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IUE-CIO NEWS
Published by IUE-CIO , atta
“IN UNION
THERE IS
_ STRENGTH”.
IUE-CIO NEWS June 7, 1951
UE FLOPS MISERABLY IN ATTEMPT TO BREAK UP ~~
| ORGANIZATION FORMED AT MAQUA
There is a plant in Schenectady where women are hired for a wage of 75 cents an hour, and
where they are forced to work for months, in some cases years, without an increase. The top C)
Volume 1 No. 12: 202 Clinton Street. June 18, 4951
rate for women in this plant is $1.15. an hour. : .
The plant is owned outright by GE, and, in fact, is listed by GE as one of its departments.
That plant is the Maqua Printing Co.
Years ago, all the workers in the various printing crafts were organized by various craft
unions. But no organization offered a helping hand to the production workers, who are for
the most part women.
UE, which has had bargaining rights at the main GE plant for 14 long years, never raised
a hand to offer help to these workers. ; .
Then a group of these workers voluntarily came to IUE-CIO, to ask for help in organizing.
They were determined to take action to better their pay and working conditions.
In just two days, that group signed up enough members so that IUE-CIO was able to peti-
tion for an-election. That's when UE reared its ugly head. William Mastrianni, that stalwart
- of American Labor Party infamy, and.a group of paid UE agents, spent a whole day before
the gates. of Maqua in an effort to win support. Mastrianni was told by the workers that they
wanted an American union, not a Communist union. Then UE put out a lying leaflet. When
the workers saw that it was UE literature in an envelope, they collected copies, and sent
them right back to the UE stooges who put them out. :
UE held its June ‘membership meeting last night. About 80 members, including stewards |
and officers, were. present. The main topic of discussion was the Maqua Co., which UE has
ignored for 14 long years. UE members were told to do all in their power to stop Maqua
workers from organizing in the ClO. That's the kind of unionism UE preaches.
The Communist UE, «which once
pointed to Erie, Pa. as one of its
strongholds, has suffered another blow
in that city,
One of its last locals there, at the
Erie Resistor Co. is lost ‘to UE for-
ever. In an NLRB election held last
week, IUE-CIO received 446 votes, [AM
received 349 votes, and the Communist
UE came in a very. weak third, polling
a mere 124 votes. .
There will be a run-off between IUE-
CIO and IAM to determine the bar-
gaining agency.
This leaves UE with practically noth-
ing in Erie, for its local at the GE
works there is falling apart rapidly,
and its only other local, at the Penn
Union Co., voted to disafiliate from UE
and join IUE-CIO just last week.
IUE-CIO now represents some 325,
000 workers in plants throughout the
country, and with the destruction of
UE's control in New York City it is ob-
UE officers did manage to discuss some business which concerned their own local. They ad-) j= ey that the days of Communist con-
mitted that UE went info debt to the amount of $1,500.00 on the dance held recently.
UE doesn't practice unionism--but it does practice union-busting.
In the past year and a half, IUE-CIO has met UE on equal ground in plant after plant thro-
—ughout the nation. In every case the workers at the plant decided which organization they
wanted. In an overwhelming majority of these plants, IUE-CIO has been victorious. IUE-CIO
is preparing now to meet this outfit again in Schenectady, and let the workers be the jud-
ges. IUE-CIO is not afraid of that, nor is it afraid to meet UE and let Maqua workers decide
which organization is best. IUE-ClO is not afraid. for UE's record is aqainst it!
IF YOU HAVE NOT SIGNED FOR AN ELECTION THIS YEAR, SIGN THE APPLICA-
TION BELOW.
- “Bmployed bye :
GE. Plant, Schenectad
Department
SEND IT TO IUE-CIO, 202 CLINTON STREET, SCHENECTADY.
International Union of Electrical,
Radio and Machine Workers—ClO
I want to join with 70,000 other General Electric employees who
have affiliated with the International Union of Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers—-C]O, which has won greatly improved contract con-
ditions including a recent wage increase—the third that IUE-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 prior authorization)
ty
Signature:
Received by
\_Abl of electrical workers are numbered.
The’ Schenectady GE works now re-
presents UE’s last stronghold, with
Erie running a weak second.
IUE-CIO’s election triumph at Emer-
son Radio, Jersey City, opened the way
for IUE-CIO to. take over UE’s last
group in the Metropolitan: New York
area, Local 4380.
While UE is falling apart, [UE-CIO
is growing more solid every day. IUE-
CIO has not lost a single union shop
vote. To date, some 80,000 workers have
yoted in these union security elections,
and despite drawbacks, IUE-CIO has
receiver 80 per cent of the votes cast--
far above the national average. In
most major union shop elections for
IUE-CIO, UE has campaigned, along
with the companies, for a no union vote.
The best example of this took place at
the big RCA plant in Camden, Ni J,
where UE used every weapon at its
command to inspire a no union vote. The
results, 5,170. for a union. shop, and 1,
088 against shows. that UE failed in
this “effort.
IUE-CIO’s. victory over UE at Pre-
Ne Vacunm, Toronto, Canada, gives
wJH-CIO four GE plants in Canada,
JUE-CIO has filed a petition for a re-
presentation election among 3,700 ‘pro-
_ duetion workers at GE's largest Cana-
dian plant. in Peterborough. IUE-CIO
victory in this plant will’ mean certain
defeat for the UE and the Communist
Party throughout Canada,
OY, oe | | |
“UE GOES DOWN TO DEFEAT IN ERIE
SHOP TALK
The General Electric Co. is up to its
old tricks, of saving pennies at the ex-
pense of the workers. In. order to avoid
paying six days’ of. vacation pay to
workers who have been on a. six-day
schedule for some time, the company
‘has cut most of these workers to a five
day schedule during that period on
which vacation .pay. will be computed..
Vital defense work may be slowed down
as a result, but GE is more interested
in saving a few dollars than in helping
the nation’s defense effort---at least
“that's the way it looks to a casual ob-
server. A good example of this is in
Building 69, but it is not exclusive to
that building,
Art Rost, Sr. of Building 16 went fish-
ing last week and came home bragging,
or complaining, that he caught a “UE
pike.” That's a pike that’s small, weak
and not fit to keep! In fact, the govern-
ment has a law against keeping small,
weak pike--just as it doesn't allow a
small, Communist union, the UE, in
atomic energy plants.
The Electrical Union News is getting
its figures slightly mixed these days.
UE says [UE-CIO has exactly 94-mem-
bers at the Knolls Atomic Power Lab-
oratory. The officers of the [UE-CIO
Atomic Local will show anyone who is
interested that 360 Atomic Lab Work-
ers are paying dues to- IUE-C10O. That's
85 per cent of those eligible to belong,
since there are some 425 workers in the
production and = maintenanee unit at
Knolls Two. Here's how UE. got mixed
up. IUE-CIO also represents the office
workers in Erie. On several occasions,
UF put out the lying propaganda that
IUE-CIO. had only 94 dues-paying mem-
bers among Erie office workers. So,. in
its frantic searching for a new lie, UE
saw a piece of their own propaganda,
and just mixed the locals a bit. That's
one way of mis-informing the member-
ship,
Al Dorries of the second shift, Build-
“ing 15 says, “The UE dopesheet for May
25 makes. the Knight of the Air Hose
Mastrianni a charter member of the UL.
_- wonder what. some_of the. other old=..,
timers, like myself,.and what some: of |
our: first. committeemen “have- to: say
about that. The: Knight of, the ‘Airhose -
was first heard. of when he signed a pe-'
tition to, put the Communist Party on
the ballot in New York State, and that
Was years after the Union was founded.
He along with. Friedlander and some
imported party boys are not the ones
who. built the union, They are the ones
“who made a Communist:-cesspool out
of it!”
Over in Building 18, UE stewards
never seem to have time to fight out:a
grievance, but they certainly have been
doing all right with the water. fights
lately, Such recreation is O. K., but
there’s a time and place for every-
thing!
_ Office Service workers ‘ont of Build-
ing 12 are really taking a beating these
days. These women don't even have time
for a five minute rest period, and on
‘many, days they don’t have time to
wash up before going home. This is due
to unequal distribution of work, but the
steward there isn’t doing anything
about it. Steward Ricciardi has plenty
of time for conversation, and for per-
sonal business, so he doesn’t worry
* about the department too much. But the
floor lady over there threatens the girls
‘with a week off if she so much as sees
them using the telephone. The girls
think a new steward, or even better, a
new union, would help them a lot!
GE workers were subjected last week
to a propaganda blitz by the Communist
Party. Not one, but three pieces of lit-
earature were put out at certain gates
by the Party boys and girls. The Party
was crying because its top leaders, 11 of
them, were sentenced by the Supreme
Court. This, cries the party, is an
abridgement of the right of free speech.
Every. good American holds dear the
right to free speech, and every good
American knows that if the Stalinists
had their way, there would be no free
specch at all in America. That’s why the
sentence of these top Party leaders was
upheld. These traitors to. America got
just what they deserved - - for their
objective was, and is , to set up another
Russia in* America. Another piece of
Commie literature praised Russia be-
cause in ,Russia you can buy 50: or 60
different kinds’ of sausage, What the
don't follow the:.party-line .in Russia,
yowre likely to be ground up into sau-
sage. That's why: they've got so many
brands, =~ os
Party . doesn’t... tell -you,.is. that if you |
