The Butler County press. [volume], October 06, 1944, Image 1

About The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946

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Washington, D. C.—Launching the
final phase of the American Federa
tion of Labor's fight to break the
wage freeze, AFL Secretary-Treasur
er George Meany told ihe War Labor
Board action is overdue to remedy
injustice to the nation's workers and
to safeguard America from a post
war depression.
At the conclusion of the Board's
public hearings it will submit a re
port to President Roosevelt making
recommendations with regard to the
future of the Little Steel formula.
Indications are that the Board will
urge relaxation of the formula and
that the President will authorize such
action within the next few weeks, but
as yet there is no indication of the
form or extent of the relief expected.
Mr. Meany, in opening the AFL
case against the wage-freeze, charged
that it not only has reduced the real
income of the nation's wage earners
but that it is unjust to the millions
of workers now serving in the armed
forces, "who have every reason to
expect their government to honor its
promise that it would maintain their
FREY DEMANDS
GOVERNMENT ACT
French Labor, Back on Job
In Paris, Drafts Sweeping
Post-War Program
Meany Opens AFL's Final
Attack On Wage-Freeze
WLB AND FDR Expected To Bow To Demands For
Break In Wage Formula
Washington, D. C.—John P. Frey,
President of the AFL Metal Trades
Department, demanded before the
War Labor Board that the govern
ment "honor" a 1942 wage contract
which pledged wage increases to
hundreds of thousands of shipyard
workers if the cost of living went up.
Making a "personal statement" at
a hearing he said:
"We are not here pleading with
your board. We are here to tell your
board some things, the telling of
which is perhaps long overdue."
Mr. Frey said that the AFL unions
had an agreement which tied wage
rates to living costs but that in 1942
at the request of President Roosevelt
they accepted less than the agreement
provided. That agreement provided
for a 1943 wage review to adjust pay
scales in accordance with changes in
living costs, the union leader added,
and it had not been carried out al
though the government was a party
to it.
"It is an open question," Mr. Frey
asserted, "if the government fails to
carry out the provisions of an agree
ment it has negotiated with labor,
whether labor is any longer bound by
other provisions of such an agree
ment."
Washington, D. C.—For the first
time in more than four years, the
French organized labor movement,
known as the Confederation General
Travail, is back on the job in Paris,
according to cabled despatches reach
ing this country.
Moving on on the heels of the vic
torious allied armies and French lib
eration troops, the labor leaders of
France, many of whom had fought a
long and bitter underground battle
against their Nazi oppressors, have
come back to the building on the Rue
Lafayette from which they were ban
ned by the Petain government in 1940.
However, there ~are still a number
of prominent French labor leaders
missing and their fate is uncertain
Among these is Leon Jouhaux, vet
eran head of the CGT, who is re
ported to be a prisoner of the Nazis.
American reporters, visiting at
CGT headquarters, obtained an inter
view with Louis Saillant, a secretary
of the organization, who worked in
the underground all during the occu-
CHUCK ROAST
SMOKED PICNICS
GROUND BEEF
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living standards" in their absence.
"The long delay that has ensued
since the filing of this petition by the
American Federation of Labor mem
bers of the Board merely compounds
these injustices that the nation's
workers and fighters have suffered,"
Mr. Meany added.
Mr. Meany laid special emphasis on
the disastrous effects of the wage
freeze on post-war economic condi
tions. Full production and employ
ment after the war ends, he insisted,
depends entirely on the maintenance
of the purchasing power of the na
tion's consumers, which is impossible
with inadequate wages.
"We can not afford to wait Until we
are suddenly thrown into the post
war period to decide what to do about
wages. Unless we act before victory
has been achieved, the question of
wages in the vital reconversion period
will be left to be decided by the eco
nomic forces involved. Strikes, strift
and economic chaos will result. We
feel that labor has a right to expect
this board to give favorable action
now upon its request."
pation. He said the CGT already is
preparing to work out its post-war
program on these two broad fronts:
1—D e a n important reforms
which would satisfy the material
needs of the French workers.
2—Repair the injustices caused by
the Vichy Government and the Nazis.
Unemployment, he thought, should
not be a serious problem in France.
There is an enormous amount of re
construction to be carried out, the
French railroads have been reduced
to almost nothing by the Nazis
French industrial machinery has aged
20 years during the last four years of
German pressure French luxury
trades have been at a standstill and
will need reviving.
Among other points made by .£ail
land during the interview were:
Salaries during the occupation went
up about 18 percent and the cost of
living more than 200 percent. Sal
aries should be increased immediately
by 50 percent to meet the worst of
this inequality which is causing real
hunger amopg many workers.
Owners and managers who were col
laborationists should be arrested and
tried. He said that there are many in
this class.
Factories engaged in war work,
which means most of them, should be
requisitioned ,at least for the present
emergency, by the French Provisional
Government and administrators in
stalled to contral profits and direct
administration.
The Government should nationalize
France's mines, electrical power, the
chemical industry, the steel industry,
the insurance companies .The coun
try's banks should be strictly con
trolled by the Bank of France which
should be nationalized.
Indemnities should be paid to the
shareholders of these industries. In
the case of collaborationists, their
holdings should be appropriated by
the nation.
CHICAGO MARKET CO.
Front and High Sts,
Holding companies through which
the bulk of French industry was con
trolled by a small group of men,
should be broken up.
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AFL UNIONS TRIUMPH
IN SHIPYARD ELECTION
Superior, Wis.—AFL ^unions won
a smashing victory in a National La
bor Relations Board election among
employes of the Globe Shipyard here.
The AFL vote totaled 1,141 to only
319 for the CIO.
William F. Wright, AFL organizer,
reported the outcome of the collective
bargaining poll to President Green,
who expressed pleasure 0"*r the re
sult.
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THE BUTLER COUNTY PRESS.
Many of the Republican leaders and
Congressmen and candidates, who
shouted enthusiastic approval of that
plant in that convention hall, would
not even recognize these progressive
laws if they met them in broad day
light.
VOL. XLIV. No. 27. HAMILTON, OmO, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1944 ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR
y
WNU6ervtce)
Excerpts From President's Speech
Washington, D. C.—Excerpts from
President Roosevelt's address before
the International Brotherhood of
Teamsters dinner here follow:
We all know certain people will
make it a practice to depreciate the ac
complishments of labor—who even at
tack labor as unpatriotic.
They keep this up usually for three
years and six months. But then, for
some strange reason, they change their
tune—every four years—just before
election day.
When votes are at stake they sud
denly discover that they really love
labor, and are eager to protect it
from its old friends.
I got quite a laugh, for example—
and I am sure that you did—when I
read this plank in the Republican plat
form adopted at their national con
vention in Chicago last July:
"The Republican party accepts the
purposes of the National Labor Re
lations Act, the Wage and Hour Act,
the Social Security Act, and all other
Federal statutes resigned to promote
and protect the welfare of American
working men and women, and we
promise a fair and just administra
tion of these laws."
Indeed, they have personally spent
years of effort and energy—and much
money—in fighting every one of those
laws in the Congress, in the press and
in the courts, ever since this Adminis
tration began to advocate them and
enact them into legislation.
That is a fair example of their in
sincerity and their inconsistency.
The whole purpose of Republican
oratory these days seems to be
switch labels. The object is to per
suade the American people that th
Democratic party wag responsible for
the 1929 crash and depression, and the
Republican party was responsible for
all social progress under the New
Deal.
Imitation may be the sincerest form
of flattery—but I am afraid that in
this case it is the tnost obvious com
mon or garden variety of fraud.
I know that there are those labor
baiters among the opposition who, in
stead of calling attention to thi
achievements of labor in this war, pre
fer the occasional strikes which have
occurred—strikes which have been con
demned by every responsible national
labor leader—every national leader ex
cept one. And that one labor leader,
incidentally, is certainly not among
my supporters.
Labor baiters forget that, at our
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Unconditional Surrender
C0M»N\
mother
Roosevelt Extols Labor,
Hits GOP Record In Talk
peak, American labor and manage
ment have turned out airplanes at the
rate of 109,000 per year tanks, 57,
000 per year combat vessels, 573 per
year landing vessels, 31,000 per year
cargo ships, 19,000,000 tons per year,
and small arms ammunition, 23 bil
lion rounds per year.
But a strike is news, and generally
appears in shrieking headlines—and,
of course, they say labor is always
to blame.
The fact is that, since Pearl Har
bor, only one-tenth of one per cent
of man-hours have been lost by strikes.
But even those candidates who burst
out in election-year affection for so
cial legislation and for labor in gen
eral still think you ought to be good
boys and stay out of politics.
The keynote of all that we propose
to do in reconversion can be found in
the one word—"jobs."
We shall lease or dispose of our
Government-owned plants and facili
ties and our surplus war property and
land on the basis of how they can
best be operated by private enter
prise to give jobs to the greater num
ber.
We shall follow a wage policy which
will sustain the purchasing power of
labor—for that means more produc
tion and more jobs.
The present policies on wages and
prices were conceived to serve the
needs of the great masses of the peo
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pie. They stopped inflation. They kept
prices on a stable level. Through the
demobilization period, policies will
be carried out with the same objec
tive in mind—to serve the needs of
the great masses of the people.
This is not the time in which men
can be forgotten as they were in the
Republican catastrophe which we in
herited. The returning soldiers, the
workers by their machines, the farm
ers in the field, the miners, the men
and women in offices and shops, do
not intend to be forgotten.
They know they are not surplus
Because they know that they are
America.
We must set targets and objectives
for the future which will seem im
possible to those who live in and are
weighted down by the dead past.
LABOR MAN RENAMED
PANAMA U. S. MARSHAL
Washington, D. C.—John E. Hush
ing, who has completed two four-year
terms as United States marshal for
the Canal Zone, was renominated by
President Roosevelt and confirmed by
the U. S. Senate for an additional
term of 8 years.,
Mr. Hushing is a machinist-tool
maker by trade and has been a mem
ber of the International Association
of Machinists in good standing for 39
years.
Advertise in The Press.
Western Sales Co.
31-33 Main Street
BAR FIXTURES
GLASSES, GLASSWARE
and GIFTS
WE CARRY A COMPLETE STOCK
Western Sales Co.
31-33 Main Street Phone 1245
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PLAN FOR WORLD
LABOR COOPERATION
Washington, D. C. In a special
message to be broadcast throughout
Latin America on Labor Day by the
Office of Inter-American Affairs, AFL
President William Green called for
hemisphere labor cooperation to es
tablish lasting peace and banish pov
erty when the war ends.
Outlining the Federation's views,
Mr. Green said:
"Through our own efforts and
through the operations of the Inter
national Labor Organization, of which
the labor organizations of Latin
America form a leading part, we in
tend to promote these world-wide-ob
jectives:
"I Opportunity of useful and
steady employment to all persons who
want work at fair wages and under
decent conditions.
"2 Establishment of u a n e
working stnadards to prevent exploi
tation of workers, to maintain pur
chasing power and to abolish eco
nomic peonage.
"3—Careful provision for child wel
fare.
"4—Raising standards of living to
provide adequate nutrition, clothing,
housing, medical care and education.
"5—Establishment of social secur
ity by providing insurance benefits to
all workers whose employment is in
terrupted by sickness, injury, old age
or lack of employment opportunities.
"These are the basic essentials of
the program American labor will fol
low in the post-war years. To assure
its success we invite the clase co
operation of the trade unions of Latin
America. By working side by side for
mutually advantageous objectives we
can truly learn to be good neighbors."
Labor League For Human
Rights Serves Through
National War Fund
Relief supplies of every description,
from cigarettes to surgical instru
ments, are covered in the AFL'c 1944
war relief program for the workers
of the hard-pressed United Nations,
according to Abraham Bluestein, exe
cutive director of the Labor League
for Human Rights, official relief arm
of the AFL.
Labor's own war relief program,
jointly sponsored by AFL and CIO
through the war relief societies of the
National War Fund, includes such
projects as feeding famine victims in
India, establishing vocational schools,
child welfare centers and workers'
rest houses in China, supplying medi
cal equipment for the workers of
Palestine, both Jewish and Arab, and
maintaining merchant seamen's homes
in Britain for sailors of all the United
Nations. Bulk shipments of warm
clothing for the women of Russia were
an item in this past winter's program,
and additional shipments are planned
during the balance of 1944.
These projects, through which aid
goes to the workers of the United Na
tions, have been in existence for more
than two years. A typical project, a
welfare center in one of the smaller
industrial cities of China, served more
than 70,000 workers in its first three
months of existence, and the balance
of labor's relief program has proved
to be an equally important contribu
tion to the health and morale of our
allies, Mr. Bluestein said.
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