United automobile worker. [volume], January 15, 1944, Image 1

About United automobile worker. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1936-1957

Image provided by: Central Michigan University, Clark Historical Library

                
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The Chicago Sun.
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A Personal letter to You
From Philip Murray
CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS
CIO
718 JACKSON PLACE, N. W , WASHINGTON, D. C.
January 5, 1944.
Dsor CIO Member:
.• ** ** *' ■*
TKe United State* Treasury is callinf upon the American people
once more to back the boy* over there by backing the Fourth Wor Loan
Drive.
r . ' ■ /
The Congress as Industrial Organisations has, from the first, given
its wholehearted support to our Government's Wor Bond efforts. Time
and again in the last two years, we have urged our affiliated unions and
, our membership to do their utmost on the bond front, as they have on
the production front. And they hove dene that.
The records will show that members of eight es our unions alone
bought, through payroll savings and purchases at their places of employ
ment, over S9OO million In 1943. This Is o record of which every mem
ber and official of the CIO can be lastly proud.
For this Fourth War Loan Drive, I am urging our membership to
do two things: buy bonds to the best of their ability; and elect a CIO
Wor Bond choirmon In ooch plant, shop and yard where we hove mem
bers. The CIO Wor Bond chairman should be the sparkplug of the bond
‘ campaign for the union In each plant.
I urge all officials and members of the CIO, in this year of 1944,
to pledge themselves to redouble their bond efforts so that, in effect,
we the people who are producing the increasing flow of the implements
of war, will else be buying an Increasing number of bonds to pay for
x that equipment to the end that our boys in service may have the best
otuF most plentiful equipment of ony fighting force in the world. They .
need It—the right weapon at the right place saves many a life—and
His to us to supply those good weapons, to make them and to pay
fat thorn.
PHILIP MURRAY, President,
ifc Congress of Industrial Organisations.
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Am Hard facts on Income and Profits
■ 9, A
Daring this war, a lot of Angara have
been pointed at labor and a lot of neeasa
tions made. These accusations have been
accompanied by phony statistics. Since a
worker In a plant simply doesn't have time to
do economic research, labor In some cases
has developed on “inferiority complex”
about Its part in the war on the home front.
Take wages for Instance.
The finger-pointers keep telling us that
j — lll *''
Talmi4**»itfe»w much money workers are
making * got/' wilder every time they're
nitthamF' ’
repealed. ,
21 Million Below flfiOO A Year
Labor needs to have no feeling of un
easiness on this score. The truth is that
about 1-5 of the people in this country were
actually making leas money in 1943 than
they mode In 1942 and, as the layoffs In
crease, unemployment and poverty will hit
increasingly' large numbers of‘ American
workers in 1944
As a matter of fact, American workers are
still a pretty poverty-stricken lot The U. S.
Treasury Department estimates that the
1944 tax program will find 21 Vi million peo
ple with incomes of lest thin $1,999 per
year. These wages will, off course, be even
further induced by taxes, war bonds, social
security, and the other “deducts” to which
workers are so accustomed.
Two-thirds at A Nation
The workers who earn between $1,999 and
$2,009 per year— 24V4 million them—will be
a little better off than these fellows. Over
2/3 of American workers are receiving in
comes of less than $2,009 per year, and pay
ing today's living costs out of what they
actually get to “take home.”
An even more" serious fable, however,
than the one about high wages Is the one
which ends up with the moral: “Be reason
able; be patriotic; don't ask for a wage in
General Motors Profits
Reached 364 Millions
In 43, UAW Reveals
Page 3
crease because wage increase mat n the cost
of living go up.”
Wages Have Not Raised Prices
To show bow false this Idea Is let's go to
the War Labor Board which “stabilises”
wages and the OFA which “stabilises”
prices. (Unfortunately, the word doesn't
mean the same thing In vetb eases.)
The War Labor Beard tells as that It acted
upon 47,599 coses duttsg fL? just, 1948. la
how ttiany of thego did kv'* eases “*ie
jfmr 9 M full ntf sh*|ffeqßta
of
fispuritng h *only 411 of
them.
In other words In only 9 cases out of each
thousand was a price Increase necessary to
make possible a wage Increase, and In fear
out of the ntx cases, wage was only ONE
OP SEVERAL REASONS FOR THE PRICE
INCREASE.
Hie next time, Mk Worker, somebody
tells you that the cost of living will have
to go up If labor asks for decent wages, tell
him these figures and ask him to explain
how he gets that way!
Here Are the Real Profiteers
Nevertheless it Is true that prices have
risen terrifically.
Where has the money been going? Into
profits; corporation profits after taxation are
119% higher In 1943 than the IS-'SB average*
and in many cases are still mounting rap
idly. In some industries, profits 09%.
. • even 7 times on. high Oa they
the war. -■£ *-****•• ‘
Farm owners who In '3S-'3B put. ftfil
into their pockets for each dollar #ahl to
labor, In 1943 hod $945 left for each wage
dollar paid oat Just the INCREASE, fts net
form income over this period ts.ehnost five
times as great as the ENTIRE FARM LA
BOR BILL IN 1943 L
THESE ARE THE FACTS. Let's get these
facts into the hands of our neighbors, both
in the plants and at home. Labor to asking
for only a fair shake.