Electrical Union News, 1947 November 7

4

ELECTRICAL UNION NEWS

October 31, 1947

Jandreau Reelected
UE District Head

Leo Jandreau, business agent of Local
301, was unanimously reelected presi-
dent of UE District 3 at the district con-
vention last’: weekend at Jamestown. As
district head, he continues as an inter-
national UE vice-president.

Jerold Mooney, Local 501, Buffalo, for-
mer district vice-president, was elected
secretary-treasurer and automatically
becomes District 3’s
second member of
the UE General Ex-
ecutive Board. Mon-
roe Milliman, Local
318, Syracuse, was’
chosen _ vice - presi-
dent. Charles Rivers,
Local 316, Pough-
keepsie, was.  re-
elected executive
secretary. Andrew
Peterson, Local 301
president, was one
of seven other dele-
gates elected to the
district executive
board..

The District Council approved the ac-
tions and policies. of the national UE
convention. The officers’ report showed
that during the past year UE won over
$18,000,000 in wage increases in the dis-
trict plus over $2,000,000 in holiday pay.
UE membership increased 85 per cent
during the year in the district,

Leo Jandreau

Insist Company Offset

'Profit-Sharing' Loss

The GE Conference Board of UE, rep-
resenting (all GE locals, will meet next
Thursday and Friday in New York City
to start discussing 1948 contract pro-
posals. .

The Executive Board has instructed
the Local 301 representatives to make
sure the proposals drafted include a‘ de-
mand for GE to pay its workers some
form of compensation to offset the loss
of “profit-sharing” payments. Andrew
Peterson, Leo Jandreau and Marshall
White are the 801 representatives,

GE recently announced it will abolish
the “profit-sharing” plan under which it
distributed $3,000,000 among its 160,000
employes earlier this year.

But Charles E. Wilson, GE president,
admitted no change is being considered
in the “extra compensation” plan for
GE exccutives. That's the plan which
added $90,000 to Wilson’s base pay of
$108,000 last year.

30! Lawyer Announces
Regular Office Hours

Leon Novak, 301 lawyer, now has reg-
ular office hours during which Local 301
members can consult him on workmen’s
compensation cases,
from 2 to 5 p.m,
every Monday thru
Thursday, at the UE
District 8 office, 271
State St., Room 8.

Members of the
local can make ap-
pointments with him
for other hours by
contacting the 801
office. .He was re-
tained by the local
to handle workmen’s compensation cases
for members free of charge and also to
press their unemployment insurance
claims. .

Leon Novak

How to Make Friends
And Get Suggestions

Victor Siebeck, toolmaker on develop-
ment work in Bldg. 10C, has turned in
several suggestions that are being used
but has received no award from GE. | *

When the union brought up the mat. -
ter in Bldg. 41, A. C. Stevens, assistant
to the weneral superintendent, defended
the action—or lack of action—of the
Suggestion Committee. The union asked
that the case be moved to the Howell
level, but Stevens said it was “not ne-
gotiable,”

Company personnel and publicity ex-
perts shouldn’t be surprised if there’s a
lot of snickering in Bldg. 19C next time
GE runs one of those expensive ads
about suggestion awards and making

jobs “deeply satisfying.”

Glenville Candidates

In the town of Glenville, Local 301 sup-
ports William Hodges, left,. its vice-
president, running for supervisor on the
ALP ticket, and Frank Parker, right
Democratic and ALP candidate for town
superintendent of highways.

ey

GE Claims Power
To Fire at Will

During . arbitration proceedings over
the firing of a worker at the General
Electric lamp plant at Newark, N. adiy
GE executives made: two policy state-
ments which threaten the wage rate and
job security of GE employes throughout
the country. The union attacked both
statements vigorously.

Company spokesmen said. that all ele.
ments of ,a job need not be in the de-
scription the company submits to the
union .and on which wage rates are es-
tablished, but that the description.. is
merely for “identification” of the wirk~
et’s job. The union pointed out that un-
der the contract the union must be. in-

« formed of any change or addition to the

Job description and that the company
cannot on its own add an important part
to the job.

The company made a sweeping claim

_about being able to discharge anyone un-

der “management prerogative.’ The GI
position was that a worker who met his
quota, but who despite that fact was
“less efficient” than another worker,
could be fired without the union having
any right to arbitration.

Any discharge is the proper subject of
grievance procedure, the union insisted.
Otherwise, management could fire any-
one it pleased without the workers hav-
ing any protection.

The dismissal of Mrs. Felicia Carter,
shop steward at the Newark plant, is the
first national case the UE has succeeded
in getting GE to submit to arbitration.
The union charges that Mrs. Carter was
fired because of her active record as a
steward. The company has produced a

battery of lawyers and officials, including .
J. W. Burnison, to try to show she was -

careless or incompetent.

Leo Jandreau has been attending the
arbitration hearing’ which was scheduled
to continue yesterday.

CIO Float

The Executive Board voted Monday
to cooperate with other CIO unions in
sponsoring a CIO float in the F
Train parade tomorrow.

“eur, Helen Quirini “and William Hodges

were named as the:801 committee.

UE Strike at Hudson

About 200 UE .members.at the Me-
Call Refrigerator Compan Poughkeep-

:
‘sie, are on strike because the company

refused to negotiate a proposed “pay
raise. They walked out last week.

€

ELECTRICAL

THE VOICE OF LOCAL 30!

ULE. R. & M. WA.

C1. 0.

Vol. 5 — No. 42

SCHENECTADY, ‘NEW YORK

November -7, 1947

— 301 Food Center In New Location

Starting today, the Local 301 food store is in a new location, at 1027 Stz ie St. The
picture: shown here was taken in the old store in South Church St. /3ehind the

eounter, left to right: James Cognetta, chairman of the Local’301 Food Price Com-
mittee; Marshall White, 301 treasurer; Sam DeCesare, and Andrew Peterson, 301

president,

Union Store Now
Has Canned Goods

The Food Center of Local 301 moved
this weék to larger quarters at 1027
State St, just below Brandywine Ave.
It will be open there from 9 am. to 8
p.m. today and from 9 am. to 6 p.m.

tomorrows ~*~

The garage building which the center
now occupies in upper State St. has
better facilities in every way than the
old place in South Church St., in addi-
tion to more space. What’s more, there
is heat!

. More Parking Space

James Cognetta, chairman of the Food

Price Committee, also pointed out that

there’s plenty of space to park automo-
biles at the new site,

The other big piece of news this week
in connection with the Food Center is
that large supplies of canned goods will
be on hand. They are Co-op brand,

Last week the store was able to get a
few cases of peas, peaches, tuna fish and
soup. These canned goods were quickly
snapped up,

Variety of Canned Food

Today union members and their fam-
ilies can buy cans of green peas, corn,
green beans, pork and beans, orange
‘Juice, tomato juice, evaporated milk,
graded tuna fish, peaches, cranberry
sauce, pumpkin, tomato soup, vegetable
soup, chicken soup, vegetable and beet:

(Continued on Page 4)

301 Candidates

Successful In |
Many Contests

All Republican and Democratic candi-
dates endorsed by 301-PAC were elected
to office Tuesday with two minor ex-
ceptions.

In the Fifth Ward, the union endorsed
both Mrs. Ethel Etkin,_ Republican. and-
ALP, who was elected supervisor, and
her opponent, Fred Cameron, Democratic
candidate, a member of 301.¢The other
exception was in the race for superin-
tendent of highways, town of Glenville.
The~-union-éndorsed candidate, F¥ank
Parker, running on the Democratic and

_ ALP tickets, was not elected.

The successful Republican and Demo-
cratic candidates backed by Local 801
also van on the ALP slate.

Leo H, Vosburg, Republican, who has
been outspoken in his support of the
801-PAC program, was top vote-getter
in the county. He was reelected county
commissioner of public ‘welfare,

“Alheim-Beats Riley

William Alheim, Republican, Local 301
member running for reelection as super-
visor in Rotterdam with PAC endorse-
ment, defeated James Riley, GE foreman,
who worked in the plant during the
strike, Alheim’s victory was outstanding
as the two Republican candidates for
councilman were defeated. ; a

Another 801 member, Shop “Steward
Roy Hamilton, Democrat, was elected
Rotterdam councilman with the backing
of the union.

The union’s political action caused the
defeat of Supervisor Arthur Wright,
Republican, running for reelection in the
Tenth Ward. During the strike at GE
in 1946 Wright, a member of 801, voted
against a resolution introduced in the
Board of Supervisors urging GE to
settle the strike. Because of this record,
an ALP candidate was nominated with
PAC support. The ALP vote would have
been enough to elect Wright over Joseph
Donnan, Democrat, who won the super-
visor’s seat,

There were other cases-where the lack
of ALP support defeated. candidates. The
Democrats could have carried all four
city councilmen contests, instead of only”

(Continued on Page 2)

2

‘ iv
Recep aus

Workers Vote UE
Despite T-H Law .

In spite of the Taft-Hartley Law, work-
ers in 11 plants recently chose UE as
their collective bargaining agent through
elections and card checks. In winning

’ these. victories, UE by-passed the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board completely,
in line with the policy adopted by the
UE convention. The United Steelwork-
ers of America and many other unions
are following this same policy because
the NLRB is entirely an employer’s ma-
chine under the Taft-Hartley set-up.

A five-day strike for union recognition

at the M. Linkman and Co., Chicago, re-
sulted in.management’s agreeing to a
eard.check. UE showed an overwhelm-
ing majority.
--After—a--three-week -strike-for-recog-
nition, UE workers at William Crabb
Co., Newark, N. J., won a consent elec-
tion conducted by’ the State Mediation
Board.

- Other. elections were won at the RCA
plant cafeteria, Lancaster, Pa.; Stuart-
‘Oliver Holtz Co., Rochester; Taller and
Cooper Co., New York City (technical
employes); Universal Industries Co.,
Braddock, Pa.; American Steel Chase
Co., Long Island City; the service shop
of P. R. Mallory Co., Detroit, and the
Pioneer Alloy Products, Cleveland. Card
checks were won at Sterling Plastics Co.,
New York, and Trico Stamping Co., Chi-
cago. : :

One of the elections was forced by a
company after seven years of contract
relations with UE, In spite of free beer
and speech-making on company time,
management lost the election.

UE also won an election at Brand and
Millen Radio, New Toronto, Canada.

Addresses Needed

Do you get the national UE News?

If not, the reason probably is that your
address isn’t on file in the local or na-
tional office. Give your shop steward
your correct address, If you move, be
sure to tell him,

ELECTRICAL UNION NEWS

Unirep ExzarriaaL, Ravrio & Macuine
Worxers or Ameria, CIO
Scnenrctapy GE Locat 301

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.. Y.
Telephone 3-1386,

SCHENECTADY PRINTING CO., 1

avicred yaster BY vom

374

Well mydear, uou’dert havey
hat peor etbeyin farcily ith sin ide ed: repel

them

Stewards Prepare to Act
On Wage Structure Plan

Complete information on the Local
801 wage structure proposals has been
sent to all shop stewards in preparation
for final action on the subject at the
Stewards’ Council meeting Tueday. The
proposals will then go to the company
for negotiation.

Second shift stewards will meet at 1
p.m. Tuesday at the union hall and first
and third shift stewards at 7:30 p.m.

The meeting also will discuss propos-
als for the 1948 GE contract. Stewards
who haven’t yet turned in the survey
forms given to them, for listing sug-
gestions for the contract, are asked to
hand them in immediately to the union
office.

Preliminazy discussions of the contract
proposals were scheduled for yesterday
and today in New York at a meeting of
the GE Conference Board of UE, Leo
Jandreau, Andrew Peterson and Marshall
White were to attend.

Some stewards were elected to office

Many 301 Candidates

Winners in Election
(Continued from Page 1)

two of them, if they had endorsed the
PAC program. The ALP was willing to

nominate the‘Democrats if they had PAG

backing.

Milo Lathrop, UE District.3 legislative
director, was high man on the city ALP
slate with 2,845 votes for councilman.

Candidates backed by PAC and elected

‘to office included: Supervisors, Second
Ward, Albert Male, Democrat; Fourth
‘Ward, Edgar A. Smith, Demoerat;
Highth Ward, Chester Trombly, Demo-
crat; Ninth Ward, Bernard J. Franken,
Democrat; Thirteen Ward, John Dalton,
‘Democrat. In Rotterdam Raymond Gor-
don, van for superintendent of highways.
on republican, Democratic and ALP
tickets, and with PAC support.

after the books containing the 801 wage
structure proposals were distributed. If
a steward missed out on getting the ma-
terial, he should ask the steward he
‘succeeded in his shop for his copy.

Noveniber 7, 1947

ELECTRICAL UNION NEWS

More Shop Stewards Take Office at Union Meeting -

--Geerge-W Thar on

Or

three new shop stewards of Local 301 at the m

ng Oct. 2h- Phe-trioplef t-te righ

' Daniel L. Cichy, Bldg. 64, and Angelo J. Tiherio, Bldg. 13F.

Ste Iintrone, Bldg. 85;

General Electric Complains
About 'Low' Profit Rate!

“Our profit rate so far this year” is_
“well below what we ought to achieve.”
This statement in the latest piece of
GE publicity; in Works News’ and news-

' paper advertising, is made in face,of the *

fact that GIt’s profit after taxés so far
this year, for nine months, is $56,459,484,
This is almost as much as the entire
year 1941, the highest of the high war
profit years. At the present rate 1947
profits are virtually sure to exceed by
millions the all-time high of 1929.

Vice-President L. R. Boulware arrives
at his yvemarkable conclusion about

“low profit rate” by figuring profits on

the basis of sales instead of on invest-
ment, Stockholders,’ as investors, figure
profit return on their investment, The
company’s rate of profit on total invest-

“ment, the total valuation, for 1947, based

on its, own figures, is at an annual rate
of over 20 per cent.

This is one of the highest rates in all
industry. Actual profits are probably
much higher, as much is going into new
plant and equipment. GE’s rate of profit
on investment has always been one of
the highest. Six per cent is considered a
high return on an investment ordinarily.

The publicity piece also compares. the
1947 wage increase and the pension fund
payments with profits after taxes. This
is some more juggled reasoning. Wages
and pensions are figured against profits
before taxes. A big part of the increase

comes out of taxes, not out of net profits. |

$1 donation to PAC will help, defeat
Congressman Kearney in 1948,

~ Scientific Planning

Here’s what GE did to the un-
organized workers at the Water-
ford plant Election Day. People
were vequired to punch in at 7:30
a.m. as usual dnd then were told
to take their two hours off im-
mediately for voting, It was next
to impossible for them to get bus
service at that hour.

Wallace to Speak
In Albany Dec. 12

Henry Wallace, who was Secretary of
Agriculture and later Vice-president of
the United States under Franklin’ D.
Roosevelt, will speak at 8:30 p.m. Dec.
12 at Odd Fellows Hall, 46 Beaver St.,
Albany. a

The meeting is sponsored by Albany
Chapter, Progressive Citizens of Amer-
ica, Tickets may be purchased at $1.20
at the union office. :

Templeton Named

To Bus Committee

William Templeton of Local 301 is one
of the three Rotterdam citizens serving
on a committee with town officials to
investigate complaints about bus service
in Rotterdam. At a recent meeting of
the Town Board, Templeton asked for
such a committee to be established.

People with transportation complaints
or suggestions should contact Supervisor
William Alheim. The committee will
conduct a meeting Monday night at Rot-
terdam Town Hall.

‘Session With Management
On Speed-up, Rate-Cuts

Two instances of speed-up and rate-
cutting in the Control division were aired
in a grievance-nieetingy- “Monday with
Louis Male, general superintendent.

One case involved milling machine
work moved from Bldg. 69 to Bldg. 285,
with a cut both in standard prices and
in the Anticipated Earning Rate of the
> job. In 69 the job was done by a man
with an AER of $1.30. Prices were
standard. The job was moved to 285;
the feed was more than doubled; the
speed was raised; the job was retimed,
and the AER was cut to $1.07 The
work was given to a woman,

Male agreed to a joint inspection of
the work with Business Agent Leo Jan-
dreau. .

The other case involved a complaint
that Foreman McConaghy operated ma- -
chines during a time study in an unsue-
cessful effort to show that the operation
could’be done in a manner requiring less
time. Male agreed the practice was
wrong.

Frequent cases of supervision  at-
tempts to interfere in the internal af-
fairs of the union have occurred recent-
ly in the Control Division and in Bldg.
69 in particular,

Hits Movie Investigation
U. S. Senator Claude Pepper has de-
nounced the Un-American Committee’s
investigation of the movie industry as a
great threat to American civil liberties.
Ne advised witnesses to stand up and
say, “IT am an American and it’s none of
_ your business what, I say, what-I think
and what I write.” :