National Reports

...Bowing before superior firepower, the union retreated to the point where today it observes the mere formalities of a strike...

...But they worked a little slower than usual...

...Toivo told reporters when he got out that he would never go back into the mines...

...They were pretty sure they were safe, even though freedom did not come until 14 long hours after...

...But Toivo has resigned himself to working until retirement, now nine years off...

...A face-to-face meeting between the union and the company has not yet been held...

...The article is evidently a copy of a document distributed elsewhere...

...It was only after they were sure rescue was on its way that the two men decided to share their only food: a peach and a chocolate bar which Morlot had salvaged from his jacket...

...Since July 25, Local 370 of the United Auto Workers (CIO) has been on strike against the Perfect Circle Corporation, manufacturer of one-quarter of all the piston rings used by American automobile producers...

...It sure was a welcome sight," Toivo said...

...Toivo also is sure about another thing: His two sons will not be miners...

...The town itself in recent years has experienced the 100-day Chrysler walkout in 1950 (4,000 are employed in a Chrysler parts factory here) and a four-month strike at the Ingersoll Steel and Disc Company, also in New Castle...

...Once the elder Hill was brought home with both legs broken as the result of a fall down an open shaft...

...The air, never fresh so far below the surface, grew more and more fetid...

...However military the guardsmen appeared, patrolling in jeeps and on foot in two-man teams, it was not an uncommon sight to see sympathetic housewives in residential areas offer the boys some cake and coffee during the brisk evening rounds...

...His father was an iron miner from the time he left his native Finland...

...It was about 1:30 a.m...

...That was just twenty years ago...

...There need have been no anxiety...

...The guards, whose average age is 22, were viewed by the citizenry with mixed feelings of relief, resentment, and simple acceptance that they were here "on orders" and merely to do a job...

...National Reports Behind the Violence at Perfect Circle By Mitchel Levitas New Castle, Indiana An aggressive union, an old-line, family-controlled corporation and an impulsive Governor have clashed here to provide a labor-relations spectacle uncommon north of the Mason-Dixon line...

...In 1945, the foundry was closed for eight weeks by mass picketing in a dispute over job reclassification in the postwar conversion...

...I turned to my partner," Toivo related afterward, "and said: "This is it, I guess.' The mud didn't need more than an inch break in the wall to begin...

...During the troops' tenure, the life of the city was not noticeably disturbed, except for tavern owners who could count their profits at the soda fountains...

...he says, "I'll retire then...

...Informed of the "fable's" rather prominent location, plant manager Chet Juday told reporters that "it really shouldn't be there" and promised to remove it forthwith...

...Dissenters, however, many of them union members in civilian life, expressed doubt that the same effect could not have been achieved without the large number of personnel, the almost wartime logistic support they received, and the formal declaration of martial law...

...Interview With an Iron Miner By Sam Romer Ely, Minnesota Toivo Hill has been an iron-ore miner since 1917, when he left high school to hire out as a mucker...

...The [non-striking employes] are making a personal contribution to the crusade which will undoubtedly eventually result in the passage of laws establishing the right of an individual to work where he pleases without paying tribute to anyone...

...Aside from this one incident, there is no doubt that the presence of the troops accomplished what the Governor had in mind...

...Now he and his partner, Albert Morlot, are a "contract team" in the underground mines here...

...Thus, although labor disputes are old hat in these parts, there was some apprehension over the reaction that would greet 600 National Guardsmen when they marched in--Sherman tanks, bayonets and all--to enforce the Governor's proclamation of martial law...

...Working at an ore-breast in an underground mine is a pretty lonely job...

...In a credo for "present and future" boards of directors, Teetor wrote: "May no chair in this room ever be occupied by anyone who holds a thought of...

...And if they drop the pension age to 60...

...We knew that there were two other teams in the area and hoped they had escaped...

...As it came toward us, it widened the hole every second...

...they were tried out without success...

...At last report, it was still there...

...There is no law against an employer operating his plant if he can, and that right will be preserved by the military," Craig said...

...Whatever the outcome of the dispute, however--and there is little belief that the walkout will develop into another Kohler stalemate--the high ideals enunciated for the firm in 1935 by the then company president, Charles Teetor, can be recalled only with the grimmest irony...

...On the fateful day of his 20-hour ordeal, Toivo was thinking about the state CIO convention to which he had been elected as a United Steelworkers delegate...

...Each team works silently at its task, seemingly unaware that another pair of miners is around the bend...

...That there was some element of truth in their observations was subsequently borne out when civilian rule was restored and the number of troops cut back to 150 without any renewal of violence...

...And let me tell you this, when I retire no one'll ever get me down into the pit again...

...The main gate was padlocked by the strikers, and large pieces of concrete were dumped on the road leading to the three-story building...

...they jumped nervously when they heard loose mud scatter like mice above the space ceiling...

...Until we heard the pipe breaking through, carrying fresh air--why, we didn't know if the rescue teams could even find us...

...The fire was returned by the strikers and a battle ensued, lasting some two hours...

...Mine accidents are no novelty to Toivo, a tall, heavy-set man whose gray fringe around his baldness testifies to 55 years and a hard life...

...The two men passed some time in silent prayer...

...The old man still worked in the mines at the age of 64...

...We talked about our families and wondered who would break the news...

...One day in October, both of them descended to a 1,300-foot level below the surface and found their way to a work-space where the lode was rich and heavy...

...They loosen the ore by dynamite blasting and machine-load it on the waiting cars...

...This fact, coupled with the legal limitation of five pickets at the main gate to the foundry, is the cause of the extreme bitterness which has marked the union's feelings toward the state government...

...It was at this point that troops were hastily called up and martial law declared a few days later...

...The violence ceased: For the first ten days of the strike, mass picketing forced the shutdown of the foundry...

...another time, a premature dynamite blast barely missed him...

...Mine-safety experts have failed to work out any foolproof way to avoid them...

...In 1948, the union struck over today s big issue, the union shop, but the workers went back to the plant after eight weeks without winning their objective...

...Toivo himself once fell 35 feet down an open hole...

...In the union's view, company opposition to the union shop is only a disguise to bar organized labor altogether...

...In between the strikes, there have been no fewer than 10 representation elections, some called for by labor, others by management in an attempt to decertify the union...

...About the only confusion occurred when the circuit judge of the county decided he did not have the power to sit in a civil court and render binding decisions while the town was formally under the rule of the National Guard...

...The move, however, also enabled the company to resume limited production at the New Castle foundry, key plant among three operated by the company in this area...

...any employe or group of employes, against neighbors, townsmen or competitors...

...As for the company, the UAW sees the walkout merely as the latest strike in a series against a firm that is determined to oust it forever and at all costs...

...One may describe the above attitude as conservative, proper, and highly sensitive to the "rights" of individual workers who are not union-minded...

...The troops themselves viewed their duty as the prevention of violence and so justified their presence as necessary...

...Generally, it was, as one reporter termed it, "military baby-sitting...

...Management maintains it is not anti-union, merely opposed to the "imposition" of a union upon loyal, long-time workers who do not wish to become part of the collective-bargaining unit...

...Aligning himself firmly in the camp of employers in 17 states who operate under stale "right-to-work" laws, Perfect Circle general manager William B. Prosser declared: "We feel that we are making a contribution to the right-to-work cause by the position we have taken in this strike...

...In addition, non-striking employes suffered telephoned death threats, overturned automobiles, paint-splattered homes and bricks thrown through windows during the outbreak...

...The walkout has been marked by mass picketing and violence, and, after at least eight persons were wounded by an outburst of gunplay on October 5, Republican Governor George N. Craig called out the National Guard and imposed full martial law, which ended only last week...

...Strikes, even violent strikes, are not new to Perfect Circle workers, nor are they a novelty to this city of 18,000 in which almost all the wage earners are union members...

...when he died of a heart attack while on the job...

...The five pickets do not even carry their single sign, but leave it nailed to a tree near the plant's parking lot, while they pass the time of day in conversation around a pot-bellied stove salvaged from a building burned in the riot...

...You should have seen the boys dig to get us out," Toivo said...

...But all exits were cut off...

...Another example of the company's operation in the current strike was the mailing of three separate letters from the wives of nine company officials and supervisory personnel to the wives of 203 striking workers...

...Fortunately, the mud ceased its onrush as it reached the feet of the frightened men...

...Although bars were closed, movies, schools, church meetings and other activities proceeded as usual...

...Toivo is fatalistic about mud-spills...

...In 1937, a brief sitdown strike won recognition for the young UAW, then engaged in a series of stormy work stoppages throughout the Middle West...

...Mitchel Levitas is a staff reporter for the New York Post who spent a week at the Perfect Circle plant...

...But, a week later, he again made the descent because, he explained, "I've still got to make a living...

...Then, despite a court order limiting the number of pickets to five, crowds again forced the plant to close from September 19 to 26...

...An already formidable backlog of cases mounted rapidly, and the judge is presumably now just beginning to make a new effort to lighten the groaning scales of justice...

...In recent days, some attempts at serious negotiations with Federal mediators have been made, but thus far the talks have not been too successful...

...No curfew was imposed...

...The morning hours passed slowly when--almost six hours after the mud-spill--a pipe forced its way through to their refuge...

...Possibly a more revealing indication of company thinking is posted on its official bulletin board, alongside the Prosser thesis...

...It was the first time in modern Indiana history that the militia had been summoned to restore order in a labor dispute...

...Mostly we talked about small things--nothing important...

...Toivo himself offered some safety suggestions as a CIO grievance committeeman...

...when, without warning, there was a hissing sound and a flood of mud in the mine wall suddenly rushed at them, threatening to drown them in muck...

...I sure hope the company doesn't decide to use their efforts as a work standard...

...The violence came to a riot-ridden climax on October 5 when more than 1,000 strikers and sympathizers marched down to the foundry, forcing local police to retreat before them...

...A week before, the two men had waged a 20-hour battle with death at the very same spot...

...This is a typewritten article identified as a "fable" which speaks of "John L. Louiss and Walder Ruthless" and their activities in bankrupting a business through union activity...

...I guess we talked about most everything," Hill said...

...The letters, for which the company admits supplying the mailing lists, also concentrated on the union-shop issue, calling it "tribute without representation," and compared the practice to life under Communism, an angle that management itself had shown restraint in avoiding...

...Rut miners rarely let their daily gamble with death show on the surface...

...As a group from the crowd moved through a side gate, shotguns and rifles cracked from within the plant...

...For his work, Toivo averages $21 to $22 a day...

...The factory reopened...

...hatred, malice, revenge, dishonesty, selfishness, greed, contempt, jealousy, or any other form of thought that will be to the detriment of the company...