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UAW Solidarity
-
1965-08-01
-
Vol. 8 No. 8
-
News and Notes
IN SHORT
Local 856’s 2,500 members struck at Goodyear Aircraft, Akron, Ohio over a backlog of
grievances and contract matters. Also in
aerospace, Local 112, Toronto, is waiting for
government mediation panel to issue réport
on negotiations between union and DeHavilland Co.
Vol.
No.
8
Second Class Postage
Paid at Washington, D.C.
i hating Aesaats
Sworn in as U.S. repre| sentative to the United Nations, Arthur J. Goldberg
said: “I have no illusions
that peace can be achieved
rapidly, but I have every
' confidence that it is going
to be possible to inch forward to it, inch by agonizing inch.”
;
GOLDBERG
After Federal Judge
Quote of the Month:
Herbert W. Christenberry watched angrily
as the Justice Dept. presented motion picture evidence that Bogalusa, La., police had
ignored his injunction to protect civil rights
some _ people
“Apparently
demonstrators:
must be shown that the court issued this injunction and intends to enforce it and will
do everything necessary to enforce it. Bring
these policemen in.”
busy
was
judge
Federal
Another
SOLIDARI
9
_.
S
|
wivteba
AUTOMOBILE.
AEROSPACE
&
AGRICULTURAL
IMPLEMENT
WORKERS
=
_
r
ao
UNION
insurance
else-
where: Judge Sylvester J. Ryan of New
York levied fines totaling $150,000 for price-
fixing against Bethlehem Steel, U.S. Steel,
Midvale-Heppenstall and the Erie Forge and
Steel Corp. For the Bethlehem and U.S. Steel
giants, it was their second appearance in
court in three days. Earlier they were alongside six other steel companies found guilty
and fined $50,000 each for price conspiracy
against the public interest.
From Harrisburg, Pa., this wire service
news filler: “They roared with laughter yesterday when State Rep. Blaine C. Hocker,
during debate on juvenile detention centers,
declared: ‘I’m not talking as a Republican.
> 99
I’m speaking as a human being’.
repeal of Taft-Hartley’s
the House’s
On
Section 14(b) which granted states’ passage
Sec.-Treas.
of “right-to-work” laws, UAW
Emil Mazey said: “It’s good to know that
this section—which is really nothing more
than license to pass compulsory open shop
laws—has been rejected by a majority of
the House as it had been previously rejected by a great majority of states and people. I
urge the Senate to do likewise.”
By the Pint: During their six-week strike,
brewery workers in Copenhagen continued to
supply Denmark’s hospitals which have an
an unusual tradition of giving blood donors
a pint of beer for a pint of blood. Hospital
officials now report the stock of plasma at
an alltime high.
Since so many of the nutty, right-wing extremists have lined up against the one-man,
one-vote Supreme Court decision, Rep. James G. O’Hara
of Mich., felt it his duty to
remind Congress that the nation’s leading bigot, Gerald
L. K. Smith and his forces
have joined the campaign
to overturn the principle of
“Finding
equality.
voter
Smith on the opposite side,”
said O’Hara, “reinforces my
HARA
conviction that the fight to reapportion our
state legislatures on a population basis is
a
vital
one.”
Following is the latest monthly summary
of the UAW’s Strike Fund as issued by Sec.Treas. Emil Mazey:
:
.
F
-
_.
:
Qe
_
E
~~
.
New
Fund assets, May 31, 1965 .. .$32,833,327.37
Income for June.............. $ 1,848,035.58
Total to account for ........... $34,681,362.95
Disbursements, June
At
June’s
end,
there
were
effect involving 7,500 members.
(Continued
on
page
tr les
-
746,966.32
........ $
Total resources, June 30...
.
$33,934,396.63
22
2)
strikes
in
3
3
ils
York City
.
PF escuins
¥ outh
OF
AMERICA
(Continued
from
page
1)
Short Shorts: Travelers Insurance Co. told
Peace Corps Dir. Sargent Shriver it’s safer to
serve in the Corps abroad than stay at home
. . When 47 state legislatures complete
their ’°65 sessions, there’ll be around 300,000
new laws in the books .. . California State
Supreme Court, in a trail-blazing decision,
ruled the payment of severance pay to a
worker should
unemployment
on Economic Education. Dr. Vernon R. Alden,
_ president of Ohio University, is the council’s
chairman.
For three days, beginning Sept. 17, the
20th annual UAW Foundry Wage and Hour
Conference will tussle with problems and
promises facing foundry workers, according
to Nelson Jack Edwards who, among other
assignments, heads up the union’s Foundry
ae
Setting will be Cleveland’s Statlerilton.
What causes fear? What does it do
to us? What can we do about it?
A psychiatrist explains emotional
problems to Solidarity staffer
John J. Spillane, UAW’s Philadelphia area
director under Reg. 9 Dir. Martin Gerber,
come Oct. 2 will add a trophy to his belt.
He’s been chosen to receive the national
“Torch of Hope Award” from the City of
Hope Medical Center. City of Hope is a free,
non-sectarian national medical and research
center in Duarte, Calif., that gives care to
working people from all parts of the country
George Ryder.
OFFICIAL
PUBLICATION,
International
Union,
United Automobile,
Aerospace
and
Agricultural Implement Workers of America, AFL-CIO. Published monthly. Editorial
office, 8000 E. Jefferson, Detroit, Michigan
48214. Yearly subscription to members, 60¢;
to non-members, $1.00.
directly
3579 attached
Send Form
POSTMASTER:
under mailing label to 8000 E. Jefferson Ave., Detroit, Michigan 48214. Second class postage paid at
Washington, D.C. Published monthly at 1126 16th St.,
N. W., Washington,
D.C. 20002.
in aerospace:
off toa
PAT
GREATHOUSE
Vice
Presidents
LEONARD
Executive
WOODCOCK
Board
Charles
Ballard,
Ken
Bannon,
Ray
Berndt,
George
Burt,
Nelson
Jack
Edwards,
Douglas
Fraser,
Martin
Gerber, Ted Hawks, Robert J ohnston, Charles Kerrigan,
Harvey Kitzman,
Joseph McCusker,
E. T. Michael, Ken
Morris,
George
Merrelli, Pat O’Malley,
E. S. Patterson,
Ken 2 senate
oy Ross, Soe /Sehrade, ae
ee
Public Relations
Joseph Walsh
Director
EEE?
Ray Martin
Managing Editor
Jerry
Members:
Staff
Lipton, George Ryder.
Members, American
insurance:
the growing
rumble
Dale,
Jerry
Newspaper
Hartford,
Guild,
Howard
AFL-CIO
leukemia,
heart,
Royal
Unionist:
Queen
Elizabeth’s husband, Prince
Philip,
is”
-a
dues-paying
union member. In 1959 he
joined the Screen Writers
Guild
because
“when
he
appears on television to talk
about his travels, he uses
Secretary-Treasurer
EMIL MAZEY
International
auto
who are victims of cancer,
blood and chest disorders.
President
WALTER
P. REUTHER
keeping rivers
‘Where they
belong
receiving
Reg. 2A Dir. Ray Ross has been elected to
the executive committee of the Ohio Council
Next in SOLIDARITY
flying start
not bar him from
compensation.
PHILIP
scripts he writes himself,”
reported a Buckingham Pal-
ace official spokesman.
Ford workers in Lima, Ohio are
UAW
caught up in Ford’s expansion boom. Engine
plant there will be enlarged 15 per cent, hike
V-8 engine production. Some 325 new hourly
jobs should open up, UAW Ford Dir. Ken
Bannon was advised.
Wayne State U. is scampering to expand
its highly successful labor school, offered to
Detroit area trade unionists in cooperation
Last
County AFL-CIO.
with the Wayne
year’s first run saw 1,716 workers from 362
different local unions participate. Information on enrolling comes from the university’s
Institute of Industrial Relations.
Reg. 9A Dir. Charles Kerrigan reports two
recent election victories. Workers at the
Aeroil Co., makers of welding and plumbing
a nation’s
youth and
a
rescue attempt
~
Medicare arrives:
Q’s and A’s
about tt
the
dilemma
facing feeder
plant workers
Page 2—UAW SOLIDARITY—August, 1965
equipment in Hackensack, N.J., voted 111 to
12 to join the UAW. And in Hartford, Conn.,
employes of Atlantic Screw Inc. voted for
UAW. This firm, in existence since the 19th
century, had never been unionized.
Cabin in the Sky: Batipecs in Regions 1
and 1A searching for comfortable, low-cost
housing can look up—way up, at that—now.
Four Freedoms House of Detroit, Inc., a nonprofit organization, is taking applications for
apartments in a brand new 21-story high‘rise in the Lafayette Park urban renewal
area. Rentals start at $73.50 a month. The
UAW is represented on the project’s board.
There’s about 52 cents an hour involved
in benefits negotiated for UAW Local 1184’s
members at Lapeer Metal Products, Lapeer,
Mich., according to Reg. 1 Co-dir. George
Merrelli. In wages alone, rates will jump 15,
then 13, then another 138 cents over the threeyear contract period.
UAW Sols -Treas. Emil Mazey was one of
the principal speakers at the convention of
the American Newspaper Guild, held in Detroit. He urged the formation of “one big
industrial union” to cover all employes of
the newspaper industry.
SETTLEMENT
at DOUGLAS
F.. aerospace workers across the U.S. and
Canada, UAW’s just-won contract with the
Douglas Aircraft Co. is a powerful pace-setter.
In terms of new value to workers at the
big West Coast-based aerospace and missile
manufacturer’s plants, it’s worth 54 cents an
hour.
“It achieves significant progress in the
areas established by your union for progress
in 1965,” UAW
Vice President Leonard
Woodcock told applauding aerospace workers. “It moves substantially toward our goal
of parity.”
|
The new three-year pact was ratified overwhelmingly at membership meetings of the
three UAW local unions representing Douglas
workers—Locals
148, Long Beach, Calif.;
243, Charlotte, N.C. and 1093, Tulsa, Okla.
The membership vote approving the new
agreement was estimated at 95 per cent.
UAW represents approximately 17,000 Douglas employes.
Woodcock immediately notified President
Lyndon B. Johnson by telegram that UAW
members employed by Douglas had ratified
the new agreement.
“Tt is a pleasure to state that management
of the Douglas Aircraft Co. again has proved
its sense of responsibility through the exercise of free collective bargaining with its
employes’ representative,” said Woodcock in
a
|
.
.
:
.
his telegram to the White House.
“Douglas management and this union once
again have honored their obligation to the
~ nation in this hour of threat by a peaceful
(Continued on page 16)
August,
1965—UAW
SOLIDARITY—Page
3
By DeWITT GILPIN
Region 4 Staff Writer
the hundreds, members of UAW local
B,
unions in cities and towns along the Mississippi pitched in to keep the river where it
belongs. It was a sad, losing fight.
A few billion gallons of wasted water later, after the floods had receded from such
cities as Dubuque, Iowa, Moline and Quincy,
Ill., and Hannibal, Mo., it made strange reading for midwesterners that New York City
restaurants stopped serving water with meals
because of the water shortage there.
Sandbags along the Mississippi, waterless meals in New York, ordinances against watering lawns in Philadelphia are temporary
expediences dramatizing the paradox of a
growing water shortage amidst the runoff of
billions of gallons each year as flooding
rivers erode farmlands and cause widespread
property damage.
All this went through the mind of UAW
Region 4 Director Robert Johnston in his
Chicago office and along the Mississippi as he
quickly became involved in the crisis that
faced thousands of Region 4 members during
the wet, wet spring. Johnston had a plan and
he talked it over with Harvey Kitzman, director of Region 10,out of which the Mississippi had come roaring.
Wire: is a national problem ranging from
parched New England, the Great Lakes and
their declining water level, to western litigation over water rights.
Containment of river water and the con-
Many
a Rock Island,
Ill.,
UAW
member put in long, hard hours last
spring, lugging and stacking sand bags
to stem the Mississippi. Here a second
line of defense works near the
downtown area, far from the more
heavily damaged areas.
Page 4—UAW SOLIDARITY—August, 1965
serving of the spring and summer runoff
from the hills and mountains are major steps
toward ending the devletion of our great natural resource of water. The current waste and
pollution of water tops such historic excesses
as cutting off the virgin forests and indis-
See
bowl.
“Just
plowing the southwest into a dust
as
the
problems
of
|
the
dust
bowl
and the farm created the need for the Agri-
cultural Adjustment Administration (AAA)
the
Roosevelt,
Franklin
President
under
growing water problem demands the establishment of a national agency to deal with
the problem. This can best be done under a
Natural Water Resources Commission,” is
the way Johnston put it.
Such a commission could survey needs, develop programs and recommend expenditures
to Congress based on the nation’s welfare.
The states singularly cannot cope with this
problem for the simple reason that a river
like the Mississippi originates in Minnesota
and runs past nine other states on its way
to the Gulf of Mexico.
Such a commission could also coordinate
the various programs that are related to water conservation. For example, Congressman
John R. Schmidhauser, Ist District Iowa, has
proposed a series of steps to develop the up-
per Mississippi Valley region which includes
parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois
|
and Missouri.
Schmidhauser’s and Johnston’s proposals
include a series of reservoirs to contain the
Mississippi and its tributaries, a water purification program to end pollution, soil and land
conservation including badly needed reforestation, and the development of recreation
areas.
In addition, they call for the creation of a
Great River Road—first proposed by Vice
President
Hubert
Humphrey—running
the
length of the Mississippi. Such a modern
four-lane highway providing fast transportation facilities would be an inducement for
new factories to locate in many of the now
dormant river towns.
a
Federal
and
state
agencies
would be involved in the overall development
of such a program. “It necessarily includes
everything from reservoirs to roads, and a
Natural
Resources
Commission
could
effec-
tively coordinate such a project,’’ Johnston
sald.
The approach of all Federal and state agencies to the related problem of water conservation and flood control should be based on the
use of water for power. A proven example
exists in the Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA).
(Continued
on page
5)
(Continued from page 4)
The TVA-created system of dams and lakes
control flood waters to provide a source of
low-cost power for farm, home and factory,
and as a by-product, produce outstanding
recreational areas.
TVA also provides an answer as to where
the money comes from for development of
conservation
water
flood control
and
pro-
grams. TVA pays for itself! It is a successful
example of a government-developed project
that
while
is self-supporting
providing
sig-
nificant benefits for the people.
“Tt can be expected that forces of greed
will oppose any bold approach to flood con-.
trol water conservation and its use for power
with the same ferocity with which they defend the pollution of our waters by industrial
wastes,” said Johnston.
“But powerful evidence exists that the people will support effective Federal action to
contain and conserve our natural resource of
water. People are more water conscious than
ever. Senator Goldwater found that out when
he proposed selling TVA, whose harnessed
flood waters played a major role in developing nuclear power. All he got was a flood of
protests.”
“An Upper Mississippi Valley TVA and
the country
throughout
similar projects
would not only strengthen our economy for
the crucial challenges it faces in giving leadership to the free world, but it would provide employment for several million workers
at meaningful jobs, and would help win our
war against poverty.”
As Johnston sees it: “This country and its
people have some king-sized problems. Just
imagine a river Sweeping in on your home!
But when you look at all the problems together, a single answer emerges.
“All
it takes
is king-sized
now what must be done.” |
courage
to do
Solidarity
Talks to
TVA Officials
Ordinarily nobody
pays much attention
Valley Authority.
outside
to the
Tennessee
Tennessee
Of course, there was that incident when
financier friends steamed up a President
to brand TVA as “socialism.” But the
scandal that rocked their party when it
attempted to chisel into this government
agency ended all that.
As a rule, even conservative politicians
have smartened up enough to realize that
- knocking TVA
is the quickest way known
to man to lose votes in Tennessee. The last
to learn this was Barry Goldwater.
So, TVA is left to go quietly about the
job Congress gave it back in 1933—to enrich the lives, communities, farms and
businesses of a vast region by harnessing
its water into cheap, efficient electric
power.
So successful has the agency been that
far-off defrom
public administrators
prived areas consider TVA a “must”’ visit.
They want to see how to turn barren,
hopeless acres into prosperous, comfortable farms and towns.
But only when floods rip a region—as
the waters of the Mississippi recently did
in Iowa and Illinois—does the general public take another look at the way TVA
shackled a once-rampaging,
destructive
river.
SOLIDARITY
Washington,
agency.
Q:
A:
asked
D. C. about
|
TVA
officials
the work
in
of the
How has TVA prevented floods?
Its system of dams provides storage
12 million acre-feet of water. This
for
gives complete or partial protection to
almost 264,000 acres of privately-owned
and highly-developed land in the Tennessee
Valley alone. At Cairo, Ill. two to four feet
have been cut. from crests which Ohio and
Mississippi floods would have reached if
the Tennessee, which empties into them,
had not been restrained.
Q: How much damage has TVA averted?
A: Flood damages avoided through TVA
operations are estimated at more than
$350 million. If there had been no TVA
reservoirs in 1963, for example, floods in
just that one year would have done more
than $100 million damage
alone.
TVA
to Chattanooga
land
helped
values?
Q:
Has
A:
TVA’s protection has brought an es-
timated
in the
million
$150
of
increase
value of millions of acres of productive
land behind Mississippi River levees.
TVA
hasn’t
been
costly?
Q:
But
A:
Together, those benefits listed above
are more than double the total flood con-
trol investment in the TVA system, plus
operating and maintenance costs over the
years.
These, of course, are only dollar savings.
They do not take into consideration the
value of lives and familiar belongings that
have been saved—instead of being buried
in river mud.
These just can’t be measured.
Q:
What
about
TVA
electric
power?
A: The cheaper power that the architects of TVA predicted in 1933 is here today, and it’s being used. More than 158
local electric systems buy power wholesale
from TVA and distribute it to more than
5.5 million people at more than 1.6 million homes and farms in seven states—
Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina. Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.
Q:
But is it cheaper?
A: The average home in the area now
uses about 11,000 kilowatt-hours of elec-
tricity a year—almost 20 times as much
as in 1933. Electricity then cost the home
user an average
of about
5.5 cents a kilo-
watt-hour. Today the average is less than
one cent.
Compared to the national average, TV
consumers use about 2.5 times as much
electricity and pay less than half as much
per kilowatt-hour as consumers elsewhere.
Q: How come it’s cheaper?
A: Greater use. The more used, the less
the cost of each kilowatt-hour delivered.
As a result, over half the local distribution systems have been able to reduce
their retail rates—even below the very
low rates of 1938.
Q: What
economy?
has
this meant
to the
area’s
A: Manufacturing
payrolls
have _ increased 905 per cent from pre-TVA levels,
compared with a national increase of only
485 per cent. Census of Manufactures figures for 1958 showed more than 7,400
plants in the region, and manufacturing
employment in 1962 was estimated at over
520,000. Last year 500 new industrial
operations or plant expansions, on an investment of about $349 million, brought
some
Q:
33,000 new
But
what
jobs into the region.
about
workers’
incomes?
A: Between 1933 and 1963, per capita
personal income in the region grew from
$168—less than half the national average
—to $1,584, two thirds the national average. While the region is still behind, it is
gaining. The gain represents $3 billion
more annually in personal income than if
the per capita average had only kept pace
with the national growth rate.
Q:
Has the nation profited?
A: In the seven TVA-area states, the
percentage share of Federal individual income tax has doubled, from less than 3.5
per cent of the total to seven per cent.
August,
1965—UAW
SOLIDARITY—Page
5
_
NM cs. Mary Wise, a member of UAW Local
887 in Los Angeles, was the victim of a theft
from her car.
The radio was stolen one night while her
car was parked at her house. The thief
also cracked a window. She filed a $90 claim
for the loss.
The insurance company paid it, then canceled her policy.
John J. McGuire had only one blot on his
driving record. Three years ago, he went
through a red light. Recently, his policy was
suddenly canceled. He had paid premiums
for many years.
:
The company gave him the reason: age.
McGuire is a 68-year-old retiree.
Ernest S. Curtis of Huntington Woods,
Mich., his wife and son haven’t had any accidents. His wife has been driving 25 years
without a ticket, Curtis has had two minor
violations in. the last two years and his son
was ticketed once for speeding.
But the insurance firm notified Curtis they
judged his family “accident prone”’ and were
refusing to carry his policy any longer.
Vesta Calhoun’s husband was involved in
an accident while driving her car. The Calhouns live in Morningside, a Los Angeles
suburb. She’s a Local 887 member. After the
accident, the insurance company tore up its
policies on Mrs. Calhoun’s car and her husband’s as well.
The agent told her why: the company had
to pay for the damage to her auto after the
accident.
“What in the world was I paying premiums for?” she exclaimed.
[., one form or another, the experience of
Mary. Wise, John McGuire, Ernest Curtis
and Vesta Calhoun is being repeated untold
times in state after state.
Complaints
by
policyholders
are
on
the
rise concerning abuses and unjust treatment
by a large number of auto insurance companies. The complainants are a minority but
their number is sizable nevertheless. And
the problems they point to are increasing.
They
policies
Page
range from embittered reports
canceled with little or no notice
6—UAW
SOLIDARITY—August,
of
or
1965
HOWARD LIPTON
the SOLIDARITY Staff
By
Of
without the policyholder being told why, to
delays in settlements or unfairly low ones.
They tell of cancelations because a spouse
has been granted a divorce, because a child
has become old enough to drive or just because the insuror wants to cut down on the
number of its policyholders in a certain area.
Not all companies engage in these practices. Experiences also vary from state to
state, in some cases even from area to area
within a state. Obviously, some cancelations
are justified; more than one conviction for
nco
s
r’
ro
su
in
an
y
if
st
ju
n
ca
g
in
iv
dr
ss
le
eare
clusion that the motorist is a bad risk.
But in Michigan, California and several
other states, unions and civic-spirited groups
ms
le
ob
pr
e
th
t
ns
ai
ag
ve
mo
to
g
in
nn
gi
be
are
do
at
th
ts
in
la
mp
co
ny
ma
e
th
by
pointed up
e
n
.
on
ti
ec
sp
in
r
de
un
up
stand
In a few states, labor already has indicated
rn
ve
go
d
ne
te
gh
ti
y
tl
ea
gr
r
fo
sh
it will pu
s.
rm
fi
e
nc
ra
su
in
r
ca
e
th
of
on
ti
ment regula
w
no
ws
la
ry
to
la
gu
re
ct
ri
st
e
th
to
ts
It poin
ex
as
s
ce
in
ov
pr
an
di
na
Ca
me
so
in
ct
fe
ef
in
amples that can be followed.
They’ve also spotlighted the growing belief that auto insurors should file detailed
monthly public reports on their finances,
methods of operation and policy cancelations.
Such reports, they insist, should list the
reason for each cancelation. Many gripes
involve the refusal of an insuror to tell a
policyholder why it has decided to cancel
his
insurance.
Mary Wise, a senior electronics bench in.
’s
on
ti
ia
Av
an
ic
er
Am
h
rt
No
at
spector
s
Lo
the
in
ty
ili
fac
n
to
mp
Co
g
in
wl
ra
sp
.
ed
ed
ne
are
ws
la
ch
su
ys
sa
a,
are
s
le
ge
An
Urgently, she emphasizes.
,
car
my
om
fr
ft
the
a
of
im
ct
vi
the
s
wa
“T
the
g
in
be
as
d
ba
as
ly
ar
ne
’t
sn
wa
it
but
bet
jus
y
an
mp
co
e
nc
ra
su
in
the
of
im
ct
vi
cause I dared to file a claim,” she said.
“At the point they canceled my policy, it
labeled me as a ‘high risk’ for other companies” she said. “Try to get insurance under
those circumstances. I haven’t been able to
find a reputable company yet—you have to
tell them you’ve had a policy canceled—and
when you do, you have to pay three or four
times as much for the same coverage.
|
“People can’t afford that.”
Records are beginning to show that certain
firms—
insurance
auto
highly-advertised
their salesmen, anyway—do some of their
eanceled-out clients a “favor” by referring
them to other insurance companies where,
naturally, the rate is much higher.
The practice has caused some state legisla(Continued on page 7) |
Focus:
Auto
Insurance
(Continued
from
page
6)
tors to begin wondering:if, maybe, some of
the bigger companies have offshoot firms
specializing in higher premium cases.
The “favor” grated
against John Mc-
Guire. He’d been paying $94 a year for the
policy that was canceled because he’s now
68 years old. McGuire learned he can get the
same coverage from another company. But
it would cost him $250!
That comes roughly to $18 more a month.
For a retiree, it’s money needed for food,
rent or house payments, doctors, medicines.
It’s money needed for necessities even for
the average worker’s family.
In terms of cash, it’s the equivalent of an
eight-cents-an-hour pay cut when a worker
is forced to shell out that much more for the
same insurance coverage—and workers have
been known to strike for less than eight
cents an hour.
/
Facre
also
is another
that can affect anyone.
dollars-and-cents
cost
Heavy premium increases tend to price
a rising number of auto owners out of the
insurance market. Michigan alone now has
an estimated 600,000 uninsured drivers.
Unless a state law requires some liability
coverage or a fund arrangement to pay damages caused by uninsured motorists, (Ontario has such a fund) those priced out of
the market will join the long list of drivers
without liability insurance. If they get into
an accident,
unpaid.
claims
against
them
can
go
Then the money to repair the damages and
pay other costs must come out of the victim’s
own pocket.
Insurance spokesmen say costs keep rising
for a number of reasons. Accidents are more
severe, having shot up to 11 million a year
now from 8.7 million since 1955, they say.
Repair bills are higher. They’ve risen 22
per cent in the past 10 years, the spokesmen
declare. Doctors’ bills and hospital bills have
spiraled 37 per cent since 1954. Court cash
awards in auto accident injury cases have
risen some 25 per cent since 1955.
And the industry also points to padded re-
pair bills and exaggerated claims as still another reason why these costs are soaring up.
Furthermore, with more cars, more drivers,
more horsepower, more road congestion and
inadequate public transit facilities to relieve
the auto load, costs will continue to climb,
the industry officials predict.
Moreover, they assert, policyholders with
valid complaints about being victimized by
insurors are actually in a minority.
Michigan
AFL-CIO
President
August
- Scholle, a leader in the attack against insurance victimization, answered that directly:
“IT don’t agree,” he said, “that just because
a ‘small’ percentage of drivers has been vic-
timized that this is insignificant.
“‘No one really knows how ‘small’ this percentage really is. Anyway, an injury to one
is an injury to all.”
Judging from a partial sampling of the
number of complaints being received by
state insurance offices, however, that minority is pretty big right now. And it’s growing
—almost as fast and as high as new insurance buildings across the country.
August,
1965—UAW
SOLIDARITY—Page
7
‘Thursday's Child
Has Far to Go...’
An ex-reporter has pitched in to help some
of the 1,500,000 young Americans
who are
out of school, out of work, looking for a
place to go, a place to fit.
By JOEL SELDIN
A SOLIDARITY Special
CSicorse
Galloway
Jr., 19, New
were already in existence, much of this work
is being done by them, in addition to their
regular activities. In either case, YOC or
community agency, the procedures are about
York City
high school dropout, unemployed.
He is among the 1,500,000 young Americans, 14 to 24, officially listed among the unemployed; among the more than two million
estimated as having serious job problems.
They are under-educated,
under-skilled,
discouraged and, in many cases, discriminated against. They don’t know how or where
to look for those jobs that are available and
it seems that there are not enough jobs for
all of them.
Along with untold thousands of others,
the same.
As one comes in there are the new applicants, talking to receptionists, filling out
applications, and scheduling medical examinations and tests—mechanical aptitude tests,
reading tests and mathematics tests.
Among the jobless youth, even filling in
forms can present difficulties. So the agency
George has turned for help to a local youth
employment center, one of the many springing up around the country with money from
Washington. New names like Job Corps and
Neighborhood Youth Corps, new initials like
OEO, OJT, YOC and MDTA, are seen or
heard everywhere. For these youth, this is
“the
war on poverty,’ the fight for the
“Great Society.”
What does it all add up to so far for the
George Galloways? What are his chances of
really getting some help and a decent job?A typical day at the youth center, located
temporarily in a condemned brownstone on
Manhattan’s upper West Side, gives a fair
idea of what this agency, and others like it,
have to offer George and others like him.
B many places, a young man like George
would have gone to one of the new Youth
Opportunity Centers, or YOCs. These are
clearing houses from which “youngsters” in
need of job help are sent to agencies and pro-
grams
that
can
cities like New
serve
York,
them
where
best.
youth
In large
agencies
(
Page
8—-UAW
SOLIDARITY—August,
1965
~
helps where it can.
In a back room, a group is meeting. They
had previously completed a first day of filling
in forms and now they are back to hear a
counselor explain what the agency has to
offer them; to tell him what it is that they
would like from the agency. A young man
says he wants training for a trade and the
other boys nod agreement, but a girl wants
‘nothing in particular—just any kind of
,
work.”
two
girl has already worked
Another
months in a restaurant and three weeks in
a linen service
and
wants
something
better.
A boy put in two months making deliveries
and feels the same. Many of them have never
worked before.
The counselor talks about the drawbacks
of unskilled and semi-skilled jobs—the layoffs, low pay and lack of opportunity for advancement. He explains that employers, and
demand
often
programs,
training
even
eighth-grade language and math skills. He
tells the group that at the agency they will
get help finding a job but that, first, it must
(Continued on page 9)
(Continued from page 8)
“find out what you want to do” and then
“help you to get ready to do it.”
Getting ready involves training, but it
also involves getting ready for training.
There will be discussions with counselors
about job choices, work habits and attitudes,
and anything else that may be troubling the
applicants and hindering their ability to find
and hold jobs. There will also be classes for
remedial help with reading, writing and
arithmetic.
Sd encndine on how serious the problems of
the individual youth are, his “getting ready”
period can take from three weeks to six
months.
During this time, one of the things the
agency can offer is a position in the Neighborhood Youth Corps. These jobs, in other
agencies or in local government, are to give
work experience. They pay $1.25 an hour for
a 30-hour week—$37.50 a week before deductions—for office work, maintenance work
or helping with recreation programs. By
law, the work must not compete with industry or other regular jobs.
While in the Youth Corps, the young
people also attend counseling sessions and
remediation classes, for an additional two or
three hours a day.
In addition to these full-time jobs, the
Youth Corps also has part-time work for
young people still in school. By June 30, the
end of its first fiscal year, it had signed contracts for 230,000 jobs, both full- and parttime, but only 130,000 of them were filled.
It set up summer programs for 120,000,
some of which were taken by former parttimers during their school vacations.
Some agencies fear that when the summer
-programs end there will not be enough Youth
Corps positions for all the young people who
will need them. In many places, the Youth
Corps jobs are used mainly as an opportunity
to prepare unemployed youth, through counseling and remediation, for further training.
This training is, for the most part, of two
kinds.
|
One, an arrangement with. private employers to provide work and training in their
own establishments, at real jobs, is called onthe-job training, or OJT. Depending on how
much the trainee is paid by the employer—
it varies from $50 to $70 a week on the average—the employer is reimbursed up to $25
-a week. This is to cover his administrative
costs and the trainee’s reduced productivity.
OJT placements can last up to six months.
At the agency to which George has turned,
typical OJT positions include auto mechanic,
service station attendant, watch assembler,
hairdresser, dry cleaner, photo lab technician and upholsterer. However, the agency
has money for only 200 such positions for
an 18-month period, and must develop the
opportunities itself.
Another kind of training is in formal
classes, more
like the traditional vocational
education, although some of the programs
have tried to break away from that pattern
and develop new ones. The money is provided under the Manpower Development and
Training Act and these programs are generally referred to as MDTA projects. Before
they will be approved, they must show that
graduates will have a reasonable assurance
of employment.
People working in the youth agencies say
that although these MDTA programs cover
the criticisms of the Federal youth-employment programs. Many critics, the AFL-CIO
among them, feel too much attention is being
paid to what is wrong with young people in
the present job market. They want more attention directed toward the shortage of jobs
and, particularly, the shortage of the kind of
jobs that young people can fill.
On the positive side of the picture, it seems
clear that more is being done now for young
people than ever before and that there is a
national determination to solve the youthjob problem.
On the other hand, however, there still
a wide
range
of skills training—clerical
work, machine operations of all kinds, and
repairs from household appliances to business machines and automobiles—their use-
fulness for the jobless youth are often
limited.
|
In addition to requiring the youth to reach
a firm decision about what he wants to do,
they say, he must also be able to meet relatively high standards of aptitude, reading
and math. He must also be able to wait as
much as six months for an opening.
But the most serious drawback is that the
pay during training is less—about $20 a
week—than
in the Neighborhood
Youth
Corps. For youth expected to “progress”
from the Youth Corps to these training programs, this seems unreasonable, and many
of them turn it down.
Like
came
most
applicants,
George
Galloway
looking for an immediate placement. -
He had little patience for more schooling;
more training. But few good jobs are available at the agencies for youths when they
first apply, and even more rarely are they
ready for such jobs.
George got a porter’s job through the
agency, but after a few months he had to
leave because of an infected toe and the
employer replaced him. Now, George is a
maintenance worker at a social agency, working for the Youth Corps. He cleans desks,
washes
and waxes
the floors, and runs
errands. He has begun remediation classes
and he is discussing with his counselor his
wish to be a carpenter.
When he first came to the agency, like
many others, he was most interested in the
Job Corps. He had seen circulars and other
publicity and he knew vaguely that it meant
schooling and skills training in residence
centers away from home. Job Corps, a provision of the Economic Opportunities Act,
seems to be too much reliance on the established methods of education and counseling. For the deprived youth, at least, these
methods have already failed.
~
There is a need not only for bolder experimentation and more emphasis on job creation, but also for more focus on the particular
problems of young people.
Lately, we have brought the unemployment
rate for adult, married men down to 2.5 per
cent, but the rate for teen-agers remains
where it has been for some years, about 14.5
per cent.
It is also clear that the situation
solve itself, or even remain static.
will not
This year, George Galloway was one of 17
million Americans between 15 and 19. Ten
years from now, there will be 20.5 million in
that age group, and in 1985, 24 million.
Unless we are imaginative, courageous
and unstinting, we could all be smothered one
day by the growing youth employment problem.
is administered by the Office of Economic
Opportunity, or OEO. It has camps for edu-
ABOUT
THE
AUTHOR
For six years, Joel Seldin was the New
York Herald Tribune’s man covering the
labor beat. Earlier this
year he left behind the
deadlines of newspaper
life to help New York
youngsters
meet
the
deadline in their lives.
He’s associate executive
secretary of the National
Committee on Employment of Youth, the only
national,
non-profit
agency concentrating ex-
clusively
ployment
on youth
problems.
em-
cation and job training for young men and
women, 16 to 21, and other camps where
forestry and conservation work will be done.
George
was warned against getting his
hopes too high. The camps have been slow
to open and expand. This first year there
were to have been places for 40,000, but it
seems that at best there will be 10,000. Meanwhile, 297,000 youths have applied, mostly by
mail, and screening them is a slow process.
Agencies have had to tell their applicants
that if Job Corps is what they want, they
will have to expect to wait at least a year,
possibly more. By that time, present 18- and
19-year-olds may be too old for the program.
Slowness
in getting
started
is only one of
August,
1965—UAW
SOLIDARITY—Page
9
‘Monopsony’ puts
small parts plant
workers
in distress
By JERRY DALE
Of the SOLIDARITY Staff
hat
is it like
for
to work
not on monopsony.” Fraser asked. “But we’ve
got to arouse public opinion on this.”
a company
rmo
to
ne
go
be
y
ma
t
bu
y—
da
to
re
he
that’s
row?
Ask any of the 150,000 UAW members
s
rt
pa
ve
ti
mo
to
au
t
en
nd
pe
de
in
r
fo
rk
wo
who
and supplier companies.
While three years of relative prosperity in
e
th
e
ur
sc
ob
to
ed
nd
te
ve
ha
ry
st
du
in
to
the au
to
ue
in
nt
co
s
er
rk
wo
e
es
th
e,
lat
of
problem
of
ny
Ma
.
ty
ri
cu
se
in
b
jo
of
r
te
ec
sp
e
face th
e
th
in
s
er
rk
wo
an
th
s
les
rn
ea
ly
on
t
no
them
big auto companies, but also do not enjoy
all of their fringe benefits—such as $400-amonth pensions and early retirement.
These conditions arise out of the cutthroat
competition in parts production fostered by
the Big Three
a fancy
word
car makers.
for it. They
Economists
call it
have
“monop-
sony,’’—a market in which there is only one
buyer for a given product.
But whatever you call it, it’s not doing the
employes
of the
small
good.
oe
That’s why the UAW
something about it.
parts
why
laws on monopoly,
“If we can have
industry
is determined
any~
to do
The kickoff of a UAW campaign to improve the conditions of workers in the small
parts industry came late last month when
the union’s brand-new Independent Automotive Parts and Suppliers Council held a day-
long conference in Washington to give the
subject a thorough airing within range of
Congress.
Douglas Fraser, director of the council and
chairman of the conference, told the 75 delegates that in the past five years alone, more
than 115 UAW-negotiated pension plans had
to be “closed out’ because the small parts
firms involved had been forced out of business by competition.
“The younger workers in these plants lost
their jobs but had at least the prospect of
finding work elsewhere. But the old-timers
lost their jobs and their pension benefits and
have no hope of finding other work,” Fraser
pointed out.
He cited as an example a worker in the
National Castings plant in Cleveland who had
worked there since his teens and had 45
years of seniority. When the plant closed,
his pension rights vanished.
“Frankly, we have been negligent in getting the facts to our congressmen about
this. Every time a plant closes, every time a
pension plan goes down the drain, let’s tell
them about it,’”’ Fraser urged the delegates.
“IT was shocked to learn that even some
of the delegates here didn’t know that Sen.
Vance Hartke (D., Ind.) had introduced a
bill which calls for government reinsurance
of private pension plans.
“Let’s tell people about this bill—and let’s
tell them about monopsony,” Fraser declared.
“Let’s tell them how 2,800 Budd workers
lost their jobs in Detroit when Ford decided
to make its own Thunderbird bodies.
“Let’s tell them that the Big Three give
the small parts supplier only the ‘cats and
dogs’ parts, and that as soon as a part can
be produced profitably, the production of it
is taken away from him.
“‘Let’s tell people how the Big Three play
one supplier against the other, till they’ve
squeezed them all dry.
Page 10—UAW SOLIDARITY—August, 1965
r
te
af
te
ga
le
de
,
on
si
us
sc
di
or
flo
e
th
g
in
ur
D
delegate arose to cite examples of pressure
exerted on supplier companies.
Region 1 staffer Paul Silver told of one
firm which had offered a “pattern” settle;
ment during negotiations.
“But before the contract was even signed,
the company’s Big Three customer sent in
its auditors and told the management that
‘if you can afford to give the UAW the pattern, then you’re charging us too much,’ and
demanded a price cut,” Silver said.
Sen. Hartke discussed his bill (S. 1575)
calling for government reinsurance of pension funds and candidly admitted that he
didn’t know a problem existed until the
Studebaker plant in South Bend folded and
lost their pension
of its workers
many
rights.
“We
see,
and
by
idly
sit
cannot
we
as
did at Studebaker, workers with 30 years
service receiving none of the pension on
which they had counted, simply because they
were still below the age of 60 and funds
were not available,’ Hartke told the conference. He thanked the UAW for its assistance ©
in drawing up the bill.
Sen. Philip A. Hart (D., Mich.), chairman
of the Senate anti-trust subcommittee, discussed the “difficult and complex” problem
of monopsony, a “problem to which there are
no easy answers.
“The concentration of economic power has
been a factor that’s been with us since the
turn of the century,” he noted.
Sen.
Sen.
Hartke
Hart
—Congress was tuned in—
“Obviously, the producer who has only one
customer does not enjoy economic freedom,
and his employes are
Monopsony is a problem
at a disadvantage.
not only in the auto
Local
industry but in the food industry and many
others.
“The
trend
toward
further
819’s John
Chunn
—“‘E'nd this withering”—
concentration
of economic power is continuing. Our subcommittee has been holding hearings on this,
but we have many months to go.”
a
passed,
by
unanimous
vote,
three resolutions. One, on the “problems of
monopsony,’ called on all locals in the parts
industry to “gather the evidence” on monop-
sony and pass it on to the council and to
contact their congressmen and urge an investigation of the problem.
_A resolution on the “protection for pension programs” commended Sen. Hartke and
his
called
co-sponsors
on locals
for
introducing
to lobby
S.
1575,
for the bill and
to
acquaint their members with its provisions.
A third resolution called for a seven-point
legislative program which the council would
support and work for in Congress.
The program includes provisions for the
retraining of workers, relocation allowances,
earlier retirement
under
Social
Security
with higher benefits, a system of Federal
standards for unemployment compensation, a
debt moratorium for unemployed workers,
government control over the relocation of
plants and laws to protect workers who refuse to handle scab-made products.
Among the conferees were Regional Direc-
tors George
Merrelli, Ken
Young and Harvey Kitzman,
Morris,
Bard
staff members
from most of the other regions
of the various parts councils.
and
officers
UAW’s
key man
in the battle to save feeder
plant jobs is Douglas Fraser, here
over a headtable conversation.
leaning
OUTDOORS
LIVING
learned a lesson back in 1920 that
he has never forgotten—that is,
By Fred Goetz
Most of us are still preoccupied
with fishing, but duck hunters
will be happy to learn of a special
pre-season nine-day hunt, scheduled for September in the central
and Mississippi flyways.
The hunt, which is strictly experimental, will be confined to an
early-migrating species, the bluewinged teal.
The bulk of the blue-wings normally migrate before the opening
day of the regular waterfowl sea-
son, and harvest for the species
is usually very light.
Basically, the regulations will
permit each state, in either fly-
way,
to select
sometime
year.
a nine-day
during
:
“never embark on a hunting trip
into the boondocks without a compass.”
H. P. sent a picture of himself and three buddies lost and
bogged down in the mud near
Houghton Lake, Mich. 45 years
ago. I’m printing the picture for
the benefit of you old-car buffs
who may be able to recognize the
auto. Pipe those classy portholetype windows in the back end.
“Shown
this
hours
sunrise to sunset.
will
be
from
Hunters
participating in the
special season will have to have
a permit which they can get from
their state wildlife agencies. Good
huntin’!
e@ e@ @
H. P. Louden, who now lives in
Ravenna, Ohio but who is a retired member of Twinsburg, Ohio
Local 122, wrote to tell me he
in the picture,” Broth-
Anybody who recognizes himself in the picture can probably
contact Brother Louden through
Local 122.
H. P. added in his letter that
he has lots of time now for his
favorite pastime, fishing and upland game bird hunting. He’s very
active in the Associated
Ohio
Sportsmen,
an organization he
founded in 1946 which has its
headquarters in Ravenna.
The bag limit will be four birds
a day and eight in possession.
These limits can include bluewinged, green-winged and cinnamon teal, singly or in the aggregate.
Shooting
A couple more pictures arrived
in the mail. |
One, from E. B. Millican, of
Peoria, Ariz., showed this retired
~ member of UAW Local 91 with a
- string of sea bass, cod, snappers
and sole caught off Santa Barbara,
Calif.
Brother
Millican
asked us to “give the boys in .75
gear department at Lynch Road
my regards.” I gather from his
letter his fellow members would
most likely remember
him as
““Alabama.’
Louden and
the really hard way—with bow
and arrow.
Old Living Outdoors has got to
tip his hunting cap on that one.
er Louden wrote, “are a group of
pattern makers from Bryan, Ohio.
The only one whose name I can
remember is Paul Briner, kneeling.”
|
season
September
rack is mounted on the wall at .
their home. What socked me—
and you, too, I imagine—is that
Brother Borowitz got the dee
The other picture was a little
out of season, but interesting,
nevertheless. It’s of J. Borowitz
(right), a member of Local 771,
and a couple of hunting partners
he
deer
an _ eight-point
with
downed. The note with the picMrs.
from
came
ture—which
Borowitz, by the way—said the
Friends
E. B. Millican
Borowitz and Friends
Congress Reveals Firm
Fleecing GI Car Buyers
UAW members who expect to:be called into the armed forces or those
already serving in the Army, Navy or Air Force should beware of shady
finance companies which specialize in fleecing enlisted men.
One serviceman, in recent testimony before a subcommittee of the
House Banking and Currency Committee, told of paying $3,300 for a
loan to finance a $2,400 car. Moreover, he is still paying on the car
although it was repossessed many months ago.
The Congressional committee is looking into practices of the Federal
Services Finance Corp., a private firm described by the committee chairman, Rep. Wright Patman (D., Tex.), as a “worldwide lending operation primarily engaged in the business of financing autos and making
small loans” to servicemen.
Committee investigators, Patman said, have found a “multitude
evidence of abuse of military personnel’ by this company.
Allan
Warner
of Union
Lake,
Mich.
said
he made
of
arrangements
to
buy a $3,300 sports car while stationed in France in 1963 but received
a $2,400 car instead. The finance company man, who also acted as the
auto salesman, refused to make any adjustment, the soldier testified.
Moreover, Warner unwittingly signed a paper which authorized the
Army to deduct the car payments for his $286 monthly pay. He had to
abandon the car before leaving France, he said, and it was later repossessed by the company. The firm is still trying to collect $1,800.
_ Warner said he was offered a Volkswagen as a “settlement” but re-
jected it because it would have meant paying $3,300 for a $1,400 car.
Here are more highly informative, low-cost pamphlets available
by writing to the Superintendent
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e® @
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Rep. Patman said the finance company’s operations “are well known
to every military legal officer contacted by the committee staff” and
that. serious questions in regard to its operations were raised as far
back as 1953.
.
“But apparently no one has stepped forward
sonnel from this company,” the congressman
to protect military
observed.
per-
The committee also heard testimony from a former employe that
the finance company got its customers to sign legal papers in blank.
Duane
J. Sorenson,
cars were often sold
quickly at a low price
to
a
Florida
firm
the
ex-employe,
also testified that
repossessed
owned by the finance
company. It, in turn,
would re-sell the cars
at retail, with financ-
ing by Federal Serv-
ice.
But, Sorenson said,
the original debtor
would
be
credited
with
only the low
price and would be
pursued to pay the
remaining ~— balance
owing, even though
the car had been resold for more than
the amount of the remaining debt.
“We'll need better references than
August,
1965—UAW
©
Cartoons-of-the-Month
those two!”
SOLIDARITY—Page
11
_ When Stewards Sleep
HERBLOCK:
By STEVE SCHLOSSBERG
(Associate General Counsel, UAW)
Summer in D.C.
One of the great justices of the Supreme
Court, Oliver Wendell Holmes, long ago said:
“Sometimes it is said that if a man
neglects to enforce his rights, he cannot
complain if, after
lows his example.”
a while,
A
well-k
Lewis
again
ness
the
fol-
law
recent decision by a
nown _
arbitrator,
M. Gill, rams home
the truth and timeliof
Justice
Holmes’
words in a unlon-management context.
The facts of the case before arbitrator Gill were
O65
tHeREBlocK
ME
WASHMNGTON
Pest
“I said: WHAT MAKES YOU THINK
THE COMMERCIALS ARE TOO LOUD?”
|
not too complicated. The
collective bargaining agreement before him
barred supervisors from doing bargaining
unit work except that foremen were permitted to “perform work sufficient to insure
that a fixture or a setup is performing satisfactorily.”’
In Gill’s case, there was no real conflict
in the evidence. Both union and company
agreed that the foremen in question were
testing samples of items from the production line. The tests, however, were made
every half-hour and the foremen worked on
them for five to 20 minutes at a crack. But—
and here’s the fly in the ointment—the foremen had been making these tests for more
And the union
than five years running!
grievance before Gill was the first one on the
matter.
ee
@
In deciding the case, the arbitrator noted
that while there
argument
pany
was something to the comthat the supervisor was
checking to see that the machines were performing properly, he was inclined to suppose that the union and the company, by the
contract language, had not intended to permit foremen to do routine tests covering as
much as 40 minutes of every hour, on a regu-
lar basis.
So, while the wording of the contract was
not without question. the arbitrator was, at
first blush, friendly toward the union’s view
of its meaning. At this point, in Gill’s opinion,
appear that the union would be up- ‘dae
eld.
.
But the union lost the case!
Gill went on to say that, while the
meaning of the agreement might have
been debatable, he was convinced that
the inaction of the union over the years
added up to an unspoken agreement with
the company’s right to have the supervisors do the work.
The union’s failure to file a grievance or
even to yell foul over, in Gill’s words, “a
practice which was obviously well known, at
least to the union stewards in that area,
amounts to a tacit agreement on what the
contract permited in this situation.”
This is a tough one to lose, for one of the
gravest problems facing modern unions is
the protection of bargaining unit work.
If, however, we can learn a valuable lesson from the loss, the blow is somewhat
softened.
The message, it seems to us, is pretty
clear.
First, it’s a mighty dangerous practice
to sleep on your rights. When
the boss
breaks the contract, then and there the
union should act. And grumbling alone
won’t do the trick. You’ve got to crank
up and start the grievance machinery.
That’s why it is in the contract.
Second, the workers and the stewards are
the union. You can’t depend on a local officer or an International rep to use a crystal
ball so he will know when to file a grievance.
The guy who sees a contract broken has
got to holler.
The moral of this tale is, of course, not
limited to cases where a company tries to
nibble away at the union members’ work.
It applies with equal force to any disregard
of worker and union contract rights.
Grievance machinery, like any other, will
rust if left unused too long.
So, an arbitrator’s decision in 1965 points
up the wisdom of a long dead jurist. If we
care so little that we sleep on our rights
for years, the law is most likely to take the
hint and refuse to protect those rights when
we finally do awaken.
A Cancer Test in Texas
0196S
jane REELS
THE WASHMGTON) Post
“My
dear
chaps, have you no refinement,
no finesse?” .
Anybody opposed to fighting cancer, heart
disease, leukemia, you name it?
Not from the public reception given President Johnson earlier this year when he declared war on killer diseases.
But because it’s in a rut opposing so
much
of what government
does, the
finds itself
Assn.
Medical
American
against Washington’s war on cancer!
President Johnson’s $650
million
program
includes
building 60 new regional
health centers and 450 subcenters
throughout’
the
country. Such health centers were recommended by
a blue-ribbon medical committee
headed
by
Dr.
a
Michael
DeBakey,
worldfamous heart surgeon.
The medical publication, Health Bulletin,
reported:
“AMA
criticism of the health
center project reportedly focuses on the idea
that building such centers might encroach.
upon a doctor’s right to decide how his
patients should be treated and to treat them
to the best of his ability.”
Among those supporting the President,
much to the chagrin of the AMA, are Dr.
the
general,
U.S. surgeon
Terry,
Luther
American
Society,
:
m <
;
a’
eer
J"
a
on
to TREES,
“You
Page
“
Som,
TNE Wi SH INCTON
sure
12—UAW
.
a
tye
se
iz
ae
an
55
EZ
se
oe
=
ems
eS
you’re
rs
ee:
%y
Bova.
>
Petre
;
the
American
the Assn. of American
e®
A Texas biochemist,
ton, using sunflower
:
a
Hospital
Cancer
Assn.
and
Medical Colleges.
@
@
Hector Otero of Housseeds, may have come
up with what the medical world has been
searching for many years: a simple test to
detect cancer in its early stages.
Otero reported sunflower seeds, saline solution and a blood sample are all that’s needed
elephant?”
SOLIDARITY—August,
Heart Assn., the American
1965
to find a cancer in time to cure it. If a person’s blood contains cancerous cells, then his
blood plasma in the test tube will turn from
clear to a deep lavender when mixed with the
sunflower-saline solution.
He added that he doesn’t know how the
process works, but affirms “it does work.”
Claiming his findings to date have
proved nearly 90 per cent accurate, Otero
will soon get his chance to prove his
findings when-he performs his tests on
about 100 blood samples now being
collected at random by the University of
Texas’ M.D. Anderson Hospital.
The National Cancer Institue will partici-
pate
in the testing.
ee
@
More in brief: An Illinois state senator,
Harris W. Fawell, said last month that large
numbers of diseased animals are being 1l-
legally slaughtered for human consumption
instead of being sent to rendering plants.
“There is wholesale trafficking in diseased
meat all over Illinois,” he said, adding he
thinks all over Iowa, Michigan and Indiana,
as well.
e A British researcher, Dr. F. D. P. Wicker, points out that while lung cancer has
been
a serious problem
years, Europeans
co for 350 years.
have
only for the last 35
been
smoking
tobac-
Dr. Wicker writes that the major change
in the nature of tobacco in that time has
been the use of poisons to control insect pests
of the tobacco plant.
Since cigarette tobacco must be kept in
storage for aging longer than other tobaccos,
and treated with more poisons to ward off
storage insects, he says this could explain
the higher hazard of cigarette smoking as
opposed to pipe and cigar smoking.
“Human decency is the theme of our
history and the spirit of our religion.
We must never cease trying to write its
guarantees not just into our laws,
”
n.
me
of
s
nd
mi
d
an
ts
ar
he
e
th
to
in
but
—Labor
Day,
Sept.
1, 1952,
Detroit,
Mich.
“a voice of sanity,
aes
of compassion,
of reason...”
The voice of Adlai Stevenson—surely one
of the most eloquent to ring through this
century—has been stilled.
But the forums where his voice was heard
of
ds
min
the
and
y
rit
cla
its
h
wit
o
ech
l
stil
those who listened are enriched with its wisdom.
Wherever Adlai Stevenson spoke—whether
before the cheering multitude in Detroit on
of
le
tab
ed
ill
n-f
sio
ten
the
at
or
y,
Da
r
bo
La
the United Nations Security Council or before throngs of hopeful Democrats in the
Presidential campaigns of 1952 and 1956—
organized
labor which,
if it does not act re-
sponsibly, could do the nation and the working people infinite harm.
“And I, in turn, am a candidate for the
most important individual responsibility in
the world. If I were more comforted by your
cheers than your thoughts I would hardly
merit the confidence of responsible men.”
for peace and freedom.
His timing was off. He was offered to
America at a time when the country was in
a mood to accept incoherence as a mask for
the harsh truth about this land and the role
W
UA
e
th
h
ug
ro
th
t
ep
sw
at
th
s
es
dn
sa
e
Th
d
de
un
so
re
n
so
en
ev
St
i
la
Ad
of
h
at
de
e
th
at
in the statements of UAW President Walter
il
Em
r
re
su
ea
Tr
yar
et
cr
Se
d
an
r
he
ut
P. Re
Mazey.
,
on
si
as
mp
co
of
,
ty
ni
sa
of
e
ic
vo
a
“His was
”
d,
rl
wo
ed
ur
rt
to
d
an
ed
bl
ou
tr
a
in
of reason
said Reuther.
nme
di
e
th
of
e
ar
aw
ly
nd
ou
of
pr
s
wa
“He
,
er
ng
hu
of
s
ie
em
en
t
en
ci
an
s
n’
ma
of
sions
ignorance and disease, and he spent his adult
In every utterance, he reflected the mind
and manner of a statesman.
“T have been told that I should try here
today to make you roar with enthusiasm,”
he told a labor convention in 1952.
“Why, I would not do that even if I could.
After all, you are the responsible leaders of
and served.”
To the UAW, July 14, 1965 wasn’t a day
of discovery of Adlai Stevenson’s greatness.
It was a day of sorrow. The union knew he
was great all along.
he expressed. with dazzling insight the concerns and hopes of men who work and yearn
it must play in this world. Intelligence was
not the order of the day, as a glance at editorials of those days reveals.
life in a courageous struggle to defeat these
enemies and to bring light . . . to the conduct of human affairs.”
~ “America, indeed the whole world,’ Mazey
said, “is a richer place for his having lived
Mr. Stevenson's Words
“My
definition of a free society is a society
where it is safe to be unpopular.”
redemption
the
of sin and
“I believe in the forgiveness
of ignorance.”
“The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay
for the right to hear the music of our own
opinions.”
“If
communism
Nations,
is a problem
United
so is the
for communism.
UN
The
to
Nations
the
United
a problem
is a community
of
tolerance, and a community of tolerance 1s a
terrible
frustration
to
the
totalitarian
“I say to you that the anatomy
mind.”
of patriotism
is complex. But surely intolerance and public
irresponsibility cannot be cloaked in the
shining armor of rectitude and of righteousness,
nor can the denial of the right to hold ideas
that are different—the freedom of man to think
as he pleases. To strike freedom of the mind
with the fist of patriotism is an old and ugly
subtlety.”
August,
1965—UAW
SOLIDARITY—Page
13
_ ‘milestone in the history of social justice’ —
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He said the bill is “a meaningful
ex-
pression of the nation’s determination
that economic security and access to the
means
of protecting
and
maintaining
health can be provided by the resources of
our Social Security system while preserving all the democratic values of our free
society.
“We
Security is a right to be enjoyed
our older citizens.”
But, Reuther went on to point out, “‘the
new, improved benefits will still keep most
retirees
“We
“that many
the original
UAW
are
years ago
supporters
proud,”
he
we were among
of the principle
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in
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of the fact that the average retired couple
today is receiving only about $131 a month
Security,
compared
to
the
$250 a month required to provide a modest
and
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“The passage of the Medicare bill,” said
UAW President Walter P. Reuther, “is a
milestone in the history of social justice
in this nation.”
of living.”
While “these long overdue 1965 amendments are an important step forward,”
he
concluded,
the
Medicare
bill only
“points the direction for the future.”
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Medicare: What It Offers
The dreadful prospect of financial bankruptcy because of a long, expensive illness
was lifted from the shoulders of our nation’s
orders but only up to $250 a year or 50 per
cent of the expense, whichever is smaller.
1965 amendments to Social Security.
-At long last, because of the pleading, urging and prodding of such organizations as
the UAW, Congress has answered President
Johnson’s request and has bolstered Social
Security with Medicare, higher benefits and
other improvements for any person over 65.
SOLIDARITY asked experts in the UAW
Social Security Dept. to spell out some of the
retirees
ways
when
President
Johnson
Social Security has been
signed
the
strengthened.
Q: In general, what have the 1965 amendments done for retirees depending on Social
Security?
!
A: The amendments have increased the
monthly benefit check and provided a basic
health care program bolstered by a voluntary
supplemental plan offering still more protection for a mere $3 a month for each person.
~Q: How
check be?
much
bigger
will
the
start
drawing
A: With their September
they will get early in October.
Q:
A:
check
through
August
will
be
the
which
made
in
a
separate check which will be issued Sept. 15.
Q: How soon will the Medicare
take effect?
A:
Both
the
basic
plan
and
provision
|
the
supple-
mental plan are scheduled to go into effect
July 1, 1966—with one exception: the nursing home care phase of the basic plan will
start Jan. 1, 1967.
|
Q: Just how much protection will the basic
plan give a retiree?
A: The basic plan will provide 90 days’
hospitalization—including semi-private room
and all inpatient hospital auxiliary services
—in any given illness, with 100 days’ nursing
home care after three or more days in the
hospital.
It will also provide
outpatient
hospital diagnostic service and up to 100
home health visits after three or more days
in a hospital or nursing home.
Q:
What
to this?
will the $3 supplemental plan add
A: It will cover doctor bills in the home,
at the doctor’s office or in the hospital. Besides that, it will provide services not in the
basic plan—such as diagnostic x-ray and
outside the _ hospital,
services
laboratory
radium therapy, ambulance service, casts,
braces, prosthetic devices and the rental of
iron lungs and oxygen tents—in addition to
another 100 home health service visits during a calendar year. It will also pay for treatment outside the hospital for mental dis-
Page 14—UAW SOLIDARITY—August, 1965
A:
Under
much
during
an
will
the
retiree
illness?
be
out
of
the basic plan, the retiree will
pay the first $40 of a hospital stay. If the
stay is longer than 60 days, he will pay
$10 a day up to 30 days. For the outpatient
diagnostic service, he will pay the first $20
charged for tests during a 20-day period.
He will also have to pay 20 per cent of the
costs above the $20. These costs may be less,
however, if the retiree’s own health plan has
made provision to cover them.
Q: How about
mental plan?
his bills under
the supple-
A: He will pay a premium of $3 a
or $6 if married.-In addition, he will
annual $50 deductible on the total
covered by the supplemental plan
will pay 20 per
above the $50.
What
covered
How about the retroactivity?
The retroactive payment for the eight
months
How
Q:
monthly
A: At least $4, possibly more. The amendments call for a seven per cent increase or
a minimum of $4. That increase was made
retroactive to Jan. 1.
Q: When will retirees
higher amount?
Q:
by
cent
medical
the
two
of
the
or health
total
month,
pay an
of bills
and he
charges
costs won’t
be
plans?
A: Drugs used outside the hospital, dental
costs including dentures, routine physical
examinations, eye glasses and hearing aids
won’t be paid for by the plans. It has been
estimated, however, that between them the
two plans will take care of about 60 per cent
of the average medical costs of a retiree.
Q: Since the UAW negotiated companypaid health insurance, what does Medicare
mean to a UAW retiree?
A: Medicare will offer protections and
services that will be new—for
example,
treatment and consultations in the home or
physician’s office—and substitute for certain
services available under the negotiated plan.
Even with the company-paid plan available,
the UAW is strongly urging retirees to take
advantage
of the Medicare
supplemental
plan.
Q: Suppose a UAW member with a family
has been paying for private health coverage
for his mother. How much is Medicare going
to save him without reducing the mother’s
protection?
A: That can’t be answered exactly because
private insurance costs differ. But this can
be said: For that $3 a month the member
will pay—which will be matched by $3 from
the government—the mother will receive a
range of medical care for which most private
insurance firms would charge at least $18 a
month in premiums. That would mean a saving of about $180 a year.
Q:
How
about
earnings?
A: You can now earn up to $1,500 a year
without loss of benefits (was $1,200). If you
earn between $1,500 and $2,700, there is a
$1 reduction in Social Security for each $2 of
earnings.
Q:
What
about widows’ benefits?
A: They are now payable at reduced rates
at age 60 instead of 62. The benefit now
equals 71.5 per cent of the husband’s benefit:
rather than 82.5 per cent.
—
g
in
ic
Pr
ry
st
du
In
o
t
u
A
of
UAW Urges Study
The UAW has urged the President’s Council of Economic Advisors to extend its planned prices
study to “include the whole costprice-profit relationship in the
auto industry.”
In a letter to Gardner Ackley,
chairman of CEA, UAW
President Walter P. Reuther expressed
pleasure
at the fact that
New Ford Plant
To Use 4,000
WOODHAVEN, Mich.—UAW
Local 387 has been chartered to
serve union members at the new
stamping plant of the Ford Motor
here, south of Detroit.
The plant has gone into operation with a skeleton force
of 125, but is slated to employ
4,000 when full production is
reached, sometime within the
|
next 16 months.
A statement issued jointly by
National
UAW’s
Bannon,
Ken
Ford director, and Bard Young,
an1A,
of Region
co-director
nounced that the union and Ford
management have signed a union
recognition agreement.
Presi-
Co.
dent Johnson has asked CEA to
study how completely the nation’s consumers are benefiting
from the recent cut in excise
taxes.
“Like all Americans, we in
the UAW want to see the postimulus of
tential economic
the excise tax cut fully realized,’ Reuther said. “We want
to see consumers gain the benefits which the President and
to
them
intended
Congress
have.
“In addition, we have a special
interest in the question of car
prices since lower prices mean
higher sales and thus more jobs
for auto workers.”
2,200 Carter
Workers End
Any study of car prices should
not be restricted to the effect of
Reuther
cut,
tax
the
said.
It
33-Day Strike
should survey the whole costprice-profit relationship.
“The auto industry is one above
all others in which prices could
and should go down, apart from
any effect of the tax cut. The
industry is earning far higher
General
profits.
average
than
Motors, for example, the industry
price leader, in 1964 made a profit
after taxes of $1.7 billion. This
represented a return on stockholders’ investment of 24.4 per
cent, more than double the average return of 12.1 per cent enjoyed by all manufacturing corporations.
“GM
prices
could
have
$100
by
per
prices may
Reuther
is
mounting
that
soon be on the rise,
said, adding:
- aroused public opinion.
“It is very possible that even
the announcement of your intention to study costs, prices
and profits in the auto industry
would inhibit price increases on
the 1966 models.
“We are confident that the results of such a study would put
strong public pressures on the
companies, not only against future price increases, but toward
actual price cuts (in addition to
those resulting from tax reduc-
which they can so well afdeserve
which consumers
and which
needs.”
the
economy
badly
LOUIS—Over
of
UAW
Local
2,200 mem-
819
ended
their 33-day strike by ratifying
a new three-year contract with
Carter Carburetor Division, ACF
Industries.
covering
contract,
new
The
- three St. Louis area plants, pro-
vides for an 18-cent an hour increase in wages plus substantial
improvements in pensions, insurance and other fringe benefits.
Ted
Director
5 _
Region
Hawks, in announcing the settlement, praised the work of
Local 819. “The entire membership of Local 819, through
car—equiva-
“Our best protection against
such price increases is the companies’ fear of an informed and
tion)
ford,
bers
cut wholesale
lent to a retail price cut of about
of return
its rate
$140—and
would still have been 21.6 per
cent,” said Reuther.
|
Evidence
ST.
their farsightedness
—
mili-
and
tancy, preserved and expanded
the principles for which our
union
was
founded,”
he
said.
“The company should realize
that all of us do not want to
strike but as a last resort, if we
are treated as we were in these
negotiations, we will do so.”
The strike, called June 9 at 4
a.m., was the first.at Carter
buretor since 1947.
Car-
The new contract calls for increases of five cents an hour for
all day work
skilled
trades
and
eight cents for
work
during
the
first year. All employes will get a
six-cent increase during the second year and seven cents during
the third year.
In addition, cost of living pay
was increased 29 cents an hour,
of which 21 cents will be applied
to the base rate and only eight
cents to the float.
Pensions for present and future
from
increased
were
retirees
$2.25 per month for each year
of service to $3.75 effective Aug.
1, and $4.25 effective Aug. 1, next
year.
The contract also provides
company-paid Blue Cross and
gical-medical insurance for
retirees and active employes.
insurance was increased from
000 to $4,500 for employes
for
surboth
Life
$3,and
from $1,000 to $1,500 for retirees.
Other benefits include two additional paid holidays, bereavement
“WHAT
WORM?”
pay, increased vacations, and improvements in seniority, leave of
absence and grievance procedure.
The contract provides for a fulltime chairman of the shop committee.
mer
sum
ire
ent
its
k
too
1A
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Region
Hattley,
1A
citizenship
representative,
‘stands listening to Carl Loshinskie of Local 898, Rawsonville,
Mich.
Oshkosh Organizing Perks Up
MILWAUKEE—Region 10 Director Harvey Kitzman reported
victory in an NLRB
a UAW
election at the Leach Manufactur-
ing Co., Oshkosh, Wis.
Leach Co. produces bodies for
trash and garbage disposal trucks
and is one of the major suppliers
of such equipment in the midwest.
This victory was the second try
at organization of the plant. Kitzman hailed the victory
tinuation of the UAW
as a conorganiza-
tional program in the OshkoshFox River Valley area.
Kitzman said: “The victory is
another step forward in making
better wages and working conditions a reality not only at Leach,
but in the entire Oshkosh area.”
Region 9 Stresses Greater
Contact With Its New Members
NEW YORK CITY—Over 400
local union officers of Region 9
affiliates have completed a series
of
five
leadership
conferences
the
tri-state
‘Unfired’
Plus!
throughout
area,
it
was announced by Region 9 Director Martin Gerber.
Conferences were designed to
Al
Ark. —
ROCK,
LITTLE
Joiner, an employe of Hamlin
Products, Inc. here is not yet a
member of the UAW but he is
well aware of the advantages offered by the union.
Thanks to the UAW, Joiner,
who was unfairly discharged
for . organizing
activity
last
July, has been reinstated and
awarded $1,912 gross for back
pay plus six per cent interest.
The back pay award made by
a trial examiner, Ivar H. Peterson, has been backed up by the
full
National
Labor
Relations
Board.
August,
gear local unions for a varied program of activities in 1966. They
were held in New Brunswick, N.J.,
Wilkes-Barre,
and
Philadelphia
Pa., and Rochester and Syracuse,
|
Ty
Featured speakers were Gerber,
Edward F. Gray, assistant director, and Larry Carlstrom of the
UAW’s arbitration service.
Gerber emphasized the need
for integrating the new member into the UAW as soon as
he gets his job. “Ten thousand
' new members were brought into Region 9 in 1964. Far too
many of these members had no
contact at all with the union
prior to or during the first
months of employment. Establishing better contact with new
members will be one of the primary tasks for the union in the
period ahead,” he said.
At each session, delegates convened
in separate
each dealing with
of union activity.
1965—UAW
panel
sessions,
a specific area
SOLIDARITY—Page
15
Woodcock:
“This settlement
can well be used as a pattern
by other aerospace firms.”
Douglas Settles—
Next: North American
Schrade: “Importantly
responsible because its benefits
include workers,
dependents,
those already retired. ”’
(Continued from page 3)
settlement which, at the same time, grants
equity and justice to the people directly affected.”
Woodcock sent copies of his telegram to
Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Defense
Secretary Robert McNamara
of Labor Willard Wirtz.
and
Secretary
[, a sharply pointed reference to upcoming
UAW negotiations when he spoke at. Local
148’s ratification meeting, Woodcock warned
the giant North American Aviation Co. that,
to obtain a contract settlement, it would
have to meet the economic terms of the new
Douglas agreement.
Those negotiations start Aug. 17. Woodcock, who is director of the union’s Aerospace Dept., will head the UAW negotiating
team at North American just as he led the
at
committee
bargaining
national
UAW
Douglas. Alongside Woodcock—just as at
Western Regional
Douglas—will be UAW
Director Paul Schrade.
Woodcock said the UAW-Douglas settlement scored a number of “significant breakthroughs in vital economic and pocketbook
|
areas.”
|
These include:
® A total of 24 cents an hour in wage increases over the next two years—eight cents
an hour as of this past July 19, eight cents
more starting July 18, 1966, and another
eight cents an hour beginning July 17, 1967.
“This is the first agreement in aerospace
to close the gap by nine cents an hour for
wage parity with workers in other basic industries,’” Woodcock said. Additionally, a
fund of three cents an hour was won to work
at the problem
reform,
of wage inequities and wage
he added.
|
@ Normal pensions of $4.75 a month times
years of service. That compares with the
$4.25 times years of service pension won in
last year’s widely acclaimed auto settlements.
® Establishment of a supplemental unemployment benefits program—a’ “first” in
the West Coast-based aerospace industry—
and payment of a worker’s health-medical
insurance premiums during periods of eligible layoff.
® Higher benefits and longer coverage for
workers under the hospital-medical-surgical
|
|
program.
@ A maximum $20,000 health plan coverage for workers and dependents for the disability period or a two-year limit, compared
for total
to the former $7,500 maximum
7
hospital-medical-surgical bills.
hospitallimit—25—for
age
® Higher
medical-surgical insurance coverage for de-
Page
16—UAW
SOLIDARITY—August,
1965
pendents; no age limit for disabled children
not receiving Social
or disabled workers
manent
and
totally
disabled
10 years of service at Douglas.
workers
with
Security disability payments.
® Dependents entitled to same hospitalmedical-surgical insurance benefits as employes, for the first time.
® All insurance improvements won at no
increase in cost to Douglas workers.
® Retired workers covered by Douglas’
Additionally, a new $7,000 maximum—up
- $1,000—was gained in company-paid life in-
fits are integrated with the Douglas program
to provide continued protection for retirees.
@ A pension benefit increase for workers
already retired of $1.45 a month per year of
|
service.
® Company-paid life insurance coverage
of $1,000 for pensioners who retired before
with 30 or more years of seniority.
Woodcock said substantial progress also
was made in the contract’s non-economic
areas.
medical care program for the first time until
they become eligible for Medieare benefits
under the new Federal legislation. Then,
under a unique arrangement, Medicare bene-
1960 and who do not have this now.
© Benefits for the survivor of a Douglas
worker which can total up to $21,400 for a
dependent as specified in the settlement.
® Three days’ bereavement pay in the
event of death in the immediate family.
@ Early retirement through which a worker can retire at his option any time between
age 55 and 65 with 10 or more year of company service.
@ Two new paid holidays, making a total
a
of nine.
Other important economic gains provided
full vesting of earned pension at any age
after 10 years of company service, and elimination of the age 45 requirement for disability retirement, with a maximum of $130
a month now provided for pensions for per-
surance and accidental death and dismemberment benefits. And workers will get a
three-week vacation after 10 years of service, as against the former 12 years.
in the
separation payments
Moreover,
event of permanent layoff without pension
entitlement will range from 50 hours pay for
workers with one but less than two years
seniority to 2,080 hours pay for employes
more highlight: it’s the first master
One
agreement in UAW-Douglas bargaining his-
tory. It covers all UAW-Douglas locations.
While the UAW members ratified the contract with Douglas, negotiators for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers continued their bargaining
with the company.
Allied in their bargaining goals and cooperation, the two unions negotiated separ-
ately with the corporation’s management.
IAM members work at Douglas plants other
than those at which UAW members are employed.
JAM leaders, who served the company with
a seven-day contract termination notice as
SOLIDARITY went to press, said their differences with Douglas primarily involved
local and non-economic issues.
- Item sets