Auto Workers Press Fight for Unionization
DAVIDOW, L.S.
Auto Workers Press Fight for Unionization Organization Drive Poshed Despite Obstacles Raised by Employers and Roosevelt Administration—Workers Prepare for Ultimate Showdown By L.S....
...In this period Wolman proved another betrayer of labor...
...Giving the Automobile Labor Board the doubtful benefit of honest intention, there can be no escape from the conclusion that in its results it has had the tendency to disrupt the efforts of the American Federation of Labor to organize the industry and divide the men into such small units, wholly unrelated to one another, as to make difficult, if not impossible, the organization of the men into unions...
...that employes have the opportunity under fair election conditions to decide what sort of representation they wanted...
...The strike began with great enthusiasm and has been marked by intensive picketing in which thousands of the workers have participated...
...They must pay lip service to the representative stbem* which they know is developing the machinery for real labor organization, and yet they would like to put a stop to it...
...About two weeks ago, employes' representatives, elected under this scheme, had a conference with the Automobile Labor Board in Dr...
...The representatives themselves have been given a taste of the bitter medicine of how futile it is to negotiate with no compact organization to buttress their position...
...Supporting the strike are thousands of small retail store proprietors cooperating with the strikers in the drive on chain stores, against which the walkout is principally directed...
...At these meetings they have heard their representatives advise them that while conferences have taken place with the management, nothing has come of them...
...While the organization of this scheme has temporarily interfered with the effort to organize the industry and to that extent has served the purpose of the manufacturers, there are signs that the machinations of Wolman and his associates will fail...
...In the meantime the A.F.ofL...
...The American Federation of Labor is biding its time, fully conscious that events are driving the men to the conclusion which will lead eventually and in the not too far distant future, into unions of their own choosing...
...m^mmmmmmmmmmmmm...
...Tan New Set-Up It is no exaggeration to say that when P r e s i d e n t Roosevelt persuaded William Green and the other labor spokesmen to postpone the strike a year, ago, organized labor was led to believe that the least the Government would do would be to secure fair conditions under which labor could make its bid for the support of the workers...
...Thus far they have been very successful...
...The men are meeting and while they are being, offered the facilities of the factories, they prefer to meet in halls which they hire themselves, the rent for which is usually defrayed by voluntary collections...
...and Leo WolmaU, supposedly d is-interested and representing the public...
...Unknown to labor, the Automobile Labor Board created a scheme which was claimed to afford true representation of employes...
...This lesson is being rapidly learned by thousands of men new in the industry who hsd been led to entertain high hopes of what the representative group scheme would do for them, and for whom there has been nothing but bitter disappointment...
...When this Board was first created, great expectations were held out, based largely upon chairman Leo Wolman, who had earned considerable prestige for his work with other unions...
...In substance, the scheme proposed to have all automobile employes in a plant take part in an election on a specified day, first in the nomination of representatives and finally in the election of representatives...
...Stabilization of the industry, standardization of wage and working conditions, union recognition, a 36-hour week, minimum wage rates of $25 to $45 a week, pay for holidays, time and a half for overtime and the closed shop are among the demands of the strikers...
...is watching the situation with interest, and it may be said, satisfaction...
...The immediate outcome of the White House conferences, when A.F.ofL...
...The manufacturers know that these t*pre*antstin group meeting* are creating the mental attitude together with the determination on the part of employes to flwalap organisations that will have power to compel concessions...
...The American Federation of Labor had succeeded in organizing strong groups in all the automobile industries, with tne possible exception of Ford It is common knowledge now prominent labor officials were persuaded by the genial personality of President Roosevelt to abandon tne strike upon assurances that later tdrned oat to be vague and indefinite, that the men's claims would be considerately and adequately treated...
...They have been told that under the representative group scheme they have no power to enforce their demands...
...Richard Byrd, a newcomer in the automobile labor unions, representing the workers...
...Bitter Medicine The employes have been meeting in various groups all over the city to confer with the representatives concerning wages, hours and other conditions of employment...
...While they may, abandon these agreements any time they see fit, they dare not do it now bat they immediately expose th* shallow pretext of the Automobile Labor Beard set-up...
...Dilatory Poeties Labor was given to understand that the Labor Board would pass upon points in controversy and arrive at decisions binding upon all concerned...
...The action was taken as a result of publication in the Hearst newspapers of a series of articles fcy Lang, which has aroused seven criticism and condemnation in Socialist circles...
...The looseness of the form of representative organization, the lack of dues, the lack of discipline, the lack of any machinery with which to function as an organized unit, have made clear to the men what organized labor has been saying from the time it first began to articulate...
...About twenty per cent of the strikers are women...
...Even Byrd, who has completely forfeited the respect and confidence of the men, has had to concede to the employes as he has addressed them at numerous representative group meetings, that they could expect no substantial concessions because they had no power under the scheme...
...He was supposedly liberal and sympathetic with the cause of labor...
...Much to the consternation of labor, this Automobile Labor Board first functioned as another Conciliation Board, in which it sought to reconcile the irreconcilable...
...The scheme met the immediate opposition of labor, for...
...that is, the open shop or company unionism on one hand, or the facilities of organized labor on the other...
...However, they find themselves in this predicament, by voluntary agreement they have signed up with the Automobile Labor Board, have given the Auto* mobile Labor Board jurisdiction over matters of discrimination...
...The management does not dare discharge employes for attending the meetings of representative groups, or for that matter, does not dare openly discharge anyone...
...he may be definitely charged as swtlclpining that this at heme, of which he was supposed to be the creator, bad the purpose ef frustrating efforts to unionise the industry...
...Forward Association Condemns Lang Articles in Hearst PreSS The Forward Association, pub- i litihers of the Jewish Daily For ward, Yiddish Socialist daily, hmt made public the following state ment: "At a special meeting of tht Forward Association, held Apri 22nd, 1935, in the Forward Build ing, it was voted to make the fol lowing declaration in the Forwsn and all other Socialist publications: "A member of the Forward staff and of the Forward Association Harry Lang, has given his pen and name tc) a chain of reactionary newspapers, which has frequently been branded by the labor and progressive movements as ar enemy of the labor movement and of every advanced movement...
...So far as Wolman is concerned...
...When that time comes, labor in the automobile industry will have arrived...
...Indignation spread among the automobile workers, and unfortunately their reaction reacted against the prestige of the A. F. of L. Vacillations of the Labor Board and disappointments that grew out of them were charged unfairly to the Federation...
...Workers Dare Splat That the men are learning and that they are arriving at the conclusion that their future can only be safeguarded by a bona fide labor union is known to the manufacturers* whose spies attend all the meetings...
...He was no match for the sharp-shooters who were his associates...
...This included the right to be eonsuited and advised by the government before any final action was taken...
...It is also decided to inform tht New York State Committee a! the Socialist Party and all other friendly organizations of this action...
...As a result of this tragic experience, we hereby decide that in the future no member of the staff shall be permitted to write in capitalist newspapers without spec Pi permission of the Forward Association...
...Manufacturers are now caught between the upper and nether millstone...
...hence, the opinion shared by responsible labor leaders that something worthwhile was finally going to develop...
...Last spring it seemed as if their unbroken domination would be seriously challenged for the first time, but this expectation was dissipated as weeks and months wore by and the demands of men in the industry were ignored or refused...
...It devoted itself almost exclusively to charges of discrimination, which of themselves were serious enough, but on the major issues, such as the unwillingness of employers to meet representatives of the employes, on boars, wages and other conditions, the Automobile Labor Board proved to be entirely useless...
...About a year agp newspapers carried scare headlines about the imminence of an automobile strike...
...The mere fact that many of them are meeting for the first time and voicing their grievances and learning that the present set-up is doomed to failure, is a necessary transitory period that the men are going through, preliminary to the organization of a real union...
...Richard Byrd, official representative of labor, found himself in a hopeless minority particularly because of his inexperience...
...There has been the confident expectation on the part of the American Federation of Labor that with fair and unintimidated elections workers would in a large measure express their preference for the American Federation of Labor...
...representatives met the President in his office, was the creation of the now famous Automobile Labor Board, consisting of Nicholas Kelley, attorney for the Chrysler Motor Company, representing the interests of the manufacturers...
...We regard this conduct as a crime against the Socialist and labor movement of the United State* and the recognized principles and usages of oar movement...
...These hopes were dissipated when in the early part of this year the Automobile Labor Board, with the knowledge and consent of President Roosevelt and Donald Richberg, announced a new set-up ni the automobile industry...
...While the strikers are seeking to tie up the big wholesale plants, about 100 in number, which do work both for chain stores and independent retailers, as a means of forcing united action by, the industry as a whole in the direction of general improvement, they are particularly determined to break the opposition of the chain stores, which have been the principal stumbling block to stabilization...
...Such *t! ion is not consistent with the cos¦iuct expected to be followed br one connected with a Socialist « labor organization...
...It has always been the insistence of the A.F.ofL...
...Labor had become satiated with the .dilatory tactics of various regional labor boards under the NRA and was pressing for machinery to be able to arrive at conclusions and compel adherence to them...
...When Wolman was challenged by one of the' Chrysler employe representatives that the NRA gave men the right to organize a union of their own choosing, Wolman conceded that was so, but advised the representatives against organizing of citywide groups...
...Wolman's office when Wolman said that employe representatives had no right to organize a city group made up of representatives from the various, plants...
...the very obvious reason that instead of unifying men into one organization it created another form of organization, and a very loose one at that, in which there would be no cohesiveness, no co-ordination and no general objective...
...DAVIDOW Special to The New Leader fVETRO IT.—There is no group of employers in the United States more determined to prevent the organization of workers than the automobile manufacturers...
...The strike is conducted by the Cleaning and Dye House Driverss' Union and the Cleaners, Dyers and Pressers' Union...
...The Automobile Labor Board pursued its uneventful career characterized by growing discontent with its ineffectiveness...
...The employers are discovering, much to their chagrin and amazement, that their employes are learning the lessons of the hopelessness of negotiation with the management unless there be a strong union organization of their own choosing to deal for them...
...The Automobile Labor Board and the employers are demonstrating to the workers in a most striking way, and in a manner comprehensible to everyone, what labor union organizers have been saying with not so much success in the past...
...It is the chain stores who by cutting prices below the subsistence level and fanning cut-throat competition in the industry which have been primarily responsible for dislocation of work and wage standards, and what the unions characterize as complete chaos in the industry...
...CLEANERS IN STRIKE ON CHAIN STORES BJIORE than 7,000 workers in the **" cleaning and dyeing industry of New York and vicinity went on strike Tuesday in an effort to force stabilization of the industry and compel improvement of work and wage conditions...
Vol. 18 • April 1935 • No. 17
