The CIO news., May 10, 1943, Image 1

About The CIO news. (Cumberland, Md.) 1942-????

Image provided by: University of Maryland, College Park, MD

                
Did Lewis Choose the Way to Labor’s Victory?
An Editorial
Has John Lewis heard about the war?
Does he know that hundreds of thou
sands of men have already given their
lives on foreign fields to stave off Fascism?
These questions are echoing in the minds
of men and women of Allegany County and
of the nation as the miners return to work.
The whole labor movement was, and is.
In back of the economic demands of the
miners. Indeed, the perliminary victory in
the fight for portal-to-portal pay had already
been won by the CIO for the Alabama ore
miners, and so for the coal miners.
The tactics of the coal operators were
provocative in the extreme.
But the tactics used by Lewis showed
Give to
Community
Chest
Vol. VI, No. 19
i' ; "’ ; ' . _ -_ pfy :>-I>:v|mK^
to do somethin);: about price control
L/C I EIXIVIMNEL/ are these four Allegany County union
women who gave their views over radio station WBTO May 4.
Left to right: Mrs. Delphia Parker, Mrs. Margaret Newcomer, Mrs.
Mary D. Luteman, and Mrs. Wenona Snyder. (See story page 12.)
Labor Rallies Nation
Against Rising Prices
From all parts of the United States comes news of labor’s
inspiring struggle to clamp the lid on further price rises and
roll back the cost of living to May, 1942.
In East Pittsburgh, the CIO unions rallied the public to a
special price-control rally May 2. Taking the lead were the
locals of the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers which
has called for such meetings throughout the nation.
On the same day, the United t
Automobile Workers was mobiliz-
To Repeal Merit
Ratinq Law
BALTIMORE, May 5—A state
wide campaign to bring about
the repeal of the pernicious ex
perience-rating law of unem
ployment compensation was an
nounced today by Ullssc De Do
minicis, president of the Mary
land-D. C. Industrial Union
Council.
This law, known as S-68, was
passed by the legislature and sign
ed by the Governor over the strong
opposition of all branches of the
labor movement. The State AFL
has also launched a campaign for
repeal of the measure.
WOULD SUSPEND OPERATION
Ten thousand signatures will be
sought before June 1 to a petition
so that the measure may go to
referendum. Its operation will be
automatically suspended pending
the outcome of the referendum.
The luw is a menace to the
entire system of unemployment
compensation In the State, says
the council. It would have the
effect of materially reducing even
the present inadequate compensa
tion benefits and would save em
ployers large sums of money
one estimate Is $17,000,000 —at the
expense of the unemployed.
MARYLAND EDITION
POSTMASTER: Send . western Mary-
land CIO News. 12 Sout a > Cumberland, Md. May
■y " ■ ■ - n—.— i .. . ■
ing a mass conference of consum
ers in Detroit, the first of a series
to take up the attack against the
high cost of living.
The Chicago Industrial Union
Council, at an emergency confer
ence on the high cost of living at
tended by 1200 delegates, adopted
a recommendation that the CIO
call a national conference on prices
and wages.
URGES NEIGHBORHOOD
COUNCILS
In New York, work has been
begun to set up CIO Community
Councils, which will organize
every CIO member where he lives
rather than where he works.
“The black market can be
smashed, price ceilings enforc
ed, and high quality of merchan
dise maintained," says Clifford
J. McAvoy, Legislative Director
(Continued on Page 12)
- —= "■ r— ■ |
WESTERN MARYLAND
Edition
THE CIO NEWS
Formerly The Voice ol Labor
Horace B. Davis, Editor
lohn G. Thomas, Secy-Treas.
Owned and Published by the
Western Maryland Industrial
Union Council
Editorial Office:
12 S. Mechanic St.
Cumberland, Maryland
Phone 471
him up as a politician rather than a
statesman.
Labor has not given up the right to strike.
It values that right too much. It will vio
lently oppose all anti-strike legislation such
as that now proposed by Senator Connally
of Texas.
However the major branches of the labor
movement have surrendered that right for
the duration.
By so doing they have announced that
they will use other means to advance
labor's point of view, a point of view which
is essential to the proper and victorious
conduct of the war.
The other methods are unfamiliar. They
are beset with enormous difficulties. The
opposition at times seems overwhelming.
Every week one may read of some union
Urge Price
Enforcement
Two Maryland labor leaders
last week urged a stepping up
of the war on black markets
as one of the best means of
checking runaway prices.
Sidney R. Katz, Secretary-Treas
urer of the State and District
Council, CIO, made a recommenda
tion that the Governor of Mary
land “place the enforcement ma
chinery of the State of Maryland
at the disposal of the OCA in a
vigorous attack on price ceilings.”
Pointing out that the New York
State War Council had already
taken action similar to that which
he recommended., for. Maryland,
Katz continued.
“From our undrcstanding of the
defense hill which passed the Mary
land Legislature, that power is now
vested in the so-called Little War
Council and we strongly urge in
the Interest of the war effort that
you take action similar to that
taken by New York.”
Refusing to pay 50c a pound
for tomatoes, John K. Neal, Sec
retary of the Western Md. CIO
Council, got the price reduced to
the ceiling level of 34c on one
purchase.
Any housewife who knew her
ceilings could do the same, com
mented Neal.
Black marketers can and
should be prosecuted by con
sumers and have the foresight to
get a written receipt, says State
OPA Director Leo 11. McCormick.
In Baltimore five consumers have
already collected SSO each In suc
cessful prosecutions.
Keyser Mill
90 0/0 CIO
Cumberland, May s—Boyd E.
Payton, Int’l. Rep. of the Tex
tile Workers Union of America,
expressed amusement today
when the management of the
Potomac Worsted Spinning
Mills, of Keyser, W. Va., ques
tioned the right of the union
to represent its 92 employees.
Ninety-one of the 92 had signed
application cards for Local
1874.
Following a quiet campaign by
a small committee of Celanese
union members, the workers held
a series of meetings of increasing
size at which they raised with
Bro. Payton the problems they
had on their minds. His answers
were so convincing that everybody
joined up.
The union committee in the
plant is composed of the follow
ing: Day Shift—Meryle Crumble;
Irene Golden, former chairlady of
the so-called Plant Committee;
and Maisie McDade. Evening Shift:
Marie Shank, Martha Steward, and
Nelsie Downing.
Entered as Second Class Matter, Post Office, Washington, $1 a Year
D. C.. under the Act of Aug. 24, 1912 and Feb. 28. 1925 3c a Copy
10, 1913
May 16th Meet Will
Be Major Affair
CUMBERLAND, May s—Acceptancess—Acceptances already received make
it certain that the May 16 Conference on Price Control and
Economic Stabilization, sponsored by the Western Maryland
Labor Unity Conference, will be representative of the whole
community and not of one part only.
BUSINESS, RELIGIOUS, i
VETERAN GROUPS ACCEPT ,
Delegates have been appointed j
by the Chum lx* r of Commerce, the ;
Junior Association of Commerce,
and the Kiwanis Club; by the Bust- .
ness and Professional Women’s;
Club and the Primary Teachers’
Association; by the United Breth- 1
ren Church on Race and 4th Streets
and the LaSalle High School and
by the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
The YMCA, the Allegany County
Welfare Board, and the Townsend
Clubs also expect to send delegates,
and a large number of other organ
izations will act on their invita
tions before May 16.
EDELMAN, McCORMICK
TO SPEAK
Guest speakers at the Confer
ence will include Mayor Thomas
F. Conlon; John W. Edelman of
the Office of Price Administra
tion, Washington, D. C.; Leo 11.
McCormick, State Director of the
Office of Price Administration,
Baltimore; and Charles W. Mit
zel of the Baltimore office of the
War Production Board. State
Secretary-Treasurer Sidney Katz
of the State and District CTO
Council will be present and will
contribute his special knowledge
of the knotty tax problem.
FIVE COMMITTEES TO REPORT
According to present plans, the
Conference will do a considerable
part of its work in committees, of
which there will be five. One will
deal with price ceilings, a second
with rationing, a third with grade
labeling, a fourth with taxes, and
the important fifth committee will
consider the general problem of
District 50
Loses Again
NEWARK, N. J.—Brazenly claim
ing a victory, the stooges for John
L. Lewis's District 50 called off
their “strike” at the Celanese’ plant
here when their picket lines had
come to include only a handful of
bona fide Celanese workers.
Production is ugain normal and ,
the Textile Workers Union of j
America is in a stronger position
in Newark than it was before
Lewis made his latest grab for
power.
Collapse of the raiding party,
which had held up vital war work
in 31 plants dependent on Celanese
materials, came April 26, after
President Roosevelt said production
would have to l>e resumed.
The workers having failed to fol
low lewis's lead, he hud no choice
but to withdraw.
which, pushed beyond endurance by the
arrogant tactics of some labor-baiting em
ployer, has called for a reconsideration of
labor's no-strike pledge.
But labor as a whole has showed a
restraint which historians will record as
marvelous. It is not the restraint of a cowed
population held in line by Fascist dictators,
but rather the restraint of men who have
learned the meaning of freedom and seek
to establish a larger freedom.
The new methods are not strictly economic
methods. They involve organization of a
new kind: the mobilization of public opinion
in support of labor's just demands, the use
of government agencies, ten-fold intensifica
tion of what is usually called legislative
work.
(Continued on Page 2)
■ - -
LEO. 11. McCORMICK
curbing inflation. An organization
which sends five delegates can be
represented on all committees.
The committees will draft resolu
tions and report them back to a
, full session of the conference.
SPEAK ON RADIO
The Club of Human Relations
devoted its program April 25 to
the subject of price ocntrol and
economic stabilization.
Addresses were given by Paul
England, Secretary of Machinists
Local No. 1140; G. Edwin Parker,
Vice-Chairman of the Maryland
Legislative Board of the Brother
hood of Railroad Trainmen; and
John E. Neal, Secretary of the
Western Md. Industrial Union
Council, CIO. Also participating
in the question period was Wm. H.
Frazier, Vice-President of Typo
graphical Union No. 244.
Guards Join
At Kelly
The guards at the Kelly
plant have signed up for
Local 26, announces Vice-
President John E. Sharp.
The union has requested bar
gaining rights for them, and the
field examiner for the National
tabor Relations Bourd has puid
a visit to Cumberland on the
case, hut found Mr. Houdack
out of town.
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