Electrical Union News, 1947 January 2

THE VOICE OF THE UNITED ELECTRICAL, R

ADIO & MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA—LOCAL 301 CIO

Vol. III—No. 38

GE Won't Arbitrate
Longendyke Dispute

Local 301 has renewed its efforts to
get GE to let the case of Louis Longen-
dyke be arbitrated.

So far, however, the GE takes the
stand that its ‘{No" must be final and
can’t be reviewed by anyone.

The Longendyke case dates back sev-
eral years. .Longendyke is employed as
an electrician in a erane repair: group.
-He wires.complete new cranes
maintains the wiring of old cranes.

In 1940 the union .protested because
he received only a rate of 97 cents an
hour although he was doing work com-

SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK

‘and .

Building Tradesmen
Get Christmas Gifts

Approximately 500 building
trades workers at the Schenectady
plant received Christmas week
gifts, retroactive pay provided in
wage adjustments Won by Local
301 for them. The back pay, which
ran as high as $50 or more in some
cases, was distributed Dec. 26 and
27. ;

Pay inereases were obtained for
building trades mechanics except
the .clectricians and steamfitters
who received theirs in 1945 through
the union’s War Labor Board case,
Helpers also shared in new adjust-

January 2, 1947

-Matles to Speak
At 301 Meeting

Local Will Install
Officers and Board

Jan. 7 at Union Hall

Officers and Executive Board mem-
bers for 1947 will be installed by Local
801 Tuesday night, Jan. 7, at 301 Hall.
They will be sworn in at a combined
membership and committeemen’s meet-

parable to that of a first class electric-

igs ; ian, For similar work electricians were
ARs then getting $1.01 an hour.

After long arguments with the union,

the company finally agreed in October,

1940, to pay Longendyke the preferential

meeting at 7:30 p.m.

James Matles, national UE director
of organization, will be speaker.

The 1947 officers will be: president,

ments.

SE oe
ist

Portal-to-Portal

top rate paid to electricians.
Does Electricians’ Work
The gompany went on record officially
that “work assigned to Longendyke is
(Continued on Page 4)

Grievance Action Obtains
Vacation Pay for Worker

Vagation pay was won for a member
in Bldg. 46 (through union grievance
action recently. He gets the pay under
the union contract provision that a man
going on leave of absence may, have the
first week ov two designated as his va-
‘ation und be paid accordingly.

In this ease, the man didn’t ask for
his vacation pay until he returned from
leave. His foreman turned down the va-
cation pay claim on the grounds the
man should have applied for it before
leaving, Committeeman G. A. Mele
pressed the claim through the union of-

‘fice.

The company said the foreman was
technically correct, but that in this case
the worker had a reasonable excuse for
not knowing about the procedure at
that time.

Workers qualified for a vacation and
granted a leave should be sure to ask

for their vacation before they leave, not

Pay Claims Made

Schenectady GE. workers required to
put in time at the plant outside their
regular working hours will be covered
by a portal-to-portal pay suit filed on
their behalf by the national UE against
GE.

tional oflice information from the first
batch of union questionnaires answered
by Schenectady workers and will send
additional information as other question-
naires are turned in.

The material sent to the. national office
included authorizations by individual
workers for the union to press. their
elaims for back pay.

Local 301 officers said a sampling of
various occupations was taken through
the first questionnaires,. to find out exact-

ly what typical conditions are in various.

parts of the plant. Results show that
additional thousands of workers should
file claims.

Cases have been discovered in Sche-

. (Continued on Page 4)

Local 301 Broadcast

Remember, you can hear accurate,
lair news oh they Local 3801 radio broad-
east at 7:15 pm. every

The Local 801 office has, sent the na-

Monday over

Andrew Peterson; business agent, Leo
Jandreau; vice-president, William Hodg-
es; treasurer, Marshall White, record-
ing seeretary, Helen Quirini; assistant
recording secretary, Lillian Bliss; chief
shop steward, William. Mastriani; serg-
eant-at-arms, Harmon Cartwright;
guise, George Walker, and trustees, Al-
bert Davis, James Kelly and Edmund C,
Tanski,

Seven of these officers will automat-
ically: be on the Executive Board be-
cause of their offices; the president,
business agent, vice-president, treasurer,
recording secretary, assistant record-
ing secretary and chief shop steward,

Elected to Board

Other members of the
Board, elected this month, will be:
James Copgnetta, Alfred J. Pelrah,
George Judway, Mary MeCartin, Anth-
ony Villano, Anthony Esposito, Dewey
Brashear, Leland Sisto, Charles Ferris,
A. 8, Spears, Henry Busse, Willard
Kuschel, Michael Tedisco, Albert Davis,
William Stewart and Eugene Le Moine.

Execu

On Mayor's Committee

Leo Jandreau, Loeal 380t business
agent, has been named by Mayor Mills
Ten Hyeck as a member of the steering
committee to plan for a Schenectady

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2

ELECTRICAL UNION NEWS

January 2, 1947

GE Conference Board
Meets This Weekend

The General Electric Conference Board
_of UE will meet Saturday and Sunday in
New York City to draw up proposals for

the 1947 GE contract. The Conference
Board, representing UE locals through-
out the country, will discuss in detail
the recommendation of the UE General
Executive Board about opening wage
negotiations on a new basis,

It is the BExecutive Board’s recom-
mendation that instead of placing a def-
inite wage proposal before GE, the GE
locals should prove the case for a sub-
stantial increase and call upon the com-
pany to approach the facts in an open-
minded way.*”

Contract proposals resulting from the
weekend meeting will be submitted to all

GE locals for approval or change before ;

the final form is placed before the com-
pany. .

Conference boards of Westinghouse,
“__/General_Cable_and_Sylvania_locals_.will
also meet this weekend in New York. It
is expected that general features of the
contract proposals to be submitted to
the “Big Four” in the electrical industry.
will be fundamentally alike.

Discuss Tax
On Back Pay

Washington authorities are already
figuring out ways of collecting a “wind-
fall tax” from workers who receive back
wages through portal-to-portal. pay
suits. '

Represent tive Knutson (R-Minn.) in-
; nian of the House ways and
mittee, said plans are now
under’ diseussgioni.

After corporations pay the back-wage

elaims, he indicated, they would put in
claims for refunds of war-paid excess

profits taxes to cover part or all of the ,

costs. The government would complete
the cycle by special taxes on the work-
ers.

.

ELECTRICAL UNION NEWS

Unrrep Exectricat, Rapio & Macuine
Workers or America, CIO

Scurnzctapy GE Locan 301
<p

Published by the Editorial Committee
Dewey Brashear Ray. Flanigan.
William Mastriani
Editorial Office - Blectrical Union News
301 Liberty St. - Schenectady, N. Y.

“in 1941.

aaa SCHENECTADY PRINTING CO,, ING.

Year Gets Off to Bad

Must Appear in U. S.

Start for GE Company;
Court Cases in January

January is going to be an embarrassing month for the General Electric Co. be-

national monopoly.

Final arguments will be heard Jan.

cause of two federal court cases. GE has been charged with domestic and inter-

15 in the U. S. Circuit Court in Trenton,

N. J., in connection with the Department of Justice’s indictment of GE for conspir-

ing monopolistically to set prices of lam

ps.

A few days later in the U.«S. Circuit Court in New York, the trial of GE, under
criminal indictment, for its collusive conspiracy with’ Krupp of Germany to set the
price and control distribution of tengston carbide will begin, —. “ :

“This is the monopoly cartel action by
GE which is widely charged by govern-
ment officials as having seriously hurt the
war production effort,” Russ Nixon, UE
Washington representative, said.

Other Cases Pending

Brother Nixon also told the EU News:

“GE is charged with having violated
the U. S. Sherman and Clayton anti-
trust acts. These two trials are but
part of the several government cases
against GE for anti-trust violations.
Similar charges are pending against
Westinghouse...----—.---

“The charges apply to both domestic
monopoly and, to iriternational eartel ar-

rangements.. They spell one -thing -— .

monopoly. .

“These anti-trust trials are a signifi-
cant aspect of the CIO fight fo1 decent
wages for workers employed by Ameri-
can monopolies, In the current economic
argument around the UE-CIO demands,
one hears much talk of free competi-
tion and the law of supply and demand
as factors regulating prices.

“This is phoney talk when it comes
from such giant American monopolies as
GE, Westinghouse, and General Motors.
The whole fabrie of ‘organization of
these trusts is to prevent competition, to
prevent the simple law of supply and de-
mand frony working, to’set prices artific-
ially.

“The only ‘way these monopolies are

“interested in free competition is to pay
it lip-service as an argument against

wage increases,
Slectrical Monopoly

“Look at the extent of the concentr
tion of economic power in -the field of
production of UE. GE and Westinghouse
produce around 80% of all the nation’s
incandescent lamps. GE, Westinghouse,
GM and Nash-Kelvinator produced 66%
of all refrigerators in the United States
In 1940 GE made 229% of all
the flatirons. GE and Westinghouse
produce 619% of all clectric water heat-
ers. GE, Westinghouse and General Mo-
tors produce 70% of all electric ranges.

“And ab it goes.

“Look at: monopoly in the UE-GIO

field on the basis .of size. Recent official
reports describe what they call “the total
usable facilities”, in 1945. in the fabricat-
ed metal products industries. Accord-
ing to this measure, the big five in this
tield are GM, Ford, GE, Chrysler and
Westinghouse. This means they are the
biggest outfits in the world.

“Look at electrical machinery’ where
10 corporations account for two-thirds of
the total usable facilities in the indus-
try. The biggest five companies with
one-third of all the facilities in order of
importance are GI,Westinghouse, Am-
rican Tel and Tel, RCA and General
Cable. This is monopoly..:This is big
business. - This is excessive concentra-
tion of economic power. This is the
economic opposite of free competition
and of free private enterprise.”

CIO Radio Program
Skipped This Week

The Capital District CIO Council will
miss out on its radio broadcast this
week because of. changes in program
hours at Station WTRY. These changes
resulted from WTRY shifting Jan. 1
from ABC to OBS.

Speakers on the next CIO Council
broadcast will be John French, president
of Local 3717, United Steelworkers of

America, at.the Ilines. and..Cox--plant-in.-...--—- .---

Albany, and James McCoy, financial sec-
retary of the same local. The date will
be announced later. :

Union Files Protest
On Low Lathe Prices

. he union has protested against low
‘“spsices set for small lathe work in Bldg.
60.

About 25 workers in the first baleony
of the building suffered sharp drops in
their carnings when these prices were
established. The prices are “based on a
new table installed several weeks ago.

At least 75 per cent’ of the new prices
are absolutely wrong, the union claims,

Business Agent Leo Jandreau has ar-
mittee meetings to discuss the com-
ranged with management for shop com-
plaints... - “s

January 2, 1947

ELECTRICAL UNION NEWS

Schenectady Railway,
TWU Negotiate Jan.7

1947 contract negotiations between
Local 159, Transport Workers Union,
CIO, and the Schenectady Railway Co.
ran into another delay when Walter J.
McCarter, company president and gen-
eral manager, quit his job without no-
tice.

McCarter, who came to Schenectady
Dec. 16 as company president, entered
the contract negotiations next day with
a “get tough with the union” attitude.

McCarter Suggests Pay Cut
His first action was to hand the union
11 proposals. which would cut their take-
\home pay and lower working conditions.
He wanted to take away two paid holi-
days and reduce the guaranteed work-
week, which would in turn reduce the

amount of overtime pay collected.
The union unanimously rejected the
company proposals and demanded that
McCarter start bargaining in good faith.

~~ Ewo~—days~before~-Christmas; -MeCarter—ity” is" your job protection,

met again with the union, and said he
would not have a final answer until after
a meeting with ‘the board of directors
_ Dee, 80.
McCarter said any wage
would be retroactive to Jan, 1.
Quits Company Job
McCarter went to Cleveland for -the
Christmas holiday. A Cleveland news-
paper announced Monday, Dee. 30, that
he -had quit the Schenectady job. The
Schenectady Railway Co. officials dé-
clared the newspaper announcement was
their first knowledge of his leaving the
presidency,
J. Leslie Schooleraft, chairman of the
Schenectady County Republican Com-
mittee, was named president a few hours

_-.-later._He_ met the next day, Tuesday, your insurance_payments._......

with Lewis Benedict, president of Lo-
eal 159, and Alton Petteys, secretary-
treasurer of the local. “Yhey set Jan. 7.
for the next negotiating meeting in New
York City, at the office of Harry Sacher,
general counsel for the Transport: Work-
ers.

Schooleraft and the union officials
signed a written agreement extending
the contract to Jan.‘16 and guaranteeing
that pay raises would be retroactive to
Jan, 1, :

Join ClO Council

Another union has joined the Capital
District CIO Council. ‘Local 15, United
Brewery Workers, sent delegates to the
Dec. 18 meeting at Local 801 Hall. The
local represents members in Albany,
Troy.and Schenectady, ‘

inerease *

Important Point
| on
Portal-to-Portal Pay

In order to be covered by the
portal-to-portal pay suit which the
national UE has started against
GE, a worker must file his individ-
ual’ authorization with the tnion
office.

If you want to be covered, get
an authorization form from ‘your
shop committeeman and fill, it out
immediately.

The case involves no individual
legal expense for any member of

C10 Council Backs
Murray Unity Plan

The Capital District CIO Council re-
cently voted unanimous approval of CIO
President Philip Murray's. effort to
achieve unity of CIO, AIL and railroad
unions in “a common program of econ-
omic and legislative measures.”

Delegates decided to support the Mur-
ray unity plan on a local level hy asi-
ing AFL and railroad unions to take
part in a Capital District legislative con-
ference early in 1947.

Murray Letter

President Murray, in a recent letter
to heads of the other branches of the
‘labor movement, said:

“It has become self-evident that there

the union.

To Protect Seniority
Check Service Record

Protect your service record. Senior-

Every so
often a case is reported to the union
where a member's service record has
been broken and it is too late to correct
the situation.

When you come back to work after a
lay-off, illness, or other long absence,
be sure to check with your foreman to
see that your service record has been
maintained. If you are told the com-
pany has broken your service, whether
upon return after an absence, or while
you are out on lay-off, take the matter
up with your committeeman or the un-
ion office. .

If your service is broken while you
are on lay-off, you not only lose your
job rights, but the State Unemployment
Insurance office is likely to cut off

Ever See Wages
Jump Like This?

A 301 committeeman last week
received a GI vacuum cleaner
which he had ordered several
months ago. It was $40.40 on de-
livery, compared with $26.50 when
ordered.

That was just a plain vacuum
cleaner. The committeeman re-
ported that a de luxe model, $80.50
a few months ago, has jumped to
$52.50.

Wasn't it President Charlie Wil-
son who was. boasting recently
about GE holding down prices?

is a deliberate and monstrous movement
under way to cripple, if not destroy, the
labor movement of this country.”

He pointed out that large corpors-
tions are responsible for heading. the
country toward inflation, but have put

-—theblame” onthe Aiietican”” workers, ~~

Their agents in Congress killed vital
legislation last session and passed bills
“to shackle labor and weaken its abil-
ity to cope with increasing enemy at-
tacks.”

Elections Misinterpreted

“The election results of Nov. 6 have ~
been deliberately misinterpreted © by
these very same predatory interests ‘as
a stamp of approval upon their evil de-
sign and have obviously. encouraged
them to deepen their attack upon organ-
ized labor,’’ he wrote.’

“The stage is set for the 80th Con-
gress to be met by national hysteria de-
liberately fomented and inspired. In

_ essence, the attempt is to divert the at-
tention of the American people from

___those interests which are actually caus-

‘ing national hardships for the common
people through inflation.”
Unity Vital

Unity of action on the part of the

CIO, AFL and railroad unions “is im-

perative and of vital importance,” Pres-
ident Murray stated. 7

State CIO Calls

Regional Meeting

Local 301 and UE District. 8 will be
represented in Albany Monday, Jan. 6,
at a regional conference on wages and
legislation called by the New York State
CIO Council, The meeting will be at 4
p.m. at the De Witt Clinton Hotel.

The Capital District CIO Council has
notified all affiliated locals of the con-

ference,