NEW ¢
“IN UNION
THERE IS
STRENGTH”
IUE-CIO NEWS May 31, 1951
YOUR CARD MAY BE THE ONE THAT COUNTS
Every card signed these days by a GE worker brings all of us closer to another election— (~)
an election which will give each of us a chance to decide, by afree and secret vote, whether ~~
we wish to remain in a weak and discredited organization like UE, or whether we want to re-
Volume. 1 No. 11
Published by IUE-CIO Eee 202 Clinton Street June 7, 1951
turn to CIO.
“Just as soon as [UE-CIO has 6,000 cards signed, a petition for an election can be filed.
Each one of us has an important stake in that election.
~ Today, the bargaining agent at the big GE plant in Schenectady is the UE. Because of
its weakness, because it stands alone, cut off from all the rest of organized labor, UEis unable’
to do an efficient job of collective bargaining.
But l1UE-CIO has proved, in the year and a half that it has been in existence, that it can
make gains for GE workers , and for all electrical workers. In just one year, [UE-CIO has won
19 cents in wage increases for its members in GEj\as well as an-extra paid holiday, and im-
provements in the pension and sick benefits plan. IUE-CIO has proved that GE workers don't
need a'Communist dominated union to win gains for them. ~ _
In view of these facts, each GE worker must consider his duty to himself, to his family, and
to the community in which he lives. After such consideration each GE worker must decide,
whether he wants to remain in the Communist-Dominated UE,
If you decide against a Comrnunist union, sign the card below, and send it to IUE-CIO,
202 Clinton Street. Do it today - - your card is needed!
UE AND DEMOCRACY
DON'T SEEM TO MIX
On May 23, UE Board Members th-
roughout the GE Schenectady Works
gave a report on UE negotiations with
GE, and then took a vote, supposedly
“to see whether or not Schenectady
GE workers wanted the nine-cent hourly
increase won a month earlier by IUE-
clo.
Since the vote was held in such a
fashion that there was no adherance to °
parliamentary procedure, the whole bu-
siness was completely illegal.
But the pay-of is this: The UE Ne-
otiating Committee, including Julius
Emspak; a man convicted on charges of
contempt of Congress, signed an agree-
-ment for the nine cents with the com-
pany on May 17, six days before work-
ers in Schenectady had a. chance to: ex-
> press’ their: opinion:on this: matter. -
That may be the UE brand of democ-
racy, but-in the eyes of most Americans,
that's stalin’s way of doing businesal
International Union of Electrical,
Radio and Machine Workers—ClO
{ want to join with 70,000 other General Electric employees who
have affiliated with the International Union of Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers—CIO, which has won greatly improved contract con-
. ditions including a recent wage increase—the third that IVE-CIO has
won from GE in one year. For those reasons and also because I wish to
belong to a democratic, anti-Communist un‘on, I hereby designate the
International Union of Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers—CIO
‘as my sole collective bargaining representative,
(This authorisation supersedes any priov authorization)
Signature ,
Employed by: Address
GE Plant, Schenectady
i Department
IUE-CIO is proving® every day that -
electrical workers don’t need a Commu:
nist-dominated union: to- make gains for
them,
A list of 16 wage increases, NEGO-
TIATED WITHOUT A ‘REOPENING
CLAUSE IN THE CONTRACT, was
published last week by IUE-CIO. In
every case, workers had received an in-
crease through [WUE-CIO. less, than ‘a
year before the new wage increase was
negotiated.
Among the locals making these gains
were Metric Metal, Erie, which won
seyen cents in February, Formica, Cin-
cinnati, which won six cents in Decem-
ber; Packwood, St. Louis, 10 cents’ in
January; Amerean Radiator Co, New
Jersey, 10 cents in December;. Minnea-
polis, Moline, Moline, Hl, five cents in
January; Stewart Stamping, Yonkers,
N. Y., seven cents in November, and
Ingersoll-Rand, New Jersey, five per
cent in January, :
‘e These increases were won even
dough the contract did. not call for
wage talks, and “even though workers
had received increases less than a year
before.
Besides these increases, 126,000- IUE-
CIO members under 20 contracts with
various firms have received sizable in-
creases through cost of living clauses
during the past year, In every case,
workers received straight wage in-
creases, as well as the cost of living
raises listed here.
Workers at GM, Sperry, Ford = In-
strument, Monsanto Chemical, and Far-
rand Optical all have received 13 cents
an hour, American Gas Accumulator
workers won 12 cents; while those at
Liquidometer and Allis .Chalmers have
received 11 cents so far. Among those
winning nine cents were workers at GE,
Wagner Electric, Package Machinery
Rudolph Wurlitzer, Foote Gear, Chap-
man Valver, Otis Elevator and National
Rubber.
Exide Battery workers have received
8% cents so far, and. will receive an-
other three-cent increase, based on June
1 cost of living figures, very shortly.
‘yer, workers who, will receive the
varee cents ag of June 1 are those at
Allis Chalmers, American Gas Accumu-
lator, and General Motors.
Besides’ these: workers, 735,000...GE..
workers under contract of the Com-
munist UE also will receive a nine-cent
increase because of the IUE-CIO cons
tract just as soon as the wage stabili
| 1UE-CIO SETS NEW RECORDS
- atiow Board grants approval, Some 70,
000 GE workers under IUE-CIO con-
tract received this increase automatic-
ally in May according to the provisions
of the IUE-CIO contract.
IUE-CIO WINS IN
WESTINGHOUSE
Negotiations concluded last week’ be-
tween the Westinghouse Corp. and IUE- .
CIO won for the union a nine-cent hour-
ly wage increase and a union shop.
The wage inercase is subject. to Wage
Stablization Board approval. Westing-
house Corp. can also request the right
to raise prices from the Office of Price
Stabilization. If the. company does this,
and if the price stabilization board re- |
e ~""“leaders accept an increase won from GE
fuses, Westinghouse may fight the wage
increase. IUE-CIO is ready to mect this
profit-hungry organization in battle if
it is neccesary in order to win: this in-
crease. ,
UE has done a lot of talking about
Westinghouse, . but the only action
they’ve taken s to file a petition for the
big East Pittsburgh works. This petition
was thrown out for the lack of sufficient
evidence,, Apparently, UE filed again
but this. petition will be as useless as
the first, because Pittsburgh Westing-
house workers are behind IUE-CIO.
~ CORRECTION
LAST WEEK’S -IUE-CIO NEWS
CARRIED A REPRINT OF: AN ART-
ICLE ABOUT BEN GOLD WHICH AP-
PEARED IN THE AUGUST 28, 1950,
DAILY WORKER, OFFICIAL ORGAN
OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY. BY A
TYPOGRAPHICAL ERROR, THE
DATE APPEARED AS AUGUST 28,
1951.
MANY WORKERS WHO NOTICED
THE DATE REALIZED IMMEDIATE-
LY THAT IT WAS A TYPOGRAPH-
ICAL ERROR, BECAUSE THEY RE-
CALLED READING ABOUT THE
STATEMENT LAST SUMMER, OTH-
ERS, HOWEVER, THOUGHT THAT
IUE-CIO PRACICED MIND-READING.
‘WHILE WE CAN'T CLAIM ‘THAT
- ACCOMPLISHMENT,. WE. DO. CLAIM
TO DO A GOOD JOB OF TELLING
THE TRUTH AND CORRECTING
OUR ERRORS WHEN WE MAKE
THEM! ;
SHOP TALK
“Tn Erie,‘Pa. so many UE members
have quit that Communist-led outfit in
the past three months that UE got ex-
cited. The local president went to the
company and asked management please
“ not to recognize those revocations. Man-
agement didn’t want to hurt UE’s feel-
ings, so, despite. contractual provisions
to. the opposite, management decreed
that a worker who wanted.to withdraw
‘would have to notify his paymaster in
«person, That’s exactly what workers in
Erie are doing. UE won't stop Erie
workers in their fight to have a decent
union! ‘
UE is showing its inconsistency moré
and more every day, First that outfit
condems all escalator clauses. Then its
by IUE-CIO through an escalator clause.
Then UE puts a big propaganda cam-
paign which declared that UE wants to
improve the government’s system of
computing cost of living figures. All the
real trade unions, the CIO, AF of L, and
other bona fide unions, have been bat-
tling for years to improve this system,
and they finally got their point across,
and: forced a Congressional committee to
look into the matter. Then UE sneaked
into the act, to claim credit for a job
which took months and months of hard
work by decent union leaders, Now that
committee is studying the ‘cost,of living
figures, and CIO, AF of L, and other
union leaders are in “there fighting the
battle for their members, But where is
UE? That: outfit has- no recognition.
Even if some of its Commie represen-
tatives do testify, their testimony won't
faean a thing. How can people who have
pledged their support to the Communist
Party have the nerve to try to convince
the government that they want to im-
prove something in America? That's.
just another UE inconsistency.
Sidney Friedlander pwlled.a phony sit
down in Buildings 15, 17, and 19 about
_a month ago. The workers haven’t -been = -
able to figure out just why the demon-
stration was ordered, but Al Dorries has
discovered what the answer is, The sit
down lasted from one o’clock to eleven
on the morning of May 1. In Moscow,
the: same-time.-was.from.eight..A.M.. to
six P, M,, the very time that Stalin. was
reviewing the Russian troops in his no-
torious May Day parade, Could be there
‘ia some connection.
