aE eer
THE VOICE OF THE UNITED ELECTRICAL, RADIO & MACHINE WORKERS
Vol. 10 — No. i ms SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK i
‘
Th I Up To.
rom ere--- 3.96 Out Of Deep Freeze
‘New York—UE Sylvania work- ° : ‘ pews . ae ii 2 : Lo “3
crogues Of Foun’ uiny to ih cealy 7a Petitions addressed to the Wage Stabilization Board are now being circul-
hy etionlog he board, pressure ated in the Schenectady Works. They call for prompt approval of the 3.58
delegation to the WSB in Wash. §C0Cral wage increase offered UE and 59 other unions by General Electric.
eee ke oe we eg. “has beet or will be put ans
ry cues Petition In Shop so fetnanchgehee
and ave enlisting the help of the TO? MR. NATHAN FEINSINGER, CHATRMAN =~ . Pree Board this week soni
EOTIOIE be _ NATIONAL WAGE STABILIZATION BOARD ~~ > WEp ned way press onany” of
a a ee
% WASHINGTON-25, D. C. © Bea” the 60 GE. agreements.
New. York—A 344, week: strike PPP ou
‘brought members of UE Local 430 =~. We, the undersigned are members of Local It is up to the UE member-
Fay tye oor,® Pay Package 301, United Electrical Radio and Machine - ‘hip to get the WSB to act.
talling 14/4 cents an hour retro- W a S of : UE Y : B ah b The JUL, for all its boasted
aelive to. July 1. : Workers of America (UE). Your Board has be- pull with the board and its
k ok O* fore it the Wage agreement reached between © fast acceptance of GH’s terms,
Washington, D, C.—In the first -our union and the General.Electric Company. back in September, is helpless
sisioos ths. w ugion Wy [iahls 4ap While the amount of the wage increase-is Derfise fo es avowed suppor
- damages on an unfair labor prac. Mall compared to our needs, most of us are | were genuinely interested, it
tice charge by an employer, the desperate in trying to make our family budget would demand that the CIO
U. S. Supreme Court has unani- meet with the high cost of living and taxes. get off the board so that
miously ruled the Inthernationl We ask prompt action in approving our case workers could get increases,
Longshoremen’s & Warehouse- in the full amount that has been negotiated not freezes. ae
's ion (Ind.) | must -pay Sea : nedled |
$260,000 in damages pin Aleky and withthe effective date that has been Money Needed
lumber firm. The firm lodged its agreed upon. eH ta ol, » vie re gatition if ae
charges on the basis that its em- soap Lo 7 iy ad . . oar ch Ss é€ five to elg.
NAME... - ADDRESS CITY cents “small compared to our
ployees refused to cross an ILWU 7
picket line outside its properties. needs” but says the people
need the money in view. of
kok RB Be Py @ cor “4 . sa
roryo — conceal idgwey Union Spurs Protection | {tre pish cost of living and
ported some eandy missing from-. . :
is office, ‘The suspee 0 pri . oF " The delay makes it increas-
$ ce. The suspects—iwo pri- ' yi
mata. drat alas and a corporal, Of Job Rights in Lay-offs ingly questionable whether
the latter twice-wounded in Korea . ~ "sip, ; a GE made its offer in sincerity
—were htisted, All were members Layoffs continue to plague parts anticipate work shortages and, by “vor in the hope it would be
f the Allied Commander’s honor of the Works and more production better planning, avoid ov reduce stymied. by a board which is
0 “dl 0 suspect said he saw a CUt-backs seem to be in the offing. them. Largely because of this in- bossed by GE’s Charles Wil-
a" stile ok the G ii tars “fale The full resources of the local - sistence, GE annouticed well in ad- _ son’and loaded with company-
saa binet ST was a little hungry 82 being mobilized to deal with _ vanee that it intends to move its’.. minded ‘AFL and CIO offic-
me ne ot lid aw d tried : nieve, the problem. The locul insists that © paper-covered cable operations: out . ials. : : eae
ae i okt several ata te. ive suitable jobs be found where neces- of Schenectady, . Pale But. neither GE, the IUE
\ the other boys.” , sary without undue toss of time — UE Stewards are’ completing a nor the wage freeze board will
Tk Ok ot and strictly in line with seniority, survey .of those who would be af- -hand working.men and wom-
Washington, D, C.—Manufactur. | An Assistant Business Agent, fected by the move, Hach work- en the money and working’
ers of war materials: milked'the Fred Sheehan, has been assigned e1’§ classification, seniority, wage conditions they require for a
_ U.S: Government and the Amer-. full time to deal with placements, © rate. and average earnings are better life. On the contrary,
> jean people of $7 billion in the” Upgrading, dismissals _and other noted with a view to prompt trans- _only by fighting GE, by elim-
_first. year of, the ‘Korean War by, problems arising out of layolts. fer to. suitable work at suitable _ inating TUE. disruption, . by.
price-gouging, acéording to anians ~~ -.At the same time, the Local is Pay. 7 ending the board and. the
alysis prepared for the Pentagon, . constantly after -management to (Continued on Page 3 * (Continued on Page 3)
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ELECTRICAL “UNION NEWS:
5
Friday, January 11, 1952
~ Wage Sell- Out
The IDE-ClO leading clique
has already begun laying the
groundwork for its sell-out of
the wage fight: in March. | it
did this in the Dec. 31 issue of
the IUE-CIO News.
cussing the wage demands of
the steelerkers, the 1UE editors’
are worried that UE will ask GE
and Westinghouse for more money
if the xsteelworkers get. what
they're after, ‘
The position attributed to UE in
the newspaper is that if steel gets
a yweneral wage increase of 15
cents an hour, “then the UE as a
result should get 15 cents from
-GE and Westinghouse.” (Is. that
bad?) 5
The IUE then rushes to the aid
of the two pviants of the electrical
industry with some figures. These
figures make the point that the
steelwurkers would get little more
on a percentage -basis - than GE
workers received
percent Wage inercase would catch
electrical workers up to steelwork-
ers, ‘
Ts the “edtch-up formula ta be
the hasis for PUE’s 19h2 sell-out?
Murray has frequently stated that
“the steel union is simply seeking
to “enteh up.” It is a formula de-
and that a Ls,
ew
signed to keep ‘the wage, freeze
and the, Wage Stabilization Board
in power,
UE’s position ‘un wage negotia-
. tions, unlike the position. attribut-
ed to it by the LUB-CIO’ News, jis |
to draw up demands laxsed on the
needs of its members and “not. on
what some other union-is asking
for or getting, At the same time,
UE regards any wage victory by
any union as a shot.in the arm in
its own negotiations. lt therefore
supports the wage struggles of all
workers, including of course, the
steelworkers, :
UE will cheer for the mine work-
ers when they. go in‘to negotiate
at the very time of our own wage
regpener.’ Tt will . give ‘support
where needed and as best it can,
Will the 1UI2 try to tear down
the UMW demands as it is* now
trying vo undermine the coming
wage strupples with General Elec-
tric and Westinghouse } ,
The IVE lenders, like this yea
presidential candidates. have start-
ed thei campaign early. It is Not
too ‘carly for GE and Westing-
house workers, regardless of un-
ion uffiliation, to begin closing
ranks and girding for a real fight
for real benefits.:
UNION GAINS NEW
JOB OPPORTUNITY
FOR NEGRO WORKER
When. Earl Page, who had three
years service at common labor
rate, failed to get an opportunity’ --
to work on machines, even though
new men were hired for machine
“work, the Union charged discrim-
ination. against this Negro worker,
Action by Loeal 301 resulted in
Page; who worked in Gas Turbine
49, getting the opportunity to work
at a higher rated job.» First he
had an opportunity. on the second
shift and is new working on mill-
ing machines on the first shift.
HALT RATE
VIOLATIONS
AT MALTA
AttemptS~ by the Company “to ~
hire new employees at a
cents below the established gen-
eral maintenance rate at its Malta
plant have been halted, wo, men
hired and, classified as special la-
bor at cents less an hour, have
been reclassified and Bldg. 41
assured the Union that four new
employves would be hived at the
general maintenance rate.
vate 13°
HOLIDAY PAY
“DEMANDED FOR
CLEANING WOMEND
Part-time office cleaning women,
who were denied holiday pay for
Christmas and New Year's, a day
«they would ordinarily work, have
had. their case taken to the GE top:
policy committee in York
City.
If their demand ‘is refused, Leo
Jandreau, business agent, has an-
nounced that Local 301 will place
their demand for holiday pay in
arbitration,
There are two groups of clean-
ing women, One group works
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and
Friday. The other works Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
New
it.is the latter group, Local 361
insists, that is entitled to holiday
pay for what would be a regular
work day.
Jandreau “pointed out that “ine
agmuch a8 Article IX of the eon:
tract,oanly takes exception onvholi-
day pay for continuous process
- employees,” ther
y e is no questior .
in the mind of Local 301 that ce
nial of holiday pay in this ease is =
contract violation and-the Union
will exert every effort on both the
local and national lével to see that
it. is paid,
Vigorous Action Strengthens Contract
Vigorous action “by the Union
~has resulted in the satisfactory ad-
justinent af a wide variety of
priévances centering around the
striel enforcement of UE contract
provisions. Though there has been
x marked improvement in griev-
ance settlements. Union officials
point out that GE is still much too —
laggard in giving prompt and ef-
fective consideration to privances
submitted,
Among seme of the. grievance
adjustments in recent weeks were
the following: —
J. Marinueci; a Class “B"~ma-
chine repairman in-Purbine, doing
“A” work, was upgraded: after the
foreman. said there was no open-_
ing for him. The union won.the
case at management level,
‘Though he had attended safety
school and been led to believe by
his foreman that he would be‘up-
‘to. Sept...3, 1951,
graded one step to Welder-Hand-
Are, Robert-Barnes in Turbine-2738
was unable to wet any action. Un-
ion action seeured the additional
step and an additional six cents an
hour. a
After a series of prievances in
‘Bldg. 273 on effective dates of one
step increases, Local 301 has wou
a change in policy from the com-
pany “that in the future a one-step
increase will be given at the time
of reclassification.” Tt is expected
this will eliminate grievances in
the future on upgrading of erect.
ors.
Some recent retroactive pay cas-
‘es for erectors, that were won be-
tore this policy change, included:
. Conrad Borra, upgraded from “B"
to “A” ereetor, received back pay
transferred from: ‘B" to “AY erect-
‘Dec. 10,
W..Whelan.won... .
back pay from the time he was’
new “B"
effective
oat
ar, Clyde. Eckstrom's
classification was. made
151,
A group of varp enters in Bldg.
000 doing “A” and.“B” work for
the past two years were given no
step adjustment in-all that time.
Immediate raises for all were won
by the Union. “The men were: 8.
J. Bedits, A. B. Evans and FE. A,
Farch,
A retroactive raise of five cents
to the first part. of Octeber was
won for Ralph M. McNamara, an
operator in Control Bldg. 81, when
the Union insisted on strict en-
forcement on transfers provided
in Article 10, section 2, part 7 of
the UE contract.
F. Holton, an-inspector vin ‘Gas
Turbine 49, though working on a
job rated as °B" was not given
the job vate by his foreman. The
Union. won the proper rate, effect-
ive Nov, 19, 1951.
Approximately $45 each was
won for John Hand and John
Walsh when the Union won retro-
active pay for changes in rates on
Dec, 19, 1951. The two sheet met-
al workers, in Gas) ‘Turbine 44,
eharged a violation of contract.
Settled at management level, the”
back pay was bused. on a $1,595
rate from April 9, a $1.65 rate
from May 7 and: $1.75 from Aug.
6, 1981.
A one step increase, or)
Dec. 24, 1951, was won for Pet
Link, a ranchitni at helper in Tur-
hine 278, Local 301 maintained
that the responsibility of the help-
er in operation. of the 40’ boring
mill: was-such-that-it should: have-~
a different _ classification “and, a
higher job rate.
* non-military
Friday, January 11, 1952,
©
ELECTRICAL "UNLON NEWS
alanine EEN BM HL
Wilson Plan Hits
obs And Butter
The “guns vs. butter” program
of GE’s Charles Wilson, now De-
fense Mobilizer, has a large part
of the country up in arms includ-
ing GE’s top officials, President
Ralph: Cordiner and Chuirman of
the Board Philip D. Reed.
Wilson had promised that every-
one not in the caviar class would
have to give up butter altogether
to make way-for guns. This did
not go over with Detroit’s 120,000
unemployed, most of whom are out
because of metal shortages for
goods. The mayor
and the governor of. the state
packed their bags and hurried to
Washington to put in a_ beet
against guns in place of butter.
Even Cordiner and Reed of. Gen-
eral Electrie didn’t like the idea of
more drastic priorities for war pro-
duction,
At GE’s
ence, Cordiner -
annual press .confer-
“pointed out that
“only between .20 and 25 percent
of GE production is tagged for.
defense. Wilson’s threat to cut
_tietal allocations for civilian goods
by 50 per cent in the first monihs.
)1952 would of course mean pro-
duction cut-backs and sweeping
layoifs in GE.
The artificially arranged metal
shortages will cause an 11 percent
leap in unemployment: in New
Fork State in the first six ‘pranths
HIGHER PAY
OPENINGS WON
BY HELPERS
The Union has changed what ap-
peared to be a dead end road for
millwright helpers. A group ui
such helpers recently requested
that: their pay be -ndjusted up-
wards, since they were doing the
work of millwrights.
Upon handling their grievance,
UE Local 801 discovered that actu-
ally: there are approximately two
millwrights for every helper and
tthe company’s. objective is to have
but one millwright for each helper
in. the . future—eliminating: any
aees for helper upgrading in
“foreseeable future.
“These helpers will now have an
opportunity for increased earnings
as a>-result of the Union winning
agreement that the helpers will
have the opportunity: to work -as-
machinist-machinist repairmen
which pays the higher millwright
rate that helpers wore seeking.
of ’52, according to the State Di-
vision of Placement and Unem-
ployment Insurance.
Alarmed by this prospect, six
New York City Congressmen and
Senator Herbert H. Lehman pledg-
ed every effort to get steel and _
other metals” for something be-
sides guns. The .AFL building
trades reported 22,000 steel work-
ers out of work because steel is
being stockpiled for the military.
The}j electrical manufacturing in-
dustry. also looks for a. sharp, de-
cline in. production for the same
reason, says the N, Y. Times of
Jan. - a
The “guns vs: butter” formula
does not mean that those workers
in arms manufacture will eat as
well or better, in the future. .Wil-
-~8on made it clear in his famous.
“the people have too much money”
dictum. > On this point, GE’s Cor-
diner ;and Reed agreed, both pre-
[ dicting highex prices and inflation,
not ta mention taxes, \
The nation, said Wilson a few
dys ago, is entering a period of
“severest pinch!” ‘The pineh is on
wages and living standards,” not
on profits and prices
It has become clear that pres-
sure on Congress for civilian pro»
duction is a “must" for every un-
jon, and every association of smail
businessmen and plotessiorials,
END WSB STALL
(Continued from Page 1)
freeze can the” people’ ‘go
ahead with collective bangs ain-
ing.
The tens. of thousands of
UE members who last month
demonstrated ° against . the
wage. freeze in front of re-
gional offices of the Wage
Stabilization Board and the.
Schenectady petition now in
the Works will accomplish
more than all the wire-pulling
by IUE puppets.
The UE 301 Executive
Board urges everyone to sign
the petition.
ELECTRICAL UNION NEWS*
TINTTRD BLMUTRICAL, RADIO &
MACHINE WORKERS OF AMBRICA
Scheneetady GE Local 301 Ul
Published by the Editorial Com.
Asst Recording Socrotary....Frank D'Amico
Traasuror ... e-s= Honry Kaminski
Vico:Prasidai
Recording. Secratary
Frosident -.~--~-..
Chlof Shop. Steward
Business Agent -.....
301 LIBERTY. ST.
--+ loo Jandroay
SCHENECTADY, N, Y.
. CONGRESSMAN DRIPP
“Gentlemen, this time we have
the perfect bill. It evern-outlaws
the word weeeS
Union Takes : Step s To
‘Protect Job Security
(Continued from Page 1)
Meanwhite,” woimen with March,
1943 service have been laid off in
Industrial Gontrol, A drastic eut-
back in Magnetic Switch —- from
10,000 units a week to 4,000 —- has
affected the jobs of 85 women and
live men, men being laid off with
December, 1948 | service, women
With March, 1043 service. This
points up the importance of the
union's tight to protect women
workers against GE’s diserimina-
tory policies,
Although the company is set
against “bumping” and is reluct-
ant to find. work for people at their
former earnings, the Local is wag-
ing a stubborn, often successful,
fight on behalf of the membership,
Fred Sheehan, whose desk is the
clearing house for layoff and
transfer cases illustrated both the
attitude of management and the
Local's fight by citing dockets «in
front of him,
Long Service
Sheehan pointed to the case of
“Wi Collins; a wire-cutting operator
“with $3 years service,
Collins was
told to tuke a week's layoff and re-
port back as a degreaser at less
pay. The Local advised Collins to
stay on his job and* was able to
get him upgraded to another job
without any lost time.
Three coil winders in Bldg. 89.
M. Andryeazcyk, G. Gamp and 1.
Rossi, were told there was no more
work for them on days and that
they would have to take third shift
jobs. This was unsatisfactory to
them and the union lined up nine
day shift jobs for them at their
former earnings. ‘
The case.of Martina Mango, an
assembler in Bldg. 69, serves to il-
lustrate supervision’s some times
callous attitude toward employees.
‘Mango was told she would have:
to take a job which she could not
accept because of a skin’ condition.
Her ailment was contracted in the
service of the company but, this
cut no ice with supervision.” The
union intervened and got her sat-
istactorily placed,
Sheehan emphasized that it
takes a stubborn fight to get the
company to yield. “He ‘said’ that.
poor management, reckless hiring,
speed-up’ were factors in» curent
layoffs.
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