The Chicago star., August 21, 1948, Star Edition, Page 8, Image 8

About The Chicago star. (Chicago, Ill.) 1946-1948

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
8
Belmont strikers
turn back scabs
Br SARA RICCI
The 400 white and Negro
members of Local 1149.
United Electrical, Radio &
Machine Workers (CIO),
were entering into a decisive
stage of their six-week strike
at Belmont Radio Corp., 5921
Dickens, this week.
On Monday and Tuesday, they
had successfully beaten back the
latest in a series of company at
tempts at a ‘‘back to work”
movement. Police slationed at
the p’ant attempted to harass
strikers, arresting four pickets.
But, many realized union
members would have to be on
guard against company attempts
to split solidarity of whites and
Negroes on the picketlines.
* * *
ON MONDAY. Bilmont work
ers demon traied from 6:45 to
8:31 a xri. in a mass pickelline
'7!icy wifi win'
Sidney L. Ordower declared
i’ ' week that the strike of
Cf? e’"ctiicol workers against
the Belmont Frdio Co. would
successful becaure cf the
"fjh morale and complete
unit * cf Negro and while
v.-o kors." Ordower's praise of
tire strikers came during his
ro'j 'lar weekly news commen
tary, which is broadcast every
Vfc'nesJav at 7:31 p. m. over
Y’AIT (520 on the dial). Or
d iver. Progressive candidate
for Congrcse from the 6th dis
trict. walked in the picketlines
early this week.
at the gates of the plant, then
gathered in a vacant lot next to
their union headquarters at 5811
W. Grand for a brief rally.
Tired but happy, they gathered
in a half-circle, and listened in
tently to words of support from
a man—in the words of Alice
Smith, UE district vice-president,
who introduced the speaker
“not merely for labor, but of
labor”: Grant Oakes, president
N.Y. ClOon meat
NEW YORK —<FP> A mass
protest demonstration against
‘‘depression diets” imposed on
consumers by the big meat pack
ers was called here by the Great
er New York CIO Council.
THE CHICAGO STAR. AUGUST 21, 1948
* ill
NEW YORK HOUSEWIVES in picketlines join nation-wide meat
boycott, say they can't buy $1.50-pound lamb chops for their families.
of the United Farm Equipment
Sc Metal Workers of America
(CIO>, and Progressive Party
candidate for governor.
‘‘lf we’re going to win against
corporations like Belmont,”
Oakes told the workers, “we
have to have people in office
who represent labor policies • . .
the policies of FDR.”
* * *
THE BELMONT strike was
not merely “financial or econ
omic—but political,” Oakes said,
pointing out that the strike prob
ably would not have been neces
sary had the company not been
armed with the anti-labor laws
passed by the 80th Congress.
Oakes warned against Chicago
newspapers’ attempts to break
the strike by use of the “red
herring.” Said Oakes:
“I’ve been labeled as a Red
for as long as I’ve been in the
labor movement . . . Don’t be
confused or misled • . . because
as the strike goes on, the prop
aganda is going to grow more
vicious . . . They’re bringing up
this ‘red issue’ ... to divert your
attention from the real issue. ..
the high cost of living ”
* * *
WORKERS at Belmont aren’t
confused.
“With the cost of living so
high, we deserve more than the
10 cents we’re asking the com
pany for,” Mrs. Georgiana Thin
nes, 51, o? 3623 W. North, told
a Star reporter on the picket
lines. “We’re fighting for more
than two cents (the difference
between the union’s 10-cent de
mand and Belmont’s eight-cent
How to do it!
When Union Dairy Co.,
2621 W. Wilcox, jacked up its
milk price one cent three
weeks ago. Local 1114. United
Electrical. Radio 8c Machine
Workers (CIO) shop stewards
at Miehle Printing Press &
Mfg. Co.. W- 14th 8c S. Damen,
went into action. "The 20 or
more shop stewards here
called for a boycott of Union
Dairy milk." says Chief Shop
Steward Walter Stempel.
"And what do you think? Un
ion Dairy dropped its one
cent increase immediately...
I firmly believe our action is
the only way the working
man can gel any relief."
offer). We’re fighting for our
union. They’re trying to bust this
union ’cause the CIO has done
so much for us here ”
Mrs. Thinnes works in Bel
mont’s salvage department, pack
ing rejected radio parts which
must be returned to the supply
department for repair. She began
working at Belmont 10 years ago
at 40 cents an hour. Because of
the union, she now gets sl.Ol
an hour.
“Before the CIO come in,” said
Mrs. Thinnes, whose husband, a
patient at Hines Hospital, is de
pendent on her earnings, “we
never got no overtime- Some
times we didn’t get our regular
pay if materials was short, and
there wasn’t enough work to go
around.”
Chicago strike benefits
all, Randolph tells ITU
MILWAUKEE, Wise.—(FP)
—The nation’s printers will
continue to give battle to the
Taft - Hartley law as mili
tantly as they have for the
past year. Pres. Woodruff
Randolph of the Inti. Typo
graphical Union (AFL)
pledged to his union’s 90th
convention here.
The 400 delegates cheered and
applauded as he announced:
“It is our determination to
win the strikes and lockouts now
in progress regardless of size or
place, and regardless of time and
expense”
* * *
MEANWHILE, ITU Counsel
Gerhard von Arkel announced
the union would appeal an NLRB
trial examiner’s report finding it
guilty of violating sections of the
Taft-Hartley law. The report was
apparently timed to coincide with
the opening of the ITU conven
tion, which held its first session
Aug. 14.
The trial examiner ruled that
the ITU had violated the Taft-
Hartley Act by trying to main
tain the closed shop in the news
paper industry. It was the fourth
UPWA in
pact with
Armour
After 28 consecutive hours of
negotiation last week, the United
Packinghouse Workers of Amer
ica (CIO) reached a new one
year agreement with Armour &
Co.
Led by UPW ’ s president,
Ralph Helstein, the record
breaking bargaining produced a
contract similar to agreements
signed with two other members
of the Big Four—Cudahy and
Swift.
The contract provides for no
wage increase, but permits re
opening on wages. It also grants
triple time pay for holiday work
and “irrevocable checkoff” for
union members.
Wilson & Co., last member of
the Big Four, has refused to ne
gotiate with the union, until
settlement of the NLRB suit filed
by UPWA charging Wilson’s
with unfair labor practices
UftK rrrijp taw *Ws vwe*
PUUIILPI UrtlOK tN TWT-WARUEY NLfefe VoUi
similar attack by NLRB exam
iners on the ITU. A charge of
featherbedding was thrown out.
“The definite result of our
policy during this year of most
disagreeable and punishing ex
perience,” Randolph said, “has
been the preservation of the ITU
as a stable and responsible union,
upholding our historic rights and
privileges and legally contesting
every invasion of them ”
Randolph credited the 9-month
old Chicago newspaper strike
with forcing publishers in New
York and other cities to reach
agreements with the ITU pro
viding union security and wage
increases.
ILWU in new
contract talks
Local 208, Inti. Longshoremen’s
Sc Warehousemen’s Union (CIO),
is negotiating new contracts with
Thomas Paper Stock Co., Do
mestic Wipers, and Curly Kate,
it was announced by Bernard
Lucas, local president, this week.
Negotiations soon will begin with
Atlantic Paper Supply and Aetna
Paper Supply. Local 208 has won
pay increases and improved con
tracts from 11 companies this
year.
'Heads held high/ Univis
workers go back with 11c
DAYTON, O.—(FP) Unintimi
dated by the Taft-Hartley law,
police violence and Natl. Guard
tanks and bayonets, striking Uni
vis Lens Co. workers returned
to their jobs Aug. 10 with an lie
hourly pay boost and their unity
unbroken.
Settlement of the 14-week
strike came after the company
agreed to grant strikers their old
jobs back or jobs of equal rating.
Eleven strikers whom the com
pany had accused of violating the
law were guaranteed full pay
until Aug. 31, during arbitration
of whether they are to be taken
back. The 11c increase had been
agreed on July 27.
A statement by Local 768,
United Electrical Radio & Ma
chine Workers (CIO), which
called the 600 workers out on
strike, said: We go back to work
He disclosed that the union
paid out ?3,471,538 in benefits to
the Chicago typos from Nov. 24,
when the strike began, to July
20. Seated with the delegates
were 1,000 Chicago strikers, who
came here for the opening ses
sion and paraded through down
town Milwaukee urging a boy
cott of the Chicago papers which
are circulated here.
UOPWA asks
Murray to halt
Prudential raids
PITTSBURGH—CIO President
Philip Murray has been called
upon by the Insurance Division
of the United Office & Profes
sional Workers of America (CIO)
to halt raiding attempts by an
other CIO union, the United
Paperworkers of America,
against UOPWA membership at
Prudential Insurance Co.
At a meeting attended by eight
Chicago delegates, the division’s
national policy conference also
demanded that Prudential imme
diately enter negotiations with
the union for increased pay and
renewal of the contract-
The insurance men also de
cided to set up a national strat
egy committee and to take their
case against Prudential’s union
busting policies to the public.
secure in the knowledge that our
organization is made strong by
our unity . . . We forced the
Univis management to give an
11c raise after 11 weeks of strike.
We have won reinstatement with
out discrimination for the great
majority of our Univis workers
and arbitration in cases affecting
11 others.
“We go back to work with our
heads high and one major goal
before us—to build within the
shop overwhelming support for a
united effort to win better wages,
working conditions and the pro
tection of a union contract,”
. "Inside Labor" will not ap
pear on the labor page of The
Chicago Star while the editors
of the column are on vacation.