NLRB REPORT HITS METHODS OF FORD FIRM
NLRB Report Hits Methods Of Ford Firm Charge Campaign of Terror Was Used By Employer WASHINGTON, D. C—One of the most sweeping indictments of an employer ever to come from the National Labor...
...as an expert on receiverships...
...He stayed in the capital and later shifted to the staff of the labor board...
...Denham spent several years in Wall St...
...Unionists warn that the USHA may transfer the allotment to some other city...
...He proposed that the company per-sonnally notify its 100,000 workers henceforth it will comply with the law...
...Few publications told the facts as they came out...
...was planned and directed by Ford chiefs in Dearborn...
...Is a worsening of labor standards...
...He recovered, however, and lived to tell the tale...
...Among those who came to Dallas to do the planning, Denham said, was Max Weismeyer, executive in charge of all Ford assembly plants...
...However, when Denham's amazing report was released, the daily press could no longer ignore the story and many for the first time mentioned the Ford terrorism last week...
...Former "gorillas" testified and spilled the whole gruesome story...
...Industry Backing Housing Campaign BRIDGEPORT, Conn—The Bridgeport Chamber cf Commerce is too reactionary for the Bridgeport Manufacturers Assn., so the employers have joined with AFL, CIO, and independent unions in a common fight for a $3,000,000 slum clearance and rehousing project...
...Dozens of others were so viciously assaulted that they were left little better than human wrecks for the rest of their lives...
...It was issued by R. N. Denham, trial examiner, who accused the Ford management of carrying out a campaign of terrorism against union men never before equalled for ruthlessness in any case considered by the board...
...Bennett is known to have a personal army of ex-convicts, former pugilists and other types of "bruisers," who are politely known as "service men...
...The Ford management also distributed to the workers thousands of copies of a pamphlet entitled "Ford Gives Viewpoint on Labor," which Denham branded as a "scurrilous and inflammatory" attack on unions...
...Weismeyer and Dallas local officials organized the terror squads and the program was approved by other top management men in the office of Harry Bennett, Ford chief of personnel, the examiner declared...
...What is especially significant about Denham's report is that it came from a man who has been a Manhattan banker and corporation lawyer...
...Result, the association says...
...Denham's report was based on testimony given during a month of hearings into the kidnapping, slugging and tarring and feathering of unionists by Ford strong-arm "gorillas" at the company's assembly plant in Dallas, Texas...
...the entire network of the motor magnate...
...Blackjacks, loaded hose, cat-o'-nine-talls made of rubber stripping and electric light wire were among the weapons used by the strong-arm squad," Denham pointed out...
...The hearings over which he presided in Dallas were called on charges filed by A. F. of L. unions and they brought out sensational disclosures of how the Ford strong-arm squad system operated...
...The chamber complains that the site chosen by lha II...
...They unfolded inside details about many others who were taken to a "torture rendezvous"—much a like a Nazi concentration camp—where they were threshed within an inch of their lives...
...Also under fire from the labor groups is the Socialist, board o( aldermen, which has delayed action on the project...
...There was no limit of brutality o which this squad was unwilling to go...
...At the time of the hearings, newspapers indulged in a virtual conspiracy of silence on the revelations...
...One victim died after thugs had pounded him unmercifully...
...The surprising stand of the manufacturers was climaxed by their further criticism of the chamber for Its policy of attracting runaway sweatshops from New York and elsewhere, while permitting large industries to' move away...
...Denham recommended that th* board "crack down" not only on the Ford executives in Dallas, but on the "fountainhead" in Dearborn, and that its final order be enforced against...
...He came to Washington early in the New Deal as special counsel to the comptroller of the currency while the government was trying to save the nation's banks from collapse...
...The examiner declared he knew of no instance in the board's history where "an employer deliberately planned and executed a program of such brutal beatings, whippings and other physical violence...
...S. Housing Authority should be reserved for factories...
...NLRB Report Hits Methods Of Ford Firm Charge Campaign of Terror Was Used By Employer WASHINGTON, D. C—One of the most sweeping indictments of an employer ever to come from the National Labor Relations Board was handed down last week against the Ford Motor Co...
...It was anticipated the board would soon come down with an order along the lines proposed by the examiner...
...This crew is relayed from plant to plant to direct the "brass knuckle" strategy...
...But the factory owners retorted that "adequate low-rent housing facilities acr one of the first requirements of largescate employers seeking to locate new industries...
...Another was tossed on a highway, battered and bloody, and an undertaker was called to pick up his body...
...He blamed the terrorism directly on the highest officials at Ford headquarters in Dearborn and charged that they "gathered together the most brutal, vicious and conscienceless thugs In their employ" to do the floggings...
...If the purposes of the Wagner Act are to be effectuated, any order of the board must be directed to the fountainhead," he urged...
...on the staff of the Irving Trust Co...
...All of the vigilantism, Denham pointed out...
...They told of union men and sympathizers being beaten in broad daylight on the streets of Dallas...
Vol. 10 • May 1940 • No. 18
