Electrical Union News, 1949 July 15

___ two week

4

ELECTRICAL UNION NEWS.

July 8, 1949

Continuity of Service
issue in Arbitration

Arbitration hearings were con-

ducted in Schenectady June 16 and
17 in three Local 301 grievance
cases involving continuity of serv-
ice.

Two of the men were taken off
jobs during the war and were out
of the plant for a year and a half
and three years. When they re-
turned to work GE broke their
service.

In the third case, which also
dates back to the war, the worker
was laid off for lack of work and
the company didn’t give him suit-
able employment for 10 weeks.
Management broke his service be-
cause he had not accepted a job, re-
gardless of its suitability, within
no company rule that conflicts with
the contract provisions on continu-
ity of service,

In all three cases the union ar-
mued that GE ignored the fact that
any challenge to continuity rights
must be taken up; with the union,

J. J. Nealy of Boston, arbiter

he American Arbitration As-
sociation’ is to decide within 30
days whether. the men’s service
should be restored.

Handling the cases for the union
were International Representative
Joseph Turkowski, Business Agent
Leo Jandreau and the 301 attorney,
Marshall Perlin.

Appearing for GE were J. W.
Burnison of top GH management,
C. G, Marcy, Lester H. Mean and
a number of lawyers,

Can Insist on Jobs

Under UE Coverage

The company has offered a num-
ber of laid-off workers jobs at
Knolls IT and Peek St. on the atom-
i¢ project. Because of the conspir-
acy between the Atomic Energy
Commission and GIP to violate the
union contract, the union is not
now recognized as bargaining
agent at the atomie power labora-
tory, (A court action is pending
over this GE-ANC conspiracy). ”

Many of the workers are un=
willing lo take these atomic jobs
heeause they don't want to lose
their union protection. Under the
contract they can insist that their

_ seniority rights be exercised in the
parts of the plant where the jobs
are covered by the Ul contract.
They can refuse transfers to Knolls
IL or Peek St.

Spirit of ’49°r

The union recognizes _

What Is $500?

The $500 yearly over-all increase
per worker which UE is seeking
from GE is a modest figure indecd.

The House of Representatives
hag voted itself $500 per member
for just an extra expense fund, The
money will go for free haircuts,
shaves, daily rations of mineral
water ete. The total bill the coun-
try pays to keep the representa-
tives pretty and happy is $62,200,-
000 a year,

Interesting
Guest List

Victor Riesel, newspaper col-
unmnist notorious in Schenec-
tady for the lies he wrote about
Local 301, is on vacation.

The column, “Inside Labor”,
is being written in his absence
by “guests”, including:

Phillip Murray, CIO presi-
dent; Wallace F. Bennett, presi-
dent of the National Association
of Manufacturers; J. Edgar
Hoover, FBI chief; James C,
Petrillo, president of the Mu-
siclans’ Union; William Green,
AFL president; David Dubinsky
of the Ladies Garment Workers;
Secretary of Labor Tobin and
Lemuel .R., Boulware, GE. vice-
president, ;

Union Awaits Answer
(Continued from Page 1),
Joseph Mangino and James Cog-
netta, has drawn up a_ proposer
program for Loeal 801 on election
issues, in line with previous ac-
tions taken by the 301 membership.
This program will be submitted to
the Board next week and to the
combined membership and stew-
ards’ meeting the following week.
The committee has sent letters
to all persons known to be eandi-
dates, regardless of their political
party, asking about their program
for the county and city elections,
particularly on issues on which the
301 membership ‘has taken a stand.

Schenectady Jobless

The number of unemployed reg-
istered with the Schenectady office
of the Unemployment Insurance
Division dropped to 3,034 as of
June 24, after many workers, re-
turned to jobs at the American Lo-
camotive Company. The tempor-
ary lay-offs took place during a
controversy between the Steelwork-
erg and the company.

However, hundreds of perman-
ent lay-offs were announced at
ALCO immediately afterwards.
Beeause of these, and increasing
lay-offs at GE, the jobless figure
for carly July will probably be at
least 3,500. The figure for June
17 was 3,889, :

CIO Leaders Shift
T-H ‘Fight’ to '50

The national CIO has officially
given up all hope of Taft-Hartley
repeal this year.

In a publicity statement issued
July 1 the CIO conceded the “Taft-
Hartley Act will not be repealed in
1949,” But the statement claimed
that “labor and liberals in Congress
fought hard and well for Taft-
Hartley repeal.”

The CIO leadership is trying to
make it appear that there was a
real fight in Congress. Actually it
was a sham battle. The Traman
Administration and so-called “lib-
erals” gave up the fight before they
ever started it.

National AFL and CIO leaders
never put up any real fight, They
began retreating as fast as. the
Administration did. Practically at

provisions,

Now they are trying to cover
the bungling and double-crossing
of 1949 with fAghting talk about
1950 elections, There were some
1948 election promises about re-
~pealing Taft-Hartley, Remember?

UE Wins Vote

. Workers at the Purves Manufac-
turing Company, Richmond, Ind,
voted overwhelmingly in a recent
bargaining election to be repre-
sented by UE. The balloting was
conducted by a joint management.
union committee. The vote was:
UE 112; Independent 10; no union
5. ;

Andrew J. McNally

Andrew J, MeNally, who resign-
ed as a shop stewart in 1948 he-
eause of ill health ,died June 30,
A machinist in Building 60, he had
85 years service with GE. For
eight years he was a steward. He
is survived by his widow, and a
daughter, Mrs. Evelyn McGrath,
_both of 1700 Central Ave., Colonic.
Until illness caused his resigna-
tion, he was assistant chief of the
Colonie fire department,

Did You Know?

The average consumption of food
per person has dropped 5 per cent
since 1946 in this country. The
consumption of fluid milk and
cream, so important to the diet of

children and also of adults, has VW)
« clined 10 per cent per person singe”
1945, The consumption of meat, is

5 per cent lower than in 1945,

TO SAVE JOBS- A SHORTER WEEK AND HIGHER PAY

Sern

YLECTRICAL

THE VOICE OF LOCAL 30! a

U. E.R. & M. W. AL

Vol. 7 — No. 27

SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK

July 15, 1949

Pinkerton Agents
Do- GE Spy Work

The General Electric Company
recently hired the notorious Pink-
erton National Detective Agency
to spy on an injured woman work-
er, in hopes of avoiding paying for
an operation on her,

Mrs. Nellie Vaitulis, 48, has not
been uble to work since she was
injured Apr, 5, 1944, at the Sche-
nectady plant. She has had three
operations for hernia and must un-
dergo a fourth one soon.

GE has fought her workmen's
“eomipeiisation claim every inch of
CE way. Obviously more than

anny-pinching is behind the com-
pany’s vindictiveness in this case.
A few years before she was in-
_jured, Mrs. Vaitulis testified in the
criminal case involving the job sell-
ing racket at the Schenectady GE,
The shocking practice was exposed
through Local 801.

GE Continues Fight

When GE was ordered’ to pay
workmen’s compensation to Mrs,
Vaitulis the company appealed un-
sucessfully to the Appellate Divis-
ion of the Supreme Court. Under
court order it had to pay for her
three operations. But when the
need for a fourth operation de-
veloped recently GE renewed the
fight and vefused to pay voluntax-
ily. .

At a hearing in New York City
July 7 before a workmen’s compen-
sation referee 301 Attorney Mar-
shall Perlin produced medical evi-
dence that the operation is neces-
sary, A noted surgeon, a special-
ist in hernia ,testified to this effect.

GE produced a doctor to say no
operation is required, The company

July 301 Meeting
Will Be Next Week

The combined 301 membership
and shop stewards’ meeting this
month will be at 7:80 p.m. Tues-
day, July 19, for all stewards
and first and third shift mem-
bers and at 1 p.m. Wednesday,
July 20, for second shift mem-
bers. Both parts of the mecting
will be at the union hall,

also produced a Pinkerton agent,
Fred ¥, Neumann of Hartford,

Conn.,-who-claimed—he—had—bean-—

spying on Mrs, Vaitulis at her farm
and to have taken 600 feet of mov-
ing pictures of her when about 500
feet away from her. Testimony
revealed that GE had hired a fe-
male Pinkerton operative too, a
Mrs. Daley,
' Pinkerton Movie

The movie was displayed at the
hearing but was not admitted into
evidence. The referee ruled that
so far the film doesn’t show the
woman pictured to be Mrs. Vaitulis.

A-small part .of the movie,
six inches to a foot, apparently is
a head-on shot of a woman. The
referee agreed that this section of
the film is to he enlarged to sce
if it then may have any relation
to the case.

Mrs. Vaitulis denied that sne
was the woman photographed or
that the movie even was made on
her farm.

In urging that the referee re-
ject the movie, the union declared
that it could not trust any evidence
produced by the Pinkerton outtit,
The strike breaking, labor spying

activities of the Pinkerton Agency

were alficlally exposed in the re-

GE Still Says 'No’ to Union;
Won't Act to Stop Lay-offs

The company continued to say “No” to all union proposals when
bargaining resumed Tuesday in New York.

While Vice-President L. R. Boulware was in the meeting only a few
minutes, George Pfeif, speaking for the company, repeated the Boulware
line that the answer to the present lay-offs was to work harder and
/broduce cheaper. He likewise made it clear that the company is indiffer-
ent to the hardships of the thousands of GE workers laid off or work-

ing short time,

The UE committee on Wednes-
day brought pensioners and laid-
off workers to the bargaining ses-
sion to : “own
story of their hardships resulting
from: the company’s policies. The
committee has been making every
effort to convince the company
committee by common sense reas-~
oning that the union’s proposals
are fair and necessary,

Shorter Week Urged

The UE committee stressed the
fact that thousands of GE work-
ers were hit hard by lay-offs and
rotation, and that a 10 per cent cut
in hours without pay cut would im-
mediately put 18,000 to 19,000
workers back to work. This is just
about the number laid off so far
throughout the company. Work-
ers who are laid off or on short
time cannot buy appliances, the
committee said.

Pfeif replied that GE workers
ave still well off, and that they are

ports of the La Follette Congress-
ional Committee. This exposure
played a large part in enactment
of the Wagner Act to eliminate
such evils, Pinkerton agents have

been used for over 70 years against .

railroad strikes, against the miners
und other unions.

_the “inflation bubble” would
“and someone would get hurt.

still “buying new cars’, He said
that it should have been evident
ust
His

attitude was “so what?”

The union spokesmen pointed out
that the “inflation bubble” consist-
ed of tremendous profiteering by
GE and other big companies. The
least that GE could do now would
be to give the employees some of
the vast hoard of profits which GE
piled up in the last two years, so
as to maintain purchasing power,
the UE said.

. GE's Past Record’

Leo Jandreau, 801 business agent
and senior member of the neyvotiat-
ing committee, pointed out to Pfeif
that GE always had opposed shox't-
er hours or higher pay, or any
benefits for its employees. At the
present time, he said, it has put the
heat on the state Unemployment
Insurance division to rule that
workers who are on a two-week
shutdown but are paid for only one
week may not receive pay for the
second week (the union is fighting
this ruling), GE’s position on
MBA has not changed since MBA
was started, Jandreau said. He
pointed out that while amending.

(Continued on Page 2)

ae
32 574 EIS

A GULLIBLE FELLOW
WAS BOB:

Now OFF To Work
You Go, SONNY...

OWADN'T MUCH SENSE
IN HIS KNOB --.

Oa heen

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i)
He WORKED LIKE A Horse
REDUCING THE FORCE. +=

Now BoB 1$ ouT
ut NEWS divi A JoB seen

NOWELL ATT.

wreneannsoquias
ELECTRICAL UNION NEWS

July 15, 1949

We Can Think of a Better Idea!

ae

“It would look like more if

you took it in pennies, .. .

Shop Stewards Handing
Bi-Mor Discount Cards

The union office has received a
number of inquiries from members
who want their Bi-Mor Government
Surplus discount cards,

Exccutive Board members dis-
tributed the discount cards to shop
stewards to give to all members in-
terested in getting them. Anyone
who wants a Bi-Mor card should
ask his steward.

Don't. Be a Free Rider.
Join the Union

ELECTRICAL UNION NEWS

Uniren Execrrioan, Ravio & MacHine
WorkEns of AMERICA, CIO

Scuenectapy GE Locau 301

Published by Editorial Committee

Mary McCartin, Chairman
Arthur R. Bertini, Secretary
~ Willlam Ohristman.- Prank D'Amico
Victor Pasche

Editorial Office t

ELecthicaL UNION News
301 Liberty St,, Schenectady, N. ¥.
Telephone 3-1386

Brewery Strikers Win
37//p Hour Work Week

The Brewery Workers, CIO, has
won an 82 day strike in New York
City with a new agreement provid-
ing a 87% hour week at 40 hours’
pay on a year-around basis for pro-
duction workers.

Another basic demand won was
to have two men on each truck.
Other gains included a $2 across-
the-board pay raise, strengthened
seniority, an additional weck’s va-
cation, preferential hiring and an
industry-wide pension plan, Em-
ployers are to contribute $3 a week
per worker toward the fund.

Base rate for production work-
ers is now $73 weekly; $72 for
drivers and $77.60 for trailer driv-
ers,

Cancer Fund Drive
Collections started in the shops
this week for the annual Cancer
drive, Cans for donations were dis-
tributed to all shop stewards by
the Executive Board members.

Entire 301 Board
Will Take Up MBA

The Local: 301. Executive Board
this week notified Works Manager
Lewis J. Male that the entire
Board will insist on meeting with
him for discussion of the question
of GE sharing the cost of Mutual
Benefit Association benefits.

The Board last month asked for
a meeting with Male on this ques-
tion. During a meeting last week
with the 801 grievance committee
Male inquired just what the union
wanted to take up at the proposed
session on MBA.

Victor Pasche, assistant to. the
business agent, said the
wants to discuss financial partici-
‘pation by GE and joint adminis-
tration of MBA. The Board feels
that under the new state Disability
Law GE should contribute to the
cost of MBA benefits, and not just

“toward "MBA-~--administrative ex-
-penses,

Pasche explained. With
GE contributing, benefits could be
increased and MBA dues lowered,
the Board believes.

Male said he would take up the
question of possible contributions
with his associates and in the near
future would meet with the union
on the matter. He stated, how-
ever, that he didn’t want to meet

with the whole 3801 Board as he

considered it too large for such a
discussion,

The Board has advised Male that
the company should not have any-
thing to say about who represents
the union at a collective bargaining
session,

GE Still Says 'No'
To UE Proposals

(Continued from Page 1)
the MBA plan to meet the state
disability act, GE insists the work-
ers pay the additional cost.

A bulletin from Jandreau on the
negotiations was scheduled to be
read by shop stewards to their
members throughout the works at
lunch hour meetings: yesterday
(Thursday). The bulletin stressed
the fact the negotiations depend on
the: determination of the member-
ship,:because GE will give nothing
unless forced to.do so,

A’special Executive Board com-
mittee this week visited civie lead-
ers in the community to present the
union’s ease in negotiations, and
seek to have these leaders speak

out publicly in favor of the union's .

proposals, in the interest of the
whole community. The committee
includes President Frank Kriss,
Vice-President William G. Hodges,
and Board Members William Mas-
triani, Helen Quirini, James Cog-
netta, and Henry Kaminski, alter-
nate,

Board”

10 p.m. Monday
-WXKW

* Newspapers Twist Facts

Of London Dock 'Strike'

Front page stories in this coun-
try on the “strike” of London dack
workers provide another example
of the distortion of labor news.

Newspapers reported that all
London docks were idle because of
a “strike” of stevedores over a
“Surisdictional dispute between two
Canadian sailors’ unions.” The
British “labor”. government charg-

es the “strike” was fomented ty"
Communists and has ordered soldg™,
jers, sailors and marines to act aXe

strike-breakers.

Actually the situation is a gov-
ernment. lock-out against the dock
workers, not a’ strike, London
stevedores refused to unload two
Canadian ships struck by the Can-
adian Seamen’s Union. The gov-
ernment dock board in London re-
fused to let dockers unload any
other ship unless they first unload-
ed:the struck ships. The stevedores
refused,

The very legitimate strike of the
Seamen's Union is no “jurisdiction-
al dispute’, The Seaman’s Union
of Canada has’ contracts with ship-
ping companies owned by the Can-
adian government. These com-
panies entered into back-doov
agreements with the Seafarer’s In-
ternational Union, which isn’t even
a Canadian union, and forced the
Seaman's Union to strike,

Wear Your Button

Shop stewards’ have received
special UE buttons for all mem-
bers of 301 to wear to back the
union’s contract demands. On the

» buttons is printed “Higher Pay-—
Shorter Hours—Stop Layoffs.”

If you haven’t one of these but-

tons yet, see your steward today,

Save '52-20'

July 25 is the deadline for
saving “52-20”. Unless an ex-
tension bill is passed by then,

ance will die.

Demand that your Congress-
man sign Representative Walter
Huber’s discharge petition to
bring the extension bill to a vote
in the House of Representatives.

veterans’ unemployment mney
, 0 Elizabeth, N. J., where

July 15, 1949

ELECTRICAL: UNION NEWS

New Dispute Develops
Over CarboloySpeed-up

Another carboloy speed-up dis-
pute is moving up the grievance
procedure, because of the com-
pany’s insistence on running work
with carboloy tools at speeds
which experienced lathe operators
feel are dangerous. She

Involved is a two-ton shaft job
in Building 16.
carboloy tools, the company jump-
ed the speed from 30-40 RPM +o
199 RPM. The over-all price was

cut by more than one-half. The

operator who has 16 years’ lathe
experience, insisted he could not
run .the work safely faster than
103 RPM. The operators near him
felt the same way. The union asked
that the price be based on 103
RPM, and that in view of the in-
creased production and effort, the

operator~-sheuld--be—able—to—make=

higher earnings than before on the

b,

Frank Schaaf of the Works
Manager’s office insisted that the
higher speed was safe, and that
therefore the price was satisfac.
tory if the man could make his
past earnings at 199 RPM. The
union grievance committee pointed
out that a time of lay-offs for lack
of work was a poor time to insist
on such a great speed-up. Schaaf
said the machine must be run at
the most “effective” speed. He said
the only difficulty was the “human
factor” involved in the operator’s
fears. He said he wanted the
question discussed further in -the
shop, but that in the meantime he
would not raise the new price to
permit the operator to maintain
his earnings at 103 RPM,

The case has been moved to the
Male level. Board Member Joseph
Kelly and B. L. Fertal, shop stew-
ard on the big lathes in Building
278, represented the union in in-
vestigating the case with the com-
many,

Stockholder Backs
UE Singer Strikers

An 83 year old woman, Miss
Arabella Miller, caused a flurry
among stockholders of the Singer
Company when she turned up ata
recent stockholders’ meeting in
New York City.

As a stockholder she demanded
an accounting by the company of
its failure to settle the UE strike.
She is a prominent resident of
Singer
workers are on strike, After per-
sonally investigating the issues,
she decided that the workers’ posi-
tion is fair and that the company
was unfair in forcing them to con-
tinue the strike.

On changing to’:

Lost Fi inger in Speed-Up

Charles Blumenthal, member of Local 401, UE, displays a special reason
why he’s on strike against the Singer Sewing Machine Co. at Elizabeth,

N. J. .

Recent Developments In Steel Situation

As this paper went to press, it
was impossible to know whether ar
not the scheduled steel strike
would start tomorrow (Saturday)
as previously voted by the United
Steelworkers’ wage policy commit-
tee. 7

Newspaper stories: said that
Philip Murray, president of the
CIO and of the Steelworkers, had
hinted he would accept an adminis-
tration request to postpone the
strike while a government hoard
investigated and made recommen-
dations.

However, before Murray had a
chance to act on the government
proposal, the U. 5. Steel Company
flatly rejected President Truman’s
request that it cooperate with a
fact-finding board outsidé the
Taft-Hartley law. This apparently
gave the steel union no choice other
than to go ahead with its announc-
ed strike. The next question then
is, if the union decides to strike,
will President Truman seek a Taft-

Hartley injuiction against the un-
jon?

In any event, it was clear that
there is no reason to count on a so-
called “wage pattern” to be set this
year by the steel industry in the
immediate future, ‘

In 1947 the pattern was set by
UE. In 1948 it was set by UE and
Auto,

Is Your Shop 100% UE?

Mercury Poisoning
Admitted by GE

In the face of overwhelming evi-
dence presented by Local 801 at a
Workmen’s Compensation hearing
this month, the General Electric
Company has officially acknowledg-
ed that 10 workers in Building 266
are victims of. mercury poisoning.

The company admitted that the
workers were exposed to the pois-
oning because of their work and
that the GE is responsible for loss
of teeth resulting from the poison-
ing.

The admission of responsibility
is a reversal of policy on the part
of GE. The company had contest-
ed the claims filed by the group
through the union during the past
winter.

301 Exposed Conditions

An investigation by the union of

health and working conditions in

. ‘
sthe-merecury—-power:station;-Ruild.—

CCULY POW? Sta

ing 265, revealed last November
that 11 of 89 workers examined
had symptoms of mercury poison-
ing. The union arranged clinical
and laboratory tests for them.

Mercury poisoning in one of
these cases had already been es-
tablished through a Workmen’s
Compensation case handled by the
union’s attorney. A state referee
held GE responsible for loss of the
worker’s teeth. However GE is
now fighting the right of the
worker for additional payments for
other disabilities resulting from the
poisoning,

10 Cases Heard

Testimony in the other 10 cases
was presented by the union July 1
at’a hearing in Schenectady. Wit-
nesses included Shop Steward
Charles Zajan of the mercury pow-
er plant, the workers affected by
the poisoning and a medical ex-
pert,

Although the company acknowl-
edged responsibility for loss of
teeth, in these cases it is still fight-
ing against paying the bill for
other disabilities arising from the
poisoning, either now or in the fu-
ture.

Marshall Perlin, 301 attorney,
handled the cases at the hearing.

gas

NAM Beewscnascssuen eames sss

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