Electrical Union News, 1947 July 11

4

ELECTRICAL UNION. NEWS

July 3, 1947

PAC Program Sent
To All Candidates

The Political Action Committee of Lo-
cal 301 has sent to all candidates for
political office in Schenectady County a
program applying national CIO-PAC
policies to the Schenectady level. Labor
support should not be given to any can-
didate who refuses to support this pro-
gram, the committee points out.

On the basis of replies from the can-
didates and their previous records, the

“PAG ecommmittee: will recommend en-
dorsements to the next 301 mem-
bership meeting. Union members are urg-

“ed to vote for PAC endorsed candidates
in the primary elections July 29,

PAG Meeting

The program was drawn up at a mect-
ing June 26 of the PAC committee es-
tablished by the membership meeting
dune 17. The group consisted of the
president, Andrew Peterson; the vice-
president, William Hodges; the treas-

‘ urer, Marshall White; the recording sec-
retarv, Helen Quirini, and the chief stew-
ard, William Mastriani, Leo Jandreau,
business agent, was absent because of
iNness,

Under membership instructions, the
PAC committee urged that all candi-
dates asking labar support seek nomina-
tion in all three recognized parties, Re-
publican, Democratic and American La-
bor Party.

The program declares that passage of
the Taft-Hartley bill makes it urgent for
the people to organize to elect gennine

representatives of the people and to se- ,

eure sound legislative action, such as
the repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act.

“Tt means fighting for a return to gov-
ernment for all the people, workers,
farmers, small business and professivnal

a —pedple,-instead- of-government-in--the_in-
terest of Big Business. It means a re-

turn to the Roosevelt policy of Big Three
unity and unity of the peoples of the
world in opposition to blocs.”

: Local Program

Points stressed on the Schenectady
city, town and county level include:

Reduce the outrageously high assess-
ments and taxes on small home owners
by placing the proper tax load on big
industry, such as GE and ALCO.

Repeal the anti-sound truck ordinance
and guard against other infringements
of civil liberties. ;

Increase the pay of city and county
employes.

Develop immediate, self-supporting
municipal housing programs in Schenec-
tady.
“ Bnact a‘ local anti-discrimination law.

301 Check for $100 Aids CIO Baseball Factory Strike

President Andrew
Peterson gives
a 301 check for
$100 to
Mrs. Viola Devine,
president of
Local 574, Textile
Workers Union
of America,
on strike against
the Wilson Athletic
Goods Mfg. Co.
Peterson and
other 301 members
joined the picket
line,

Saratoga Eagles Request
Taft-Hartley Bill Veto

Aerie 2586, Fraternal Order of Eagles,
of Saratoga Springs voted unanimously
to ask President Truman to veto the
Taft-Hartley Bill and to ask U. S. Sen-
ator Irving M. Ives and Congressman
Dean Taylor to uphold the veto. Donald
R. MacDowell, secretary of Aerie 2586,
and member of Local 801, sent the tele-
grams.

Recovering from lilness
Leo Jandreau, 301 business agent, is

. recovering from an ‘illness at Ellis Hos-

pital. His progress is reported as godd. -

Stewards to Hear
Dermody Report

Joseph Dermody, secretary of
the GE Conference Board of UE,
will address the Local 301 stewards’
meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at
the union hall. He will report on
the Conference Board’s meeting
in New York. It will be the first
meeting of the stewards since the
enactment of the Taft-Hartley law.

Under a new provision of the
local constitution, a steward will
be dropped as a steward if he miss-
es two meetings without a valid
excyse,

Field Day Combines
Speeches With Fun

(Continued from Page 1)

grand prize. John J. Battaling, 301
member in Bldg. 42, was the winner. The
other two major prizes also went to un-
ion members: a refrigerator to John Pot-
pinka, Bldg. 278, and a radio to Stella
Krawiecki, Bldg. 42,

Joseph. Dominelli acted as referee for
boxing and wrestling bouts and Vincent
lovenelli as timekeeper. Each bout end-
ed in a draw.

Union Men in Contests

Wrestling bouts were between Steve
Budynas, 801 member in Bldg. 17, and
Don De Gennaro, and between Tony
Czban, 301 member in Bldg. 17, and Ed
Travers, 801 member in Bldg. 42. The
boxing featured Patsy Sarruth against
Jimmy Anderson, and Tony Barone
against Leo Montenaro, 301 member in
Bldg: 77.

The Local 301 checker champion, Joc
Scardino, of Bldg. 28 played “82 games

-at a -time,. going from board to board.

He won 28 games, tied two games and
lost two: games in one hour and 66 min-
utes, .

The program included pony rides,
games and movies for children, dancing,
refreshments and other entertainment.
The Activities Committee of which
George Judway is chairman reported
that over 12,000 tickets were sold.

NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE
GE 100 PER CENT UNION!

ABMS AS ESTATE FATT I TPCT TTF RO TOE
‘ zh . ‘

THE VOICE OF THE. UNITED. ELECTRICAL, RADIO & MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA—LOCAL 301 CIO

Vol, 5—No. 25 ©

SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK.

July [1, 1947

Stewards Approve
Conference Report

The need of tightening the union ma-
chinery in the face of the Taft-Hartley
Act.and of uniting the membership was
emphasized in a report on the recent GE
Conference Board of UE approved by
the 301 Stewards’ meeting Tuesday night
and the Executive Board.

The report was made by President
Andrew Peterson and Treasurer Mar-
shall White, local representatives at the
New York session.

“The fight against the Taft-Hartley
Act ‘will of course come in political ac-
tion in 1948,” they said, “in fighting for
the election of a President and a Con-

Marshall White

gress who will return the country to the
people, But the ability of the Jabor move-
ment to win such a fight in 1948 will de-
pend on our day-to-day work, in every
department, in every plant, in the com-
munity and in political action.”

The Conference Board urged that locals
complete full organization of their
plants. j

“Emphasis was also. placed on strict
contract enforcement,” it was reported,
“on careful preparation of grievances,
tightening up of the shop steward sys-
tem, fighting for a fair rate structure in
every plant, as we are doing here, and
defeating all attempts of factional ele-
ments to destroy the unity of our mem-
bership and consciously or unconsciously
allow the company to dominate this
union.” ‘

Recommendations adopted Tuesday in-
cluded:

That all stewards and members*be

Andrew Peterson

w

re

301 Meeting to Elect

Convention Delegates

Delegates to the national UE
convention at Boston Sept: 22-26 .
will be elected at the Local 301 °°
membership meeting at 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, July 15, at the union hall. -

Reports will be made on the re-
cent meeting of the General Elec-
trie Conference Board of UR by
the local representatives. The lo-
cal’s PAC program will also be
discussed,

301 Presses Grievances
Over GE Hiring System

Individual complaints of members who
were not given a chance to return or ad-
vance to high-rated jobs, while new men
were hired for such jobs, are now be-
ing processed as individual grievances by
the union. .

Many new men have been hired re-
cently for skilled jobs. “Under the con-
tract, workers who had been transferred
off such jobs for lack of work, and work-
ers who could qualify for such jobs, are
entitled to the better openings in pref-
erence to men hired “off the street.”

Good News

Business Agent Leo Jandveau’s condi-
tion continues to“improve. He has been
discharged from Hillis Hospital and is
now convalescent at home.

warned against taking any undisciplined
action. This.does not mean less militancy.
It means that necessary militant action
will be the result of careful membership
consideration. ”

Neither does this mean that stewards
should be less vigilant in pressing griev-
ances. On the contrary, it becomes more
important than ever that the utmost ef-
fort be made to win grievances atthe
first level by proper preparation and
pressure.

That Local 301 press the current fight
for a sound wage structure for this
plant,

That the local “push energetically our
political action program, :

GE Breaks Word
About Carboloy
Speed-up Prices

Schenectady GE workers got their first
taste of the Taft-Hartley law last week,
when the company announced it would
put new carboloy speed-up prices into
effect in Foreman Barney Gardenier’s
department in the Turbine Division, de-
spite its previous agreement not to
change prices until the issue was thresh-
ed out with the national’ management.

The prices had been held up for four
months pending the national discussion,
and Local 801 had been waiting for al-
most three months for a meeting at that
level on the question, Hight days after
the Taft-Hartley bill had become law
A. C. Stevens, assistant to the general
superintendent, notified William J. Kelly,
301 assistant to the business agent, that
the company considered the new prices
a “local issue.” Foreman Gardenier noti-
fied Steward Roy Lash that the prices
would go into effect July 14 (next Mon-
day). The company sent word to the
union that if any stoppage developed,
the leaders would be fired.

In another department of the Turbine
Division, Foreman James ‘Hotaling in-
sisted on complete new time studies on

slotter work last week, on a fimsy-

“change of niethod” excuse (See separate
story in this paper).
Want Formula Revised

In the carboloy case, the immediate
prices offered on the disputed “stud” job
are not the present issue, because of the
demand of all the Turbine Division
stewards and membership that the price-
setting formula for all such jobs be first
revised to permit “the possibility of a
reasonable increase in earnings” because
of the increased strain on the operators
from the speed-up.

In a registered letter to Stevens July
3, Kelly pointed out that the notice of
price change last week violated the con-
tract grievance procedure, as the case
was pending at the national level. Kelly:
further pointed out that in meetings with
the special Turbine Division Committee,

(Continued on Page 8)

_ ELECTRICAL UNION. NEWS.

vo July TL, 1947.

UE will Avoid New Labor Board As Unfair;
Steelworkers Adopt Same Policy on NLRB

The national UE will by-pass the new National Labor. Relations Board set up

by the Taft-Hartley law.

The General Executive Board of UE has advised UE locals “to submit no issue”

to the new NLRB. Similar action was taken by the United Steelworkers of -Am-

erica and several other CIO unions.
avoid the NLRB. :

The UE declared that the Taft-Hartley
law destroyed the NLRB as:an instru-
ment protecting the rights of employees
and changed the Wagner Act and the
Board into instruments of oppression
against workers’ rights.

The Taft-Hartley Act was written to

make the NLRB an instrument for med-':

dling in the affairs of unions that may
come before it, the UE statement said.
Stacked Against Unions

“Nothing but injury ean result to the
interests of the membership of any union
that takes a seat in this crooked game,
where the rules are rigged and the dice
are loaded against them.

“Accordingly, it shall be UE policy to
submit no issue to the determination of
the Taft-Hartley board, nor in any other
manner, upon union initiative, to step
among the snares and pitfalls that the
NAM authors of the law have spread
for labor’s feet.”

The UE General Executive Board stat-
ed, “we join with the CIO in. declaring
that.we intend to comply, as in the past,
with the provisions of our union con-
tracts’—contracts which cover workers
of more than 1,300 plants coast to coast.

“At the same tinie we intend that em-

ployers also shall comply and we will,

fight if necessary to see that they do.”

“Tf any contracts are breached and
abrogated, it will be done by the deliber-
ate choice of employers, not by this
union.

“In such cases we are confident that
our membership will find. means to: pro-
tect their rights. Under the Taft-Hart-
ley Act some employers may regard un-
ion contracts as instzuments to be brok-
en where they benefit workers, and only
to. be appealed to as excuses under the
law for repressive action against work-
ers,””

ELECTRICAL UNION NEWS

Unirep Exvrorriaat, Rapio & MacHing
Workers or America, CIO-
Scuunzerapy GE Locan 301

<a
Published by the Editorial Committee
William Templeton, Chairman
Mary McCartin, Secretary
Willard Kuschel Victor Pasche.
Leland Sisto

Editorial Office - Electrical Union News
301 Liberty St. + Schenectady, N. ¥.

Lames SCHENECTADY PRINTING GO. ING.

Indications are that AFL unions will also

Enforcing Contract
Is Vital to Union

The union will develop the kind of
fight needed to meet the present situ-
ation, and this fight by labor will lead
to the repeal of the Taft-Hartley law,
Joseph Dermody, secretary of the GH
Conference Board of UE, told the 801
Stewards’ Council Tuesday night.

; “We will‘ have
to do a good day-
to-day job of en-
forcing the con-
tract,” Dermody
said. “If we are

unable- to-- get-—a-

settlement, the
membership § will
consider using

our economic

strength. But we
want everybody
to follow the con-
tract procedure so
as not to invite lawsuits.”

Dermody said that the new ‘situation
faced by the union was the Taft-Hartley
law and the attitude of company: offic-
ials. He declared that GE is part of a
monopoly trying to get control of the
whole electrical industry, and that to
do this it wants to cut costs, and the
union. is an obstacle to such cuts. He
pointed out that the union had always
been extremely’ reasonable, had «not: op-
posed increased production or technologi-
cal changes, but had simply insisted on
protecting the workers’ living standards.

The company wants a union it can
control, Dermody said, and that is why

J. Dermody

it engages in a campaign slandering the |

union,

Big Attendance

Maybe the unusually big attendance at
the stewards’ meeting Tuesday night was
due to interest in the report on the Taft-
Hartley law. Or maybe it had some-
thing to do with the new provision in the

- 01 constitution — that a steward will

be dropped as a steward if he misses
two meetings without a valid excuse.
Whatever the reason, the turnout was

the largest in months.

Taft Hartley Law

Speeds Depression

Because of the passage of the Taft-
Hartley bill, the forces making for a
depréssion are vastly strengthened.
Russ Nixon, UE Washington represen-
tative, points this out in his weekly news
letter.

“The ability of the people to make
ends meet, already weakened by remov-
al of price controls, will be ‘greatly
hampered by monopoly’s latest attempt
to destroy collective bargaining.”

With. profits continuing to set new
records, while ‘the people’s purchasing

power steadily falls, a
depression is made in-
‘evitable, Nixon de-
clared.

“The Taft - Hartley
bill is not a blow just

at ‘labor’. It is’a blow:

against the welfare of
all the American peo-
$ ple, 90 percent of whom
work for wages and salaries.

“Tt is a blow especially at-the-mer-
chants and other small business men of
the nation whose business depends on
labor having adequate purchasing pow-
er. It is a blow especially at the farm-
ers whose incomes depend on labor's
earnings as their crops depend on rain.

“The Taft-Hartley bill is the fixst blow
of a “one-two” punch which the Na-
tional Association of Manufacturers, act-
ing through Congress, is throwing at

the American people. First they hope’

to knock out labor. Then they intend to
hit the farmers,
“The corporations have a program for
American agriculture. You can read it
n “Life” for May 5, 1947: they want to
see two-thirds of our family farms li-
quidated and most of the people on them

moved -into the cities, te add to the great

reservoir of unemployed labor.”

GE Cuts Rates
At Ohio Plant

One of the newest GE plants, in Tiffin,
Ohio, with about 1,000 workers, was
among the first to feel the company’s
attitude since the Taft-Hartley bill be-
came the Taft-Hartley law. The local
there reported to the national UE office
that there had been a general cutting of
piece work rates this week. Under the
piece work system in effect in that plant,
the cut took the form of increasing by
40 to 50 percent the “quotas” required
to make the job rate.

The entire day shift-was reported to
have stopped work Tuesday in protest.

—July-H- 1947

ELECTRICAL UNION NEWS

3

Interesting Angles
On Anti-Union Law

‘Information about the effect of the
Taft-Hartley law on the union was
brought. back from. the meeting of the

GE Conference Board of UE by the 801
representatives.

Although the law is the Spat inelu-
sive and clever law ever devised to at-
tack working people,” it does not mean
workers can ‘no ‘longer fight for their
unions.

“Jt only means that we have to con-
duct our fight. much more carefully, in
such a way as to have the least possible
trouble as the result of the law. It also
means. that the fight will be much

-harder.”.

GE Contract Legal

“The 1947 contract is a valid legal con-
tract in every respect and we must in-
sist on its enforcement and observance
by both sides. While this includes the

“present union maintenance of member-

ship and check-off, we must-be prepared

* for the fact that in order to obtain main-

tenance of membership for 1948 we
would have to get a special labor board
election which would require months,
even years of delay. We must also look
forward to the possibility, in view of the
company’s attitude, that it will refuse
to.renew the agreement and that next
year we may be of necessity working
without an agreement. This would be a
situation new.-t0 this union, but one
which has existed on many occasions for
other unions, and which may be a lot
better than a contract which serves prin-
cipally as a basis for prosecution and
lawsuits against the union.”

NLRB ‘Employer Agency’
The report pointed out that the Na-

‘ tional Labor Relations Board will be

strictly an employer agency to prosecute
unions. Employers and .supervisors can
intimidate workers and fire them for
union activities as long as they find some
supposed “cause” for the firing.

The law opens unions to all kinds of
lawsuits for breach of contract and
makes the union responsible even if it
didn’t authorize a stoppage. This is an
invitation to employers to use stool
pigeons to promote stoppages. It makes
it very important that there be no un-
disciplined action by any group.The law-
suits under the law are directed against
the union treasury and not the individual
member,

“Under the GE contract, the union still
has the right to strike when the griev-
ance procedure has been exhausted with-

out bringing about.a settlement. of the

301 Board Member Turns Newsboy

Leland Sisto,
Executive Board
member, is at
the plant gates
every Friday
handing out the
kU News.
He is shown
giving a copy to
Helen Nichols
of Bldg. 269

--Union Goésto Bat >
Over Holiday Pay

Holiday pay’ grievances filed by the
union include the case of a worker
stranded in Plattsburgh: last Sunday
night because a crowded bus passed him
by. He and a large group of other
would-be passengers had to wait for a
Monday morning train. For failure to
report to work that morning, GE refused
to give him his Fourth of July pay. The
man still has his unused bus ticket. .
- Another case involves a worker who
had to appear at a naturalization hear-
ing the Monday after Memorial Day and
also had to keep an appointment at the
Veterans’ Bureau in Watervliet about
his teeth. Both his foreman and: his
superintendent” gave’ him permission in
advance to be absent, he reported. Nev-
ertheless his Memorial Day pay was
withheld.

The union is also trying to get Me-
morial Day pay for another veteran who
was notified by the Veterans Bureau to
appear at Watervliet Monday, June 2,
on a disability claim.

Veterans' Center

The 301 Veterans’ Center is open trom
1 to 5 p. m. every Tuesday and Friday
at the union hall,

grievance. However, any such action
should be carefully considered as the re-
sponsibility of the whole local union as
well as the international and the GE Con-
ference Board.” -

| Company Breaks Word
About Carboloy Prices

(Continued from Page 1)

Stevens had agreed on February 27, and
Louis Male, general superintendent, had
re-affirmed on March 6, that there would
be no change in price until the general
issue of the pricing basis was settled at
the national level. He called on the com-
pany to abide by the agreement. Joseph
Dermody, secretary of the GE Confer-
ence Board of UE, arranged a special
meeting on the question with George
Pfeif of the national GE office for yes-
terday. A Turbine Division sub-commit-
tee of three, headed by Board Member
William Stewart, was scheduled to be
there.

In a letter received Wednesday, Stevens
denied that the company had agreed not
to change prices perding: the national
discussion. The agreement was made by
him and Male before a committee of 10
from the Turbine Division. Stevens’ let-
ter told Kelly “you have made several
previous references to such an agree-
ment.” But the company did not deny
the agreement until after the Taft-
Hartley bill was passed. There had been
no word from the “company since the
Terbine Division memhership’s resolu-
tion was sent to Stevens and to Vice-
President E. D. Spicer on April 24.

Leland Stowe on Air

Don’t forget the weekly UE radio
program presenting Leland Stowe, news
commentator, It’s at 7:30 p.m. every
Wednesday on WSNY, on WABY and
on WBCA (FM).