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United Automobile Worker
-
1953-10-01
-
Vol. 17 No. 10
-
VOL.
17,
NO.
10
Entered as 2nd Class Matter, Indianapolis, Indiana
Capitol Conference Scheduled:
Fights
UAW
ke
Printed in U. S. A.
1953
OCTOBER,
for All
Jobs
for
Page Three
Matthews Bares Chrysler Bungle;
Week
Seeks Return to Full Work
Tax
Ike’s New
Plans
Livingston Raps Administration
For Stacking Deck Against Labor
Page Two
.
=
*
$138
Cost You
Could
In This
Issue
Gosser Heads UAW Delegation
To ICFTU Automotive Conference
Page Five
Mazey Asks Air Force to Drop
Phony Charge Against Lieutenant
Page Ten
Local 200 Heavyweight Emerges
As Contender for Rocky's Crown
Page
Eleven
Detroit ‘Sportsman’ Runs for Hills;
Finds Tennessee
Folks Good
Unionists
Page Nine
¢@ FORMER PRESIDENT HARRY TRUMAN
- couldn’t resist the lure of the piano in the radio
studio at Solidarity House. He paused in his
Labor Day tour of the UAW-CIO’s International Headquarters long enough to play a pleasant
Beethoven minuet. A more familiar tune was
Visdspi
et
the blast he gave the give-away policies of the
new Administration in a speech earlier in the
day.
(See story on Page 10.)
Page 6
UNITED
AUTOMOBILE
WORKER
Learning the
*
<
:
-
October, 1953
Know-Ho
Ae
ROM Connecticut to California, more than 3,000 UAW-CIO mem
bers attended the Union’s 15 summer schools totaling 23 week
:
this year, That was more than any other year in UAW-CIO histom
It far surpassed the summer school activities of any other union,
Several
schools
scheduled
two
weeks
of classes
instead
of thei
previous one as the result of extensive registration. Attendance
each shot up over the previous high of last year. Michigan’s region
held six weeks of classes.
Courses also covered a wider variety of work than ever before. In addition, student participation through workshops and
discussions was intensified,
“The goal of the summer school program is to give students th
tools to do a better job for progress,’’ said Brendan Sexton, UAW
CLO Education Director, ‘‘Its aim is to develop the student’s cone |
fidence in his abilities and skills and his recognition of the abilitie
and skills of his fellow union members.
“*In addition, the classes are intended to develop knowledge ang
PRESENTING a grievance to a real-life arbitrator showed UAW-CIO members the fine
points of winning grievances. Here, one group at Michigan’s FDR-CIO camp at Port Huron
represented the union and another group management
as they argued the grievance before
Gabriel Alexander, impartial arbitrator for the Union and the General Motors Corp.
students at the sessions look on,
Other
ABOUT 270 UAW members attended the two-week school
of Region 6 at Hot Springs, California. Mostly aircraft workers,
they took part in workshops and in a mock legislative session
(above) debating important issues such as the ‘‘millionaire’s tax
amendment,’’
Senate
| ‘!’
Rule 22 on ending filibusters, and the so-
called ‘‘right-to-work’’ bills which are aimed at restricting
unions. Such debates help develop political understanding,
NOT ONLY UAW-CIO members but students
week session of Canadian Region 7 at FDR-CIO
scripts, putting on broadcasts), labor economics,
newspapers) and other essential subjects. Here
and methods in union education. ‘
ee
5
from other unions, too, attended the twocamp. They studied radio (writing radio
publicity (writing and editing local union
the students from Canada talk about ideas
ae
Be
3
UNION SOLIDARITY was solid as a rock as students at UAW-CIO Region 3’s Summer
School at Purdue University took time off to join the picket line of CWA members at the
Indiana Bell Telephone Co. at Lafayette, Indiana. The telephone workers, members of CIO
Communications Workers of America, were involved in a long, bitter dispute in Indiana in
which the state militia was ordered out to assist the Company.
Management's techniques of
fighting unions, including the use of state police, was analyzed at summer school classes.
E
4
si
ROD
EACH SUMMER SCHOOL put out its own daily newspaper
—usually mimeographed, such as the one (above) at Region 4’s
center at Ottawa, Illinois, This was part of the workshop in
union publicity methods—and using a mimeograph for material
from leaflets to local papers is one of the oldest and most ef-
fective methods of union publicity.
|
x
|
©
AUTOMOBILE
Page T
WORKER
Know-Wh
" Know-What,
Ys
Poderstanding of the Union, its program, of economic facts of life,
Mf the world we live in. And their aim also is to develop an appreMation of democratic methods so that they will be put to work in all
.a
"tJ
e/
5
:
vr
» Lu,
Vor
UNITED
1953
ws S&S ws
October,
Btuations.’’
4
44
Z
a
Summer school courses covered collective bargaining,’ handling
frievances, education leadership, labor economies, political action,
Gnion administration, labor’s role in world affairs, human rights.
ind many students also went into time study, publicity methods,
fiublishing a paper, propaganda analysis, putting on radio progrgms,
) Writing news reports and radio scripts.
States in which schools were held included New York,
) Connecticut, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, PennsylIllinois, Indiana, and Ohio.
¥ vania, California, Oklahoma,
} Canada’s two-week school was held at CIO’s FDR Camp at Port
@ Huron, Michigan.
Three other schools also were held at Union-owned camps: PottsYown, Pennsylvania, owned by Local 644; Ottawa, Illinois, owned by
@egion 4, and Sand Lake, Michigan, owned by Loeal 12.
YG
iW.
<i)
“of
TIME STUDY, studied outdoors (above, at Sand Lake, Michigan, for Region 2 and 2B)
and indoors is important to UAW-CIO members—and to all factory workers. Knowing time
study is important to protect workers against unfair and inaccurate work requirements and,
under incentive systems, against unfair wage rates. More than the Ohio summer school is
held at Sand Lake; children of members of Local 12 (which owns the camp) go there in
summer, too.
fh
PALA AAA AAA
Ys
G
STEWARDS ENFORCE the union’s contract in the plant.
The union’s day-by-day operation, therefore, depends to a great
extent on how well stewards carry out their vital responsibilities. Summer school classes help point up those responsibilities,
out methods that can be useful.to stewards in their jobs.
po
his was emphasized (above) at Region 5’s school at Northeastern Oklahoma A. and M. College, Miami, Oklahoma.
.
“|
|
We
SOME graduating classes were larger, some smaller than this
at Region 2A’s school. But each left with the practical knowhow of matters important to themselves and to the people they
work with,
~“
REGION 2A held the first summer school of its own this year at Ohio University, Athens,
Ohio. It previously conducted its school together with Regions 2 and 2B. Here, Regional Director Ray Ross gave the commencement address to graduates. Wives of union members attend UAW-CIO summer schools, too. They study economics from a housewife’s point of
view, ceramics, photography and other crafts.
Ml” 2, atti)
UAW-CIO’s top officers take part in summer schools, too
—instructing classes, answering rank-and-file questions,
speaking to members on the Union’s goals, purposes and
operations. Secretary-Treasurer Emil Mazey (above), for
example,
talked to students at Region
son, Wisconsin;
the left,
Regional
Director
10's school at Madi-
Harvey
Kitzman
is at
ysfi
zy eB
te ee
SKILLED TRADES Department staff representatives have other skills, too—and here
George Campbell and Tom Gibson demonstrate what they can do in the way of cooking.
Among those standing in line is Region 9 Director Martin Gerber (third from left), The
picnic came during the Region's summer school at Cornell University, Ithaca, N, Y, College
professors occasionally teach a summer school class, but most teachers have risen from the
union ranks, and have thé know-how rank-and-file members need,
October,
UNITED
1953
AUTOMOBILE
Page 9
WORKER
Sweatshop
ennesseans Strike Runaway
UNION CITY, TENNESSEE—It’s rained only once in Obion
County since the middle of June. On most of the dirt roads
arpund here the dust is deep—and it’s about an inch or two
deeper in front of the American Metals Company plant where
since September 14 more than 250 UAW-CIO pickets have
tramped steadily.
The hot sun that bears down from a sky that’s seen few
cloyds for the past months is reddening the necks and ears of
@etermined a bunch of strikers as ever walked a UAW picket
as
;
line.
About two years ago, Detroit millionaire and ‘‘sportsman”’
Fred Matthaei picked up a piece of his operation from Detroit’s
West Side and took off like a great speckled bird—through Ohio
and Indiana, across southern Illinois, down through Kentucky
ta
to a place just over the line into Tennessee and just a few miles
east of the Mississippi River.
ne
Ga
The townspeople made him Wel fa
free site rumors that the plant will be
They gave him a
come.
for his runaway plant right on the moved with a short, “Who gives a
edge of town, beside the tracks of damn!” And the people in Union
the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio railroad. City, aside from a few “civic leadSome of the business people, in- ers,” don’t seem to be greatly coneluding the Mayor, put money into cerned either,
the Company.
A jeweler said, “People making a
little more than a dollar an hour
As it is all around the country
don’t buy watches and diamonds.”
today, it didn’t take the UAW
long to catch up. As Joe Louis
And a waitress said, “I won’t let
my husband go out to American
once said before his fight with
fleet-footed Billy Conn, “He can
Metals and work himself to death
and maybe lose a hand or a finrun, but he can’t hide.”
ger.”
It was a new Local with a membership new to organized labor.
The
Company
has
never
conThere was a hostile Governor who
cealed its contempt for the “hicks
was free with his use of the Na- and farmers” it came South to at-|
tional Guard. So the first contract
tempt to exploit.
Once
managewas admittedly a stinker. Starting ment replied to request for venrate was one dollar an hour, and tilating fans with,
“You farmers
the going rate was $1.20 after 90 never had fans out in the cotton
The grievance machinery
days.
patch.”
Plant safety conditions
was poor.
It might be revealing for a Comwere awful (seven men lost fingers pany representative to sit and lisin the first year of operations).
ten in on a bull session in the
This year things were different. Local hall. More like than not he
Local leadership had come forward.
would hear.talk about Biak and
A new Governor had been elected. Buna, Manila and Tokio, the SeigThe workers had learned something
fried Line and Omaha Beach, Attu
of their rights and the power they and Kiska,
the
Rapido
and
the
had to win them,
Rhine—these fellows been around;
So, after six weeks of talks dur- about 75 per cent are veterans.
The young President of Local 1198
ing which each Union proposal met
with contemptuous
rejection, the is Art Collet, ex-paratrooper from
workers struck. The first day, seven men went in. For the next two
weeks the plant was shut down
tight. Then after intensive recruiting efforts accompanied by all sorts
of glowing promises, the “back-towork” movement started, But all
these
herculean
endeavors
High morale prevails on the picket line in front of the American Metals Company’s Un-
ion City (Tennessee)
In the center of the line, with the Local officers, is International
plant.
Representative Ed Burton (he is the big fellow with glasses). This is part of a tough, determined bunch of 250 workers who have shut the Company’s runaway plant down tight.
the 11th Airborne Division.
Most
of them have had experience with
far worse adversaries than the
American Metals Company.
International Representative Jim
Harden, in charge of the UAW-CIO
sub-regional office in Memphis, and
who drives the more than 100 miles
up to Union City twice or more a
week, said, “We in the UAW-CIO
and the CIO over here in West
Tennessee
are
real proud
answer
the
by
wie
boys,
They are not only fighting
for a better deal for themselves
and their families, but they are
also deeply concerned about undercutting their brothers up in Michigan.”
Brother Harden
and the West
Tennesseans
have every right to
be proud—and maybe they won’t
object if their pride is shared by
about 1,399,750 other members of
the UAW-CILO.
YjYe
Daily patrols go out from strike headquarters to surrounding towns in both Tennessee and Kentucky to check
on recruiting of strike breakers. International Represent-:
ative Ed Burton, above, telephones instructions to one of
the patrols. Burton says, ‘‘We believe it better to reason
with individuals the Company wants to bring in at their
homes than to wait and reason with a group at the plant
gates when tempers might run a little high.”’
netted
a cheap imitation of production,
Big Ed Burton, veteran UAWCIO
International
Representative
assisting the strikers, said, “I never
effective
a better or more
saw
strike.
These boys will keep that
plant down for as long as it takes.”
strikers
7
Yylhlgp
of these
only about a top of 40 scabs—and
it takes more than 100 to get even
The
4
usual
Revised Ford Pact
Gains Million Dollars
For Retired Workers
The most
provements
recently-negotiated imin the pension agree-
ment between the UAW-CIO and
the Ford Motor Company will bring
a million-dollar adjustment in payments, Ken Bannon, director of the
UAW-CIO
National Ford Department, announced this month following completion of the tabulation of the benefit revisions.
(The revised pension agreement
signed last May’ 25 raised maximum monthly payments from $125
to $137.50, effective June 1.)
Retroactive
payments
totalling
$256,485
have
been
approved
by
the board administering the pension fund, In the next year, the revised schedule of benefits will be
worth another $741,600 to the 5,000
retired
workers
affected,
Bannon
said,
Pension payments to those who
have
been receiving checks from
the fund will be increased by a total of $38,800 monthly while another $23,000 will go to workers
with fewer years of service credits
who previously received only Social Security payments,
The retroactive
payments include
$92,000
to pensioners
with
fewer than 20 years creditable seryice and $183,685 to retired workers
who had been recelving payments
from the UAW-CIO Ford pension
fund,
VG
An active Political Action Committee has used the strike
to good advantage. Stung by harassing actions of local poli-
ticians, the strikers have determined to have a hand in the
next elections, PAC Committee Chairman Eugene Wainscott, at left above, signs up striker Orville Baker to go
down to City Hall as a part of a group of more than 30 to
register.
National Aircraft Conference Scheduled
Washington,
site of the
al
Aireraft
to
an
D.
1953
C.,
will
UAW-CIO
Conference,
announcement
President
John
be
W.
the
Nationaccording
from
Vice-
Livingston,
rector of the National
Aircraft
Di-
De-
partment,
Livingston
and
announced
Wednesday,
Tuesday
December
8 and
9,
as the dates for the Conference,
This will make the second suc-
cessive
aircraft
year
wherein
local
unions
all UAW-CIO
throughout
the United States and Canada have
gathered in such a conference, Pre-
vious
to
last
year
the
conferences
were held in two
and western.
divisions,
eastern
"The
growth
membership
and
plus the growth
in
our
aircraft
aircraft
program
in importance of
the work done at the aircraft conferences brought such q strong plea
from local unions for a Union-wide
conference that beginning last year
the
meetings
were
consolidated,”
Livingston
Calls
the
and
are
stated,
now
~
being
prepared
by
National Aireraft Department
will be in the hands of the air-
craft locals shortly,
Here is Local 1198's hardworking leadership in a huddle
at strike headquarters, From left: Financial Secretary Wilbur Canova, President Arthur Collet and Vice-President and
Picket Captain William Sturdivant. Out on the picket line
when the picture was made was Recording Secretary Dale
Freeman,
—y
U. S. Mayors
MONTREAL
hower
regime
Ask More Federal Help
(LPA)—The
may
keep
on
Eisen-
shout-
ing that the key to its domestic
program
is “local
responsibility”
and less “direction from Washing-
ton,” but the nation’s mayors don't
see jt that way,
The US Conference of Mayors
passed
eral
urban
resolutions
funds
for
asking
slum
redevelopment,
more
fed-
clearance,
highway
con-
struction, old age security, municipal airports and civil defense, Mayor Tom Burke of Cleveland was
elected president,
UNITED
October, 1953
\
Me
WORKER
AUTOMOBILE
Little-Known Local 200 Heavyweight
Blazes KO Trail Toward Rocky Marciano
dh,
Earl Walls Chills 12 of 13 Foes;
Heavies
Among
to 6th Rank
Leaps
TORONTO, Ontario—The hundreds of thousands of Auto
Workers who follow boxing on television have never seen him.
Until a couple of months ago, even the most avid of United
States boxing fans had never heard of him, But to many in the
fistic fraternity, Earl Walls, a serious-minded young man from
Local
UAW
is ®
200 in Windsor,
in Jones for a consultation. Jones
liked the looks of the raw material.
the chap who just might be the
next heavyweight champion of
STARTED
the world.
Having
FAMILY-TYPE GUY
Outside the ring, he doesn’t talk
He prefers
or act like a fighter.
conversing about science and family affairs to boxing chatter, and
he spends most of his spare time
golf course.
the
on
or
duplex
new
his
around
puttering
Fight nights, he’s a panther.
He’s knocked out 12 of his last
13 opponents, and last month Nat
Fleischer, editor of “Ring Magazine,” has jumped him from nowhere to sixth place among the
heavyweights,
world’s
The people who should know best
—his opponents — claim the 192pounder has as hard a punch as
Walls,
in the business.
anybody
who is 25, says modestly, “I'll be
ready for Marciano anytime next
year.”
Talkative Jimmy Jones, his trainthe
explains
co-manager,
and
er
as
television
from
absence
up. When we get there, we
to get there in a big way.”
long
build
want
STARTED LATE
Actually Walls got a late start,
but he looks like he’s ready to arrive in a big way—and on time.
While most boxers were camWalls
as amateurs,
paigning
the
in
working
and
plant
WITH KO
nothing else to do, Walls
gave ita whirl. After three months
of training, Jones announced him
ready for his first amateur battle.
first-round KO, and
He won on a
three amateur fights later he found
himself fresh out of opponents.
Jackson took him to Stillman’s
gym
started
and
York
New
in
booking him as a pro. He won his
first pro battle, also on a oneStill green, he lost
round KO.
the next three fights then won
10 in a row. Since seven of these
by first-round knockouts,
were
Manager Jones had reason to believe his charge still wasn’t getting enough ring experience.
He was simply too good for his
own good.
Some top-grade opposition remedied that. Walls figures that the
ring lore which had been jammed
in those hectic months
into him
started to jell during a 16-month
layoff which ended in May of 1952
with a one-round KO of Bill Nichols.
ever
strong
He’s been going
since. Seven of his past 13 fights
he’s won by chilling his foes in
either the first or second round.
All those fights were in Canada, He picked up the Canadian
and Pacific Northwest championThe first Layne
ships en route.
fight, in Edmonton, caught the
Utan husky by surprise. Rex becasfirst-round
another
came
ualty.
Walls first U. S, appearance in
two years was in Salt Lake City
He
last month for the rematch.
in
again
goofy
Layne
knocked
of rounds
number
six—the same
Marciano required to do the trick.
FIGHTS
MONTH
NEXT
November
3,
Walls
has
a
re-
match with Joe Kahut in Edmonton, Alberta. Kahut’s the only opponent he hasn’t KO’d in the past
two years, and Walls wants to keep
the record clean.
After
that?
Well,
Canadians,
who haven’t had a world heavyweight champ
since
Tommy
Burns toted the title 50 years
ago, are rooting for their second
champ,
and
UAW’s
first.
brothers
Walls
are
doesn’t
Walls’
cheering
even
own
for
the
a televi-
sion set, and never watches boxing
unless somebody he might fight is
in action.
But Jimmy Jones says
you'll be seeing him on television
soon against a big-name opponent
—and as far as he’s concerned that
At
work.
to
16,
he
Wide
was
himself,
boxing
little
a
did
his favorite
magazine
vention
month.
with
his bride of three months. A home-
federation
ize
Communist
above-ground
and
Party,
the
both
underground,
is
a menace,” he said,
“But it is a
menace with its back to the wall.
It
by
is
not
any
requires
the
stretch
us
to
sort
of
of
the
destroy
organ-
employes
as
the
it
No Hidin' Place
BOBHAM,
Texas—Less than six
months after the Supreme Trailer
Mayor Reuter
Ernst
or,
Reuter,
died
East
Berlin’s may-
unexpectedly
of a blood
Democrat,
clot.’
had
last
Reuter,
devoted
month
his
a Social
life
fighting for a unified Germany
against
Dies in Berlin
to
and
Communism,
A personal
dent
Walter
friend of UAW PresiP, Reuther,
Reutér
addressed the UAW-CIO
Conyention last March on what proved to
be his final trip to America,
Reuther commented:
“The
untimely
death
of Ernst
Reuter
has
brought
deep
mourning
to the entire free world,
During
the perilous postwar years, he has
symbolized
by his strong,
courageous
and
democratic
leadership
the
determination
of
the
German
Consti-
“In his outpost of freedom
loeated behind the Iron Curtain itself, he has kept alive against overwhelming odds the fire of liberty
tution, turn our backs on the Bill
of Rights and pass legislation in
Washington and the state capitals
that will undermine our basic freedoms.”
to
AFL
delegates also approved
a
move-for settling disputes within
their Federation. The plan is similar to the one which has been in
effect in the CIO for the past year.
people to rewin their place of high
respect in the world community.
imagination,
our
represent
to
partial umpire of any and all questions arising under the agreement.
that,
menace
to
attempt
The pact will apply only to
international
unions
signing
after its final approval.
problem be handled in the same
way in the country as a whole,
“The
or
shall
It provides for mediation and—
if necessary—settlement by an im-
liked
that
urged
next
AFL delegates hailed it as “the
first and essential step” toward
organic unity.
boxwhen
famwho
Reuther Urges
Legion to Work
With U. S. Unions
Reuther
Cleveland
whom an established bargaining relationship exists between their employer and a union in the other
federation.”
the way the 6-foot 2%-inch youngster handled himself so he called
antees,”
in
The agreement, drawn up by a
joint CIO-AFL Committee, provides
that “no union affiliated with either
body, Mrs. Walls has never seen
her husband in the ring. Walls
hopes she never does,
American LeST, LOUIS—The
gion broke its custom by inviting
trade union leaders to speak at
their convention here. CIO President Walter P. Reuther urged the
Legion to make a habit of working with labor in the solution of
national problems.
Pointing out that thousands of
veterans .are members of trade unions, Reuther declared, “Too often
veterans have come back from war
to find, not the blessings of peace
and civilian life, but the start reality of hardship, unemployment and
A nation that can afinsecurity.
ford to spend hundreds of billions
of dollars to win wars should also
be prepared to spend what is necessary to win peace.”
Observing that Communists had
been driven from positions of leadership in the CIO and AFL “without sacrifice of constitutional guar-
—>
the pact effective is approval
by delegates to the CIO Con-
running a drill press in the Windsor Ford plant where his father
and brothers, Clifford, Orville,
and Alger, good union men all,
still work,
He didn’t even think about
ing until three years later
he visited Shirley Jackson, a
ily friend in Toronto. Jackson,
Photo,
ST, LOUIS—The 700 delegates to the American Federation
of Labor’s 72nd Convention unanimously ratified the proposed
no-raiding agreement with the CIO.
54
The next step needed to make
TO KEEP his mind off the sci-
reads
wish-
World
AFL Stamps Final ‘OK’
On No-Raiding Agreement
ence of fighting, Earl Walls, Local 200 sensational heavyweight,
a job
got
berta.
could be Marciano,
(Ed. Note—To get the results of
the Kahut fight and additional information on Walls, send a postcard
to The Auto Worker, 8000 E. Jefferson, Detroit 14, Michigan.)
ond oldest of the family of 10
children, he quit school at 14 to
go
EARL WALLS, Local 200 member with an eye on Rocky
Marciano’s title, backs gently away as Rex Layne sinks to
the canvas for a 10-count snooze in the sixth round of their
rematch in Salt Lake City. This has happened in 12 of Earl’s
last 13 fights. The one battler who lasted (but lost) is Joe
Kahut, wiley Pacific Coast veteran.
Walls gets another
chance at him November 3 in a rematch at Edmonton, Al-
Canadian
taken enough
attorney. Sec-
ing he could have
schooling to be an
000
——00—0SOS0$$~$—001
0005
and human dignity as a torch of
eternal hope for his unfortunate
compatriots under the Communist
yoke.
The
contrast
between
the
conditions he helped to realize in
free Berlin and) that on*the other
side of the Iron Curtain is the best
monument
I can think of to this
man, whose life has meant so much
to all of the people of the democratic world and to those who long
to join it.”
Company set up a runaway shop
in this agricultural community, the
UAW-CIO won a 35-25 NLRB vie-
PISTON COUNCIL
CHOOSES OFFICERS
tory, it was announced
Russell Letner, Region
MUSKEGON, Michigan — Harold
Keimer Local 416 and Fred Christie,
Local
138,
were
chosen
dent and vice-president, respectively, at the Piston Ring
Councll
meeting
here
last
month.
Yeager,
Local
231,
was
and
Vice-President
The
tory
UAW also won a narrow vicin the Whitbeck Aircraft plant
ser,
presi-
jointly by
5 director,
competitive
Richard
shops
T. Gos-
director.
at Gainesville, Texas.
Harvey
named
sec-
retary-treasurer,
|
McCarthy Hits Radio-TV Gusher
If “Facts Forum” comes to your community, you're just getting splattered from the gusher Senator Joe McCarthy
hit in his
drive for the presidency,
“Facts Forum,” a canned radio and television show, is bankrolled by Texas oilman H, L, Hunt, He's reported worth $600 million, According to the Providence, Rhode Island, Journal, some
of those millions have been earmarked for helping Low Blow
Joe reach the White House,
Hunt’s millions already have helped place the show on 115
radio and $0 TV stations,
It's offered as a “straight discussion
show.” The only thing “straight” about it is that it’s part of the
push which McCarthy hopes will lead him straight to the presidency.
Meat Unions Reap
Labor Unity Harvest
CHICAGO
unity
(LPA)—Labor
two unions won
paid off when
with
agreement
pace-setting
a
a
leader in the meat packing industry which is expected to bring like
250,000
to
nearly
advancements
| workers
The
pact
| Packinghouse
negotiated
by
Workers
the
CIO
and
the
Butcher
and
Cutters
Meat
|AFL
Workmen with Armour & Co, profor a full Company-paid
vided
health
insurance
program
for
workers and their families worth
44% cents an hour and an acrossthe-board pay increase of five cents
an hour,
“UNITED
AUTOMOBILE
WORKER
October, 1953
THESE FIVE girls, all leaders of UAW-CIO L ocal 1086 in Cheboygan, Michigan, won
a total of $4,397 in back pay awards from an arbitrator’s decision against Center Tool &
Company.
Left to right are: Julia Adams,
Angeline Tomke and Mary Jewell.
Dorothy
©
Five Pleasant Union Gals
AX
Van Paris was
ers long before
battling
he met
his workthe girls
who are the backbone of UAWCIO Local 1086.
Back in 1936, Van Paris had
his plant in Flint, It was organized, along with all the other
plants, during the big sitdown
strikes, and became
a part of
Local
598.
It didn’t take him
long to show
his colors.
He
closed up shop and ran away to
Cheboygan.
But he couldn’t hide for long.
UAW-CIO
organizers
found
him
and organized the shop again. Then
he moved the plant to Petoskey,
Michigan.
UAW-CIO
stayed right
on his trail. Finally he moved back
to Cheboygan,
and
has
been
in
trouble ever since.
4
In 1951, Van Paris fired several
workers for reasons which
fitted
his purposes. They took their case
to the NLRB and were reinstated
with back pay. And this is where
the girls come into the story.
FIRED
UNION
Maxine
mother of
LEADERS
Turner,
a wifé
and
three girls, was one of
the
women
fired
in
1951.
The
NLRB put her back to work with
$600 in back pay. This year Van
Paris fired her again, on January
19, for alleged refusal to obey in-
structions. About a month later, on
February 25, he fired Julia Adams,
Angeline Tomke and Mary Jewell,
on the trumped-up claim that they
had slowed down production.
Maxine
was the president of
Local 1036, Julia was vice-president,
Mary
was
a member
of the
Local’s
Safety
Committee,
and
Angeline
was
recording
secretary.
All
of
the
firings
were
of the
victories
lopsided
reported
by
NLRB
UAW
Vice-President and Competitive
Shops Director Richard Gosser.
At Reed Unit Fan in New Orleans, the vote was 60 to 4, and
at Maple Leaf Metal Products it
went 48 to 1 for the UAW,
MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota—The nation’s farmers received assurance that the CIO will continue to plead for
government programs designed to produce prosperity for
farmers when UAW International Representative Howard
Pellant, an assemblyman from Wisconsin’s 17th District,
testified at the House Agriculture Committee hearings here.
On April 4, Arbitrator John H.
Piercey
issued
an award
finding
that all of the firings were without
cause.
He ordered all of the girls
reinstated with full back pay. This
totaled $3,504, but MESC disqualified the claim,
REAL LOW OPERATOR
With the help of Clayton
Johnson and Tom Doherty of the UAWCIO Compensation Department, the
girls then filed an appeal, and their
claims went before MESC Referee
Hjalmar S. Hansen.
On August 6,
Hansen reversed the previous ruling, and ordered payment.
Van Paris appealed again, and
then he stooped just about as low
as he could get.
He paid the
girls the back wages ordered in
the
arbitrator’s
ducted
amount
pensation
from
of
award,
their
but
checks
unemployment
due.
de-
the
com-
There seems to be no limit to
the tricks this boss dreams up to
fight the union-minded girls in his
shop.
The
financial secretary
of
the Local, Dorothy Socolovitch, was
fired in November, 1951, and also
had to take her case to arbitration.
She got a back pay award of $893.
FIRES AT WILL
When
the arbitrator
ordered
Maxine Turner back to work last
April, Van
Paris fired her again
before she could even get to the
shop to ring her card in. She got
a letter before she even reported
for work, telling her she was released for.another contract violation.
Maybe Van Paris will close up
his shop and run away again. Or
maybe he will dope out more new
ways of giving the girls a hard
time. But union-minded
folks in
Cheboygan
are giving
odds
that
the girls will come out of it with
the last word, and the last laugh,
SOFTBALL CHAMPS TWICE IN A ROW are these members 6f UAW-CIO Local 732,
Mt. Hope, Pennsylvania, Warren Foundry and Pipe Corporation. They have dominated
the Mt. Hope Interplant League by winning 32 out of 36 games in the past two years.
Left to right (front row): Lewis Berry, Frank Haerstch, Barney Blickley, Alan Nietz,
Joseph Knapick; (back
Moran (captain), Mike
Butch Irvicki.
row) Bill Nagy, Syl Kehoe, Joseph Skutka, John Lichtey, Frank
Bobinyec (manager), Joseph Peirson, Stan Irvicki. The batboy is
too,
olis 7. Indiana.
BATTLE
On
appealed
to arbitration,
and
claims were filed for unemployment compensation.
East
member when he wasn’t running away from the Union or
else all tied up in grievances
taken to arbitration and hearings before compensation referees.
MR.
Catch
re-%
to 2457
ean
Send copies returned ender
(Canada, labels No. 29B)
Washin: gton Street, Indianap-
him
Workers
election
POSTMASTER:
labels No. 3579
knows
Turner,
lies in some
CHEBOYGAN, Michigan—George Van Paris, president and
owner of the Center Tool & Machine Company here, refuses to
raise the pay in his plant, but he ought to be willing to testify
that women are far from being the weaker sex on his payroll.
Or maybe Van Paris is such a bum boss that no one but his
pets and apple polishers can get along with him. Anyway, no
who
Maxine
Proof that workers still catch on
fast to the facts of industrial life
Balk Labor-Hating Employer
one
Socolovitch,
KENOSHA’S LOCAL 72 (Nash) donated this Boy Scout truck during the city’s CIOAFL Labor Day program. Official presentation of the $4,000 truck for use by the Boy
Scout Rescue Squad was made by these UAW-CIO Local 72 officers. L. to R.: Maurice
Jackson, Boy Scout committee chairman; W. G. Kult, financial secretary; Mike Maxin,
vice-president; Lieutenant Carl R. Johnson, Jack Beni, Local 72 president; Captain Howard Gatley; Harry Wolcott, treasurer; Leo McPhaul, trustee; and Ed Paulsen, recording
secretary.
ce
Machine
a
UNITED AUTOMOBILE
=
ees
ee
oS
aa
WORKER
72-Member Committee Solidly
Supports Democrat for Governor
NEWARK, N. J.—The only significant gubernatorial election in the nation November 8 pits a young, liberal C1O-endorsed
Democrat against a Big Business Republican for New Jersey’s
hotly-contesteqd Governorship.
Endorsed unanimously by the 72-member State CIO Political
Action Committee is Robert B. Meyner, 45-year-old liberal who
compiled the best labor record of any member of the State Senate on the annual New Jersey CIO News voting records during
his four-year term from 1948-51. Meyner worked as a sill
weaver
and apprentice
degree.
Meyner’s
GOP
coremaker to earn money for his law
opponent
is Paul
Troast, chairman
of the state’s
Turnpike Authority, a building contractor, and a trustee of the New
Jersey gubernatorial election with CIO-endorsed
Left to right: Paul Krebs, State PAO chairman
Joseph Mirabella, president of UAW Local 5il1
Essex County; and Hugh Caldwell, president of
Essex-West Hudson CIO.
Meyner Pledges Fair Labor Laws -
and
a
minimum
wage
of 75 cents an hour, applicable to
both sexes, to bring New Jersey
into line with such states as New
York,
Connecticut,
Massachusetts
and California,
Meyner’s
statement
follows:
LABOR RELATIONS ACT
NEEDED
“New Jersey is the only major
industrial state in the East without
a state labor relations act providing for representation elections and
specifying
certain
unfair labor
practices.
New
York,
Pennsylva-
nia, Massachusetts, Connecticut,
and Rhode Island have such laws.
“All that New Jersey has is a
Public Utilities
Disputes
Act,
which, instead of encouraging collective bargaining -and self-settlement of labor disputes, provides for
compulsory
arbitration
in
ways
that
short-circuit
eollective
bar-
gaining and discourage the deyelopment
of workable
solutions by
the parties themselves.
“High on the agenda of the new
state administration will be the enactment of a state labor relations
“The dictatorial method of com-
pulsory arbitration is improper in
a free economy or democratic society. The New Jersey Public Utilities Disputes Act should be repealed and replaced by the type of
labor relations statute I have,just
outlined.
RAISE UC BENEFITS
“In workmen’s compensation, un-
employment
compensation,
and
temporary disability insurance, the
benefit schedules need to be
brought
into
line
with
current
wage and price levels.
“When the unemployment compensation program was started in
1936, the weekly benefit ceiling was
placed at 815 a week,
or about
two-thirds of average weekly earnings in manufacturing at that time.
Now
more
were
average
weekly
earnings
are
than three times what
in 1936, but the benefit
they
ceil-
ing is only $30, As a result, benefits
in more
than two-thirds of the
cases are cut off by the ceiling;
workers
cannot
improve
their
weekly benefit by any amount that
they earn over $45 a week, yet
average weekly earnings in manufacturing are about $75 in this
state.
Such an out-of-date ceiling
is particularly bad if unemployment compensation is to serve as a
real factor in cushioning the shock
of economic recession.
WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION
“In the case of workmen’s compensation, there is the added factor some of the fatal or permanently incapacitating
accidents
occurred two or more decades ago,
yet no adjustment has been made
in the benefits for increased living
Meyner has been laystress on both eco-
Fay’s $9,000 Kick-in for Troast Job
The big unanswered question in the shocking disclosure of
GOP candidate Paul Troast’s attempt to get the notorioug extortionist Joe Fay out of Sing Sing prison is the $5,000 that
sworn testimony discloses was paid to Fay ‘‘for labor relations”
when Mahoney-Troast Construction Co. built the Wright aircraft plant in Woodridge in$
1942.
During Fay’s income tax trial in
Newark in January, 1947, William
J.
Brewster,
president
of
George
M. Brewster & Son, Inc., said he
had paid Fay a total of $150,000
over a three-year period “for labor
relations.”
When questioned about specific
construction
jobs for which
Fay
was allegedly paid, Brewster was
asked:
costs and standards. The benefits
are still governed by the average
weekly earnings at the time of the
“The Mahoney-Troast Wright
accident, which earnings may have
plant job?”
been only one-third to one-fifth of
“I paid him $5,000,” Brewster rewhat
they
are
today.
Certainly
plied.
:
some provision should be made to
There has been no satisfactory
adjust the benefits of the families
of some 430 New Jersey workers explanation about why Brewster,
whose breadwinner suffered a per- who was only a sub-contractor for
manent and complete disability in the Mahoney-Troast Company on
the Wright plant job, should pay
the years prior to 1951,
Fay $5,000 on the Mahoney-Troast
“Our workmen’s compensation
project.
law needs improvement in other
Paul Troast, as the head of his
respects.
Widows
with two chilconstruction company, has claimed
dren receive the lowest percentage
credit for
building
the
of their husband’s wages (45 per major
cent of normal earnings)
of any Wright plant in record time durstate in the country except Geor- ing World War II. His employes
gia, and, in addition, the payments won an Army-Navy “E” award for
to
them
alone
cease
after
800 the record project.
weeks
regardless
of whether
they have dependent
der 18 years of age.
or not
children
un-
“Also, workers injured on the
job
should
have
some
right
to
selection of the doctor who is to
give continued
medical
law.
benefit
MINIMUM
“New
to 2457 East
olis 7, Indiana.
costs,
No. 29B)
Indianap-
living
labels
Street,
justmcnts in the workmen’s compensation law raising benefits to a
level more consistent with today’s
under
An unemployment compensation
ceiling of at Ieast $40 a week, ad-
“In the new state labor relations
law, provision is néeded to protect
the citizens of a locality from any
genuine emergency arising from an
industrial dispute.
Not only are
such real emergencies exceedingly
rare—the
Driscoll
administration
has messed in labor disputes far
too frequently—but their handling
is an art.
(Canada,
Washin gton
Meyner proposed a state labor
relations law to replace the Public
Utilities Anti-strike Act. Other recommendations:
3579
Governor, gave a complete outline
of his
program
with
respect
to
labor-management
problems,
No.
for
labeis
nominee
co Pies returned
Democratic
law to provide for representation
elections and proscribe, as unfair
labor practices, interference with
the right of self-organization or refusal to bargain in good faith with
the certified or properly designated
representatives of either party.
Send
Meyner,
a special
Robert
B.
POSTMASTER:
PHILLIPSBURG—In
Labor
Day
message,
Although
ing heavy
treatment
provisions
WAGE
Jersey
under the
has
of
the
If the racketeers
wool over his eyes
as
LAW
been
particu-
larly backward
with
respect
to
minimum
wages.
Our
minimum
wage law, enacted in 1933, covers
only
women
and
children.
The
minimum rates now in effect were
fixed 4 to 14 years ago and range
from 60 cents down to 32% cents
per hour. And those low rates apply to only half of the 200,000 coyered employes because wage orders
apply in only five industries,
“New Jersey should join such
progressive states as New
York,
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and
California by establishing a 75-cent
minimum standard, The law should
include a normal work
hours, with time and
If Troast is such a competent
businessman —
a man
who
gets
things done—then he cannot disclaim knowledge for a bribe allegedly paid to a notorious racketeer
to insure the successful completion
of this Wright job.
week of 40
a half for
he
about
pletely
claims,
the
bribe,
he
unqualified
could pull the
so easily and,
knew
then
nothing
he
is
to be the
com-
Gov-
ernor of a racket-ridden administration.
The answer
is the election of
Democrat Robert B, Meyner.
overtime, and
both sexes.
“To
it
safeguard
should
apply
intrastate
to
firms
from the possibility of undue hardship under the law, it should provide for modification of the wage
or hour standard up or down under
a system of industry boards.
In
that way the standards can be adjJusted when necessary to the particular or peculiar circumstances
of an industry.”
Court Orders GE
To Share Patents
TRENTON, New Jersey—General Electric,
which
loves to stiffarm both unions and eompetitors,
took one on the chin here this
month from Federal Judge Philip
Forman.
In the first ruling of its kind,
Forman ordered GE to give up exclusive rights to all its patents in
the incandescent lamp field-and to
share with the industry any similar patents 1t might acquire in the
future, .
The judgment, climaxing an antitrust suit started in 1941, also directed GE to make its blueprint
for lamp
machinery
available to
the entire incandescent lamp industry in the United States and ordered GE and International GE to
stop preventing their partly-owned
foreign companies from competing
in the lamp industry in this eountry.
Judge Forman also nulified all
light bulb agreements existing between GE and five other companies
accused of helping GE to maintain
its monopoly.
Vic Reuther Warns
Bonn on Union Curbs
BONN,
warning
Germany
against
any
(LPA)—A
attempt
by
the Adenauer regime to limit the
independence
of West
German
trade unions was sounded by Victor Reuther, former CIO representative in Europe, as he stopped
here on his way to Paris from attending the funeral of Mayor Ernst
Reuter of West Berlin.
Chancellor Adenauer’s Christian
Democratic Union has asked for
greater representation in the leadership of the West German Trade
Union Federation.
Reuther said
any such attempt would affect all
affiliates of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
Walter Freitag, president of the
Federation,
said if its autonomy
were threatened, “we would shout
louder than probably anyone had
ever shouted before for the help
of the whole democratic world.”
eee
—
THREE UAW leaders discuss the New
Democratic candidate Robert B. Meyner.
and Region 9 education director; Meyner;
and Democratic Assembly candidate from
UAW Local 260 and also president of the
a
es
Jersey Manufacturers’ Association,
which has battled nearly every labor bill in the State Legislature.
State CIO President Carl Holderman and State PAC Chairman Paul
Krebs, UAW
Region 9 education
director, disclosed that the CIO
endorsement of Meyner was based
upon the two candidates’ answers
to the PAC’s 54-point questionnaire
on state issues, upon personal interviews with both men, and upon
analysis of their past records and
appraisal of their future performance,
nomic issues and a series of state
scandals attributed to the Republican state administration, a
late-breaking development has
shocked the state.
This was the disclosure that
Troast wrote a letter to Governor
Dewey of New York in 1951, urging
Dewey to release from prison the
convicted extortionist Joe Fay.
When
Fay was tried, there was
evidence that he was paid $5,000 to
keep rank-and-file AFL workers in
line during
the
building
of the
Wright aircraft plant by Troast’s
construction
firm.
The
payment
was made by William Brewster, a
Troast sub-contractor, who admitted paying Fay $150,000 over a
three-year period for “labor relations.”
Senator Lehman
Rep. F. D. Roosevelt, Jr.
Averill Harriman
Harry S$. Truman
Robert F. Wake
I
“Adlai Stevenson
New Deal Leaders Back Wagner For Mayors
Wagner Pledges Fight Against Crime and Corruption
CITIZENS
WANT
CHANGE—New
York citi-
zens have long recognized the need for a New
Deal in the City Administration. That’s why they
rolled up a substantial vote for fighting Bob Wagner in the Democratic Primaries. New Yorkers
want clean government free from the corruption
and influence of gangsterism and Deweyism. They
have repudiated the present Administration. Now
they want the kind of a New Deal that Wagner
and the Democratic team are pledged to give.
LIBERALS
BACK
WAGNER—The
vast
ma-
jority of New York liberals and progressives are
backing Bob Wagner.
These liberals represent
the New Dealers, Fair Dealers, La Guardia Fusionists and others. They include Senator Herbert
Lehman, Representative Franklin D, Roosevelt,
Jr., Averill Harriman, Harry S. Truman and Adlai
Stevenson, plus many others. They are well aware
that a change is long overdue.
BLAME DEWEY FOR SUBWAY—Time and
again the present Administration has played
stooge to the Dewey forces in Albany. Every
New Yorker knows that the present high subway
rates can be charged to Dewey. That’s why everyone blames the present Administration for giving
Dewey a blank check. A strong Mayor like Wagner can throw off the Dewey shackles, and can
restore autonomy to New York City once again.
NO LAW ENFORCEMENT—Citizeng of New York can blame the present weak Administration
- for the lack of law enforcement in New York City.
A crime-ridden waterfront almost helpless underracketeer control is just one phase of New York’s
plight. A strong Mayor and a str ong Administration can clean up New York’s crime and eorruption,
%
NEED FOR TEAMWORK—Not only does New
York City badly need a new Mayor, but it needs
a new Administration to help that Mayor implement a program for all the people, not just-a privileged few. New York City needs a new Administration that can function like a team, not a weak
bunch of prima donnas. Bob Wagner has the program. Bob Wagner has the kind of a team behind
him that can push a progressive program,
VOTE STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC—RBe sure to
‘vote straight Democratic on November 3, and Bob
Wagner will be your next Mayor. A straight
Democratic vote will mean that New York City
will get a new Mayor, a new Administration and a
New Deal. That’s the kind of government that
New York has desperately needed for a long time.
Win a New Deal in New York City by voting
straight Democratic on November 3. Remember,
Indianap-
labels No. 3579 (Canada, labels
to 2457 East W: ashington Street,
lis 7, Indiana.
returned
copies
POSTMASTER: Send
~
No.
29B)
under
Elect Bob Wagner Mayor |
the polls are open from 7:00 a. m. to 10:00 p. m.
Vote Straight Democratic
ON NOVEMBER 3
Flect a Team That Is Pledged to Work With Wegner
Voting has Open from 7: 00 a.m. to 1s: 00 Pe me
|
|
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