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- 66, were announced
4
ELECTRICAL..UNION NEWS
May 23, 1947
Field Day Plans
Near Completion
Six girls are now entered in the con-
test for queen of the Local 301 Field
Day, June 29 at Pete
and Sally’s Grove,
Upper Albany St.
The latest candidates —
are Carmela M. Per-
rica, Bldg. 60; Stacia
Roicki, Bldg. 269,
and Mary Bonczyk,
Bldg. 46. The names
of Bernice Blusis,
Bldg. 53; Evelyn -
Haras, Bldg. 29, and
Jean Gonia, Bldg.
earlier,
Every ticket sold
in the name of a
candidate for queen
will net her 50 points in the contest.
The girl with the highest score will be
Evelyn. Haras
crowned -queen. and will receive: a cup -
and a.$100 bond. Second and third prizes
will be $50 and $25 bonds and inseribed
bracelets.
Tickets were mailed this week to all
committeemen for sale in the shops at
50-cents each.
The union office has set up a card file
‘charging to each individual the tickets
mailed to him. Unsold tickets must be
returned with the money for the tickets
sold, Additional books of tickets may be
obtained through the union office.
Field day will start.at 10 a.m. and con-
tinue until midnight. There will’ be
sports, entertainment, dancing, games
and refreshments. A variety of prizes
will be awarded.
William Mastriani and Vincent Iovin-
ella will have charge of sports events.
Sadie Iovinella will have charge of en-
tertainment, Games and concessions
will be directed by E. J, La Bombard.
The food committee will be Louis Dorrer
and Manuel Fernandez. James Copnetta
will have charge of beer and soft drinks.
UE and GE in Session
On Coritract Questions
As this week's EU News went to press
Wednesday, the National UE negotiating
committee was in session with GE of-
ficials in New York City in an attempt
to get the company to sign the 1947 UE-
GEE contract.
After the company had agreed to the
‘complete contract: several weeks ago and
‘after all UBmlocals at GE plants rati-
fied it, GE suddenly raised objections to
several provisions.
“Any Talk About Copper Cartel Makes GE Angry;
No Fair Mentioning Morgan Connections Either
The truth about the copper shortage which has caused lay-offs at GE must have
stung someone in the House of Morgan awful hard, judging bi} the loud screams
that went up in last week’s Works News.
- A resolution unanimously adopted by
a big 301 meeting simply asked the di-
rectors of GE to use their influence with
the House of Morgan arid First National
Hank, which control GE, to help break up
the world copper cartel.
’ The Works News ignored the request,
‘and, strangely enough, said that 301 uc-
cused GE of being able to obtain copper
if it wanted to. The 301 resolution made
no such charge.
The mysterious, “spokesman” for GE
mentioned in the Works News referred’
to “sinister”, “smokescreen”, and other
supposedly terrible union actions, but
ignored a very simple fact:
UE made no charge at all. The Fed-
eral Trade Commission, a well-establish-
ed government agency, made the charge
that.. Kennecott . Copper...and_. Phelps——-
Dodge, both Morgan controlled, were two -
of six companies in a world cartel which
created an artificial permanent shortage
of copper to keep prices high.
The mysterious GE “spokesman” also
suggested that strikes. in copper were
“obviously organized blows at the coun-
try’s economy”. But here is what the
Federal Trade Commission said about
them:
“It would appear that dominant pro-
ducers might well consider it to their ad-
vantage to permit the continuance of
labor difficulties to curtail production.”
This statement referred specifically to
the early part of 1946, when Phelps
Dodge forced UE members to stay on
strike eight months to win the 18%-
cent pattern, .
The 801 resolution also brought a letter
to President Andrew’ Peterson from
Charles Francis Adams, GE director who
heads the State Street Trust Company
of Boston, and who was secretary of the
Navy under Herbert Hoover, Adams
hastened to assure Peterson that “neither
J. P. Morgan Co, or the First National
What Congress Needs —
Some More Wagners
U. S. Senator Robert F. Wagner sent
the following telegram to President An-
drew Peterson of Local 301 in answer to
a wire urging him to continue opposing
anti-labor legislation.
“Thank you for your wire. Be assur.
ed that I am doing all I can to prevent
the passage of what I consider unde-
served, unjust, restrictive and punitive
labor legislation.” ;
Bank group control the General Electric
Company in any way,” and therefore GE
directors could not influence “those
people.”
The 1946 report of the Smaller War
Plants Corporation, a government
agency, to the U. S. Senate Small Busi-
ness Committee, made the flat statement
that Morgan-First National controlled. .
GE as well as US Steel, the two copper
companies, New York Central Railroad,
~ American Telephone and Telegraph and
a host of other companies. The Morgan
group is the world’s largest financial
group. e
Both Schenectady papers ran the GE
“spokesman” statement in full, and re-
peated the company’s peculiar misstate-
ment of what the union sa
301 resolution, and had omitted any re-
ference to the Federal Trade Commission
charge against the Morgan copper com-
panies,
‘Here’s Your EU News’
Anthony Lolik, left, of Bldg. 73A, dis-
tributing the EU News at the gate of
Bldg. 69. This is the first of a series of
pietures showing Local 301 members
handing out the local’s weekly paper at
the GE works. Chairman William Tem-
pleton of the Editorial Committee ob-
tained permission from) A. .C. Stevens,
“assistant to the general. superintendent,i.-
for the union photographer to take. the
pictures on company property.
| ab Whe The Union-_...
Star had given just one paragraph to the
®
THE VOICE OF THE UNITED ELECTRICAL, RADIO & MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA—LOCAL 301 CIO
Vol. 5—-No. 19
‘SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK
May 29, 1947
Queen Candidates
Bernice Blusis Carmela M. Perrica
Stacia Roicki
Mary Bonezylk
These girls are candidates for queen of
the Local 301 field day: See story on
page 2. °
CIO Sets June 10
As State ‘Veto Day’
Statewide CIO demonstrations against
the Taft-Hartley bill will take place
June 10, designated as “Veto Day” by the
State CIO legislative meeting at Albany
Saturday,
Local unions will decide on their own
form of activity. Parades, community
meetings, meetings in shops and union
halls, and work stoppages were suggest-
ed by various speakers.
“Demonstratiéns during working hours
_are in my opinian the things that count,”
President Andrew Peterson of Local 301
(Continued on Page 2)
Company Violations of Contract
Result in Work Stoppages Here
Protest stoppages broke out in various parts of the works during the past week
over company refusal to arbitrate grievances as required by the union contract.
The four groups which have engaged in brief demonstrations so far are all
groups which had long-standing grievances that. had gone all the way, and which
James W. Burnison, speaking for top management, last week refused to submit to
arbitration.
» So far there has been no further word
from the company. When local news-
papers called the company about the un-
ion’s charges of contract violation, the
company had “no comment.” The con-
“tract provision requiring arbitration is of
course too clear to permit any argument
as to its meaning.
The first stoppage was in Bldg. 60,
where about 45 crane operators and fol-
lowers met for an hour last Thursday, to
demand action on the crane followers’
rate grievance, .They advised their fore-
man to notify the company.
400 Out in Welded Products
The largest group to’ protest included
400 men in Welded Products, who walked
off the job Friday afternoon. The GE
Board of Directors was meeting at the
works the same day.
Monday 15 men in Spot Weld and As-
sembly in 78-A left work to come to the
union hall for a protest meeting. They
sent a group letter to Charles FE, Wilson
demanding that the company comply
with the contract. ;
A sitiall group of wiremen in Bldg. 5
also stopped work briefly on Friday, and
told theiy foreman they wanted action.
Some of the Welded Products workers
followed up their stoppage with a meet-
ing at the union hall, where they drew
up messages to Wilson, President Tru-
man, and Senator Irving M. Ives, which
were then signed by the men in the di-
vision. The message to Wilson declared
In Memoriam
Members:of-Lécal 301
dtsetpe obs
-, WHO DIED
DURING THE PAST -YEAR
bs
that GE’s violation of the contract was
the kind of conduct by Big Business that
caused labor disputes. The members de-
manded that Wilson reply to Board Mem-
.ber_James Cognetta,-...-----——
- Message to Truman .
In the message to President ‘Truman
the workers declared: :
“It is evident that the company ¢
it can get away with this conduct‘ be-
cause of its hope that the pending Tatt-
Hartley bill will hamstring our unions.
We urge you to veto the Taft-Hartley
bill.”
To Senator Ives, who voted for the
Taft bill, the men wrote:
“Tf you want to find out the cause of
labor disputes, come up here where the
General Electric Company refuses to
arbitrate grievances, as clearly required
by its union contract,”
Peterson Statement
In a public statement last: week, Pres-
ident Andrew Peterson appealed to the
community “to help us preserve orderly
Jabor. relations by-demanding of the local
plant management that it stop violating
the contract.” Peterson said:
“By its action the company takes full
responsibility for any industrial strife
that may develop here. We shall con-
tinue our long patient efforts to settle
grievances peacefully,
“We trust that the public will now
realize the real cause of labor disputes.
GH’s vice-president, Mr. Shreve, as head
of the U. S. Chamber of Commerce, only
last Monday called for enactment of ex-
treme restraints upon workers. But GE
itself engages in a flagrant violation of
all orderly industrial relations. It ap-
pears that its present blunt defiance has
been encouraged by the prospect of leg-
islation which would further ‘restrict la-
bor. GE proposes to use that legislation
to bring about industrial strife and low-
er the living standards of its employees.”
sensi telicespe Mey unpratsnne 9m ot
a eee
“oF
Foe.
a
2
ELECTRICAL UNION NEWS
May 29, 1947
CIO Sets June 10
As State ‘Veto Day’
(Continued from see 1)
told the meeting.
“We only have a few days left,” warn-
ed Lee Pressman, CIO general counsel.
“Tt’s our task to assure President Tru-
man ‘that the people of the nation de-
mand a veto and then to see the veto
is sustained.”
Warning by Senator Taylor
United States Senator Glen Taylor,
Democratic, of Idaho charged: that the
same. people who financed Hitler and .
put him in power are*“trying to do the
same thing to the common people of
America that Hitler did to the German
people.”
Senator Taylor voted against the Taft
bill.
He said “the bitterly vindictive attack
on the wage standards of the American
working man will destroy the purchasing
power of the American people.”
“Speaking of huge corporation profits,”
he mentioned «the “Republican theory
that what is good for the rich is event-
ually good for everybody—the trickle-
down theory.”
Congressman Emmanuel Geller, Demo-
erat, and State Senator Kenneth Sher-
bell, ALP, a CIO member, attacked the
Taft-Hartley bill.
Taft Bill Is Vicious
Pressman warned that newspapers are
trying to lull labor into a sense of false
security, by pretending that the Taft
bill is “moderate.” Point by point, he
explained the provisions of the Taft bill
designed to cripple unions.
“Never have we had such a threat to
our entire American democracy,” ‘he
declared.
“Never has there been such an orgy
“of pofits’ as today—and at the -same
time, this drive to wipe our unions out.”
In addition to President Peterson, 301
members at the Albany meeting included
Albert Davis, Victor Pasche, Fred Pac-
elli, William Mastriani, Willard Kuschel,
Meyer Segal, Helen Quirini and Helen
Posluszny. Milo Lathrop and Fay Marvin
of District 8 were present also.
ELECTRICAL UNION NEWS
Unirep EveorrieaL, Rapio & Maanine
Workers or America, CIO
Sanrneotapy GE Looat 301
Published by the Editorial Committee
William Templeton, Chairman .
fe Babee Mecartin 'Saeretiry eae
Willard:Kuschel - _4@Mietor Pasche -
‘Leland Sisto
Editorial. Office - Electrical Union News
301 Liberty St. - Schenectady, N. ¥.
nee SCHENECTADY PRINTING GQ, INC:
It’s EU News Day
Gordon Belgrave handing out copies of
“EU NEWS at the gate of Bldg? 41. You'll
see him there every meals rain, or shine.
Bought Your Ticket
For 301 Field Day?
First reports on the sale of tickets for
the Local 301 field day June 29 at Pete
and Sally’s Grove, Upper Albany, are
encouraging, according to George Jud-
way, chairman of the Activities Com-
mittee,
Shop Committeeman John Brauneisen,
Bldg. 18, sold 10 books of tickets within
a week of receiving them from the Ac-
tivities Committee. “We hear there’s-a
lot of action in some of the other build-
ings too,’ Judway said.
Two more girls,.have joined the list
of candidates for field day. queen, Angie
D’Elisiis, Bldg. 285, and Helen Zielinski,
Bldg. 28. They bring the total up to 11.
Previously announced candidates are
Carmela M. Perrica, Bldg. 60; Stacia
Roicki, Bldg. 269; Mary Bonezyk, Bldg.
46; Bernice Blusis, Bldg. 58; Evelyn
Haras, Bldg. 29, and Jean Gonia, Bldg.
G6.
Pensioners to Meet
The UE-CIO 301 Pension Organization
will meet at 2 p.m. Wednesday at 301
y “For 301 Wei Report *
HELP THE ORGANIZING DRIVE
- E10 Counci! Elects
Dembski President
Vincent Dembski of Albany, United
Office and Professional Workers, has
been installed as president of the Capital
District CIO Council. He succeeds Wil-
liam Mastriani of Local 301 who an-
nounced he would not run for reelection
because of his duties as chief shop
steward,
Gladys DuBois, Troy, Amalgamated
Clothing Workers, was chosen.first vice-
president and Albert Davis, Local 301,
second vice-president. Robert Northrop,
, Local 2054, United Steelworkers:.of Am-
erica, was reelected secretary-treasurer.
Trustees are Allen McCabe, Schenec-
tady, Transport Workers; James Wil-
liams, Schenectady United Transport
Service Employes, and John Wright, Al-
bany, United Publie Workers, Leonard
Colasuono, Schenectady, Laundry Work-
ers, was elected sergeant-at-arms and
Sam De Cesare, Local. 301, assistant ser-
geant-at-arms.—---—-—-
The new officers were to be installed
Wednesday.
Mastriani Requests Report
About Town of Tomorrow
William Mastriani, who was named by
the Executive Board to represent it on
the Town of Tomorrow Citizens Com-
mittee, has asked the Legislative Com-
mittee to report on the Town of Tomor-
row program. Mastriani asked that the
Legislative Committee recommend what
position Local 301. should take on the.
program.
Members of the Town of. Tomorrow
group took the appointment of a dele-
gate as an endorsement of its program
by Local 301. The local has not yet taken
a” position on’ this’ question.
Union-Star Again
Knifes 301 News
The Schenectady Union-Star buried an
important statement by President And-
rew Petersén on page 36 Friday and cut
out the heart of the statement.
The paper, which always finds space
for any GH announcement, whittled down
Peterson’s statement about GI. violating
the contract in refusing to arbitrate
grievances,
It left out his appeal to the community
and his charge that GE must take full .
responsibility forianysindustrial. strife
which may develophenp. It also left: out
the 801 charge that GH thinks it can get
away with such actions: becausa. of the
Tatt-Hartley bill.
“May 29, 1947
ELECTRICAL UNIOM NEWS
GE Still Refuses:
To Sign Contract
Obviously encouraged by the passage
ofthe Taft-Hartley bill; GE officials re-
fused to sign the general contract pro-
visions of the 1947 UE agreement at a
meeting May 21 in New York City with
the national -‘UE negotiating committee,
The company held out for last-minute
changes to weaken the maintenance-of-
membership clauses.. GE wants the un-
_ ion to write into the contract provisions
contained in a few state laws limiting
the check-off. These state provisions are
forerunners of the anti-checkoff. pro-
visions of the Taft-Hartley bill,
UE officials said that in a state where
authorizations of individual members for
a check-off are required by law they
would of course obtain such authoriza-
tions, but that they would not weaken
the national GE contract by writing the
provisions in the contract itself,
Membership meetings of all GE locals
“have overwhelmingly approved the check- 1
off provisions, UE negotiators pointed
out, Moreover, GH has opposed includ-
ing provisions of the Wagner Act or the
Wage and Hour law in the contract.
The 1946 contract as a whole was au-
tomatically renewed when neither side
issued a notice of termination during the
contract sessions,
Economic issues, principally the gen-
eral wage increase and paid holidays,
were disposed of in a supplement signed
by both the company and union. The
dispute over the company refusal to sign
the entire contract does not affect these
pay provisions.
Other modifications were agreed on
during lengthy negotiations and accord-
ing to past practice, were to become part
of the contract, After all GE locals of
UE approved ‘the changes, GE suddenly
announced it wouldn’t sign unless the
union changed the check-off clause,
UE served notice on GE that it re-
gards the full contract as being in effect,
as ratified by the UE locals, regardless of
the company’s refusal to sign.
Penny Pinching Starts
Lower Down the Scale
Charles I. Wilson, GE president, re-
ceived $198,000 for his services in 1946
according to the company’s annual re-
port filed with the Securities and Ex-
change Commission. this week.
That’s, pretty good pay from a ecom-
“pany which has announced:it wants ta
«Give up its profit sharing. Blan. Charlie
mange be in ling. for a pay raise.
SIGN UP A NEW MEMBER TODAY
Took Part in Welded Products Walkout
When: 400 workers in Welded Products walked off their jobs Friday afternoon to
‘protest GE refusal to arbitrate long-standing grievances; a group of them went
to 301 hall:for an impromptu meeting. Some of them are shown here at the meeting.
Dangers in Taft Bill
Don’t be fooled by newspaper stories
about the Taft bill being “moderate.”
Here are a few of the provisions of the
bill as pointed out by Leo Pressman, CIO
general counsel. ,
The closed shop is prohibited.
After winning a NLRB election, a
union can’t even ask for a union shop or
maintenance of membership without a
second election. It can’t even ask for
these union security protections unless
a majority of all eligible employes vote
for the clause. Not just a majority of
those who vote.
Check-off is forbidden except on au-
thorization of the individual worker.
The Labor Relations Board is increas-
ed from three to seven members. That
means the four new members would have
to be okayed by Senator Taft and his
supporters, “You won’t be asking for
larger appropriations for such a board,”
Pressman said. “In six months you’d
be asking for its repeal.”
The employer can file charges with the
NLRB that a union is “restraining” or
“coercing” his employes. This is a handy
way of breaking .up organizing drives.
vAny industrial; union :can: be broken
up: by any:eraft group asking for separ-
ate representation.
-An- employer can refuse to- bargain if.
he decides that one or more officers of a
: doctrines of th
union has given “active and consistent
promotion or support to the policies and
ommunist Party.” As
oints out, some employ-
ers would include Franklin D. Roosevelt
and any of his supporters in that defini-
tion. “Do you know many employers who
wouldn’t be charging unions with Com-
munism?” Pressman asked.
The Taft bill eliminates the right to
strike in mass industry. The U. S. at-
torney general can get injunctions to
prevent strikes for 75 days.
‘An employer can sue a union for any
act of an agent of the union in any fed-
eral court wherever any representative
of the. union may. be located.
There’s a big opportunity for em-
ployers to plant “agents” in unions to
perform acts for which the unions can
be sted and fined.
Employers are given free rein to bring
in strike breakers during labor disputes.
If the employer brings in‘enough strike
breakers they can call for a NLRB elec-
tion and defeat the union.
Those are only a few of the dangers
of the Taft bill.
Speak on Radio
Helen Quirini and Mary MeCartin dis-
cussed the women’s AER case on the Lo-
eal: 801 -radio broadcast: Monday. :' The
- local\ has' a program’ at 7:15-pim: every °°
Monday over WSNY. :
MAKE YOUR SHOP 100 PER CENT UE
