

»

Thomas
(D) ......
cee
Wi
—Cordon (R) ...
ROCA 4
Morse (R) ,...,
dubs
$ nie
RY
=—Martin: (Rigas cusses ceeee
WE

McGrath
—Johnston

Here are the votes by which the Senate acted—on
Aug. 16 and 17—on
two important government
reorganization plans. Plan No. 1—which was defeated,

Votes

ARK.

CAL.
COL,

CONN.
DEL,

Sparkman(D)

—Hayden(D)
McFarland(D)
—Fulbright(D)

McClellan(D)

—Downey(D)

Knowland(R)
—Johnson(D)
Millikin(R)

—Baldwin(R)

McMahon(D)

—Frear,
Jr.
(D)
Williams(R)

FLA,

—Holland(D)

GA.

—George(D)

IDA,

ILL.
’
IND.

IOWA
KAN,

Pepper(D)

Russell(D)

—Miller(D)

Taylor(D)
—Douglas(D)
Lucas(D)
—Capehart(R)
Jenner(R)

—Gillette(D)

Hickenlooper(R)

—Reed(R)

Schoeppel(R)

KY,

—Chapman(D)

LA.

—Ellender(D)
Long(D)

Withers(D)

w
w
Ww
Ww
PW
w
w
R
R
w

Magnuson

(D)

Wiley
—Hunt

(R)
(D)

—McCarthy

(D)

.

..........

(R)

O'Mahoney

sie

Reet

(D) .
.
ae

(D)

Neely

5 cw tects
.....

one

UN Wisi

(D)

iewee

.

;

entrar
aie

.......

w
PW
w
R

R
R
R

MD.

24 Republicans

Pian No.1

—Brewster(R)
Smith(R)

—O'Conor(D)

Tydings(D)

MASS,

—Lodge,

MICH.

—Ferguson(R)

MINN,

—Humphrey(D)

MISS.

—Eastland(SR)
Stennis(D)

MO.
MONT.
NEB,
NEV.
N. H.
N. J.
N. M.
N. ¥.

Jr.(R)

Saltonstall(R)

Vandenberg
(R)
Thye(R)

—Donnell(R)

Kem(R)
—Ecton(R)
Murray (D)
—Butler(R)

Wherry(R)
—Malone(R)

McCarran(D)
—Bridges(R)
Tobey(R)
—Hendrickson(R)

Smith(R)

—Anderson(D)
Chavez(D)

—Ives(R)
Dulles(R)

N.C.

—Graham(D)

N. D.

—Langer(R)
Young(R)

Hoey(D)

ge

So AE FTE

DetASS aN

Bi

a

the

Reorganization

Plans

are

indicated

by R. Votes against the Plans are marked W. Paired
right is marked PR; paired wrong is marked PW.
Absence is indicated by A.
Twenty-eight
Democrats
and
four
Republicans
voted for Plan No. 1; 87 Republicans and 23 Democrats voted against.
Forty-three Democrats and 14
Republicans voted for Plan No. 2; 8 Democrats and

Plan No.2

ME,

rat dddsw

Plan No.1

ARIZ.

—Hill(D)

®aagneaq

ALA,

for

“LABOR Day—1949”

| Another B-W Shop

LSE

(R)

(R)

Senate Vote on Reorganization

DegUnwWN state

Immediate and practical steps to achieve working unity of all
sections of labor are imperative to insure maximum solidarity
and effectiveness in discharging labor’s responsibility on the
economic and political fronts.

ORE,

(R) .....

America fully employed can find markets for its new-found
abundance by satisfying the unfulfilled needs of millions of 60-32—would have created a new U. S. Department
American families. The magnitude of those needs is shown by of Welfare to handle health and social service activa partial listing of the deficiencies in our homes alone: 21 per ities. Plan No. 2—which was passed, 57-32—provides
for transfer to the U.S. Department of Labor of the
cent have no electric lights, 30 per cent no running water, 40 Empl
oyment Service and the Unemployment Insurper cent no inside toilets, 44 per cent no private bath facilities, ance Service.
50 per cent no mechanical refrigerators, and 18 per cent are in
need of major repairs.

The full organizational and moral strength of the labor
movement must be brought to bear on the economic and politieal tasks ahead. On the economic front, labor must succeed in
increasing the purchasing power of workers and their families
so that they can buy the products of America’s farms and factories.
On the political front, labor must destroy the evil
coalition of southern bigotry and Republican reaction which
blocks the will and the aspirations of the great majority of
Americans.

OKLA,

eeakts

—Bricker

—Eastland
(D)
......
Stennis (D) ...
—Donnell (R) ........

MISS.

.....

Hickenlooper

TZONg

...

(R)

Millikin

MD.

OHIO

HInW ars Sdeusnwwwwssnwwwy

Shall we drift to depression at home and war in the world,
or shall we avert disaster by working and planning for prosperity and peace?

Here is the rolicall vote by which the Senate rejected amendments that would have cut the Interior
Dept.’s appropriations for building power transmission lines from
U. S. dams in the Southeast.
The
vote, on Aug. 23, was 45-38. Votes for public power

Peer Olen CF

people on this

Senate Vote On Public Power

s

voted against.

6

Plan No. 2

confronting the American

September, 1949

2aa0q

The major problem
Labor Day is this:

DAY

WORKER

Dan Desswmedrwwwwwwss

LABOR

AUTOMOBILE

foie ties

Page 12

s
4%

qsg
&

OHIO
OKLA,

ORE,

—Bricker(R)
Taft(R)

—Kerr(D)

Thomas(D)
—Cordon(R)

Morse(R)

e

©
4

BR

Ww

w

R

R

Ww

w

Ww
Ww

R
w

w

w

R

R

Ww

R

PA,

—Martin(R)

R.E

—Green(D)

8. C.

—Johnson(D)

S. D.

—Gurney(R)

w

w

TENN,

—Kefauver(D)

R

R

TEX.
UrAH
vr.

Myers(D)

R

McGrath(D)

PR

PR

Maybank(D)

Ww

R

Mundt(R)

McKellar(D)

—Connally(D)

Johnson(D)

—Thomas(D)
Watkins(R)
—Aiken(R)

Flanders(R)

VA.

—Byrd(D)

WASH,

—Cain(R)

Robertson(D)

W. VA.

Magnuson(D)
—Kilgore(D)

WIs.

—McCarthy(R)

wyo.

R

Neely(D)

w

w

w

w

R

R

R

Ww

R

R
Ww
R

R
R
PR

Ww

Ww

w

Ww

R

w

w

w

R

R

R
R

R
R

w

Ww

w

R

Wiley (R)

w

O'Mahoney(D)

R

—Hunt(D)

R

w
R

\

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Poor Peoples' Campaign

Poor Peoples' Campaign

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Poor Peoples' Campaign

Poor Peoples' Campaign

United Automobile Worker

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