Montana labor news., 1933-11-30
AUTO INDUS
TRY QUIT NRA TO
BEAT THE UNIONS

DETROIT-(FP)-T The automobile
industry may scrap the NRA code af-
ter Dec. 81, B. c. Forbes, Hearst COM
mentator on industrial relations, de-
clares in a copyrighted article in The
Detroit Times.
The reason for the probable action
of the auto barons, Forbes declares,
is the growing organization of the
automobile workers and the strikes
which have been called when the boss
es attempted to continue their policy
of no collective bargaining.
If the auto industry steps out, the
steel magnates will soon follow them,
Forbes predicts. They, too, feel that
the MIRA is primarily responsible for
giving their workers the idea that they
have a right to organize, he says.
Whether the automobile bosses
will be able to knife organization by
stepping out of the NRA setup is a
moot question. One of the principal
reasons organization has never sue
ceeded heretofore has been the inab-
ility Of organized labor to gain even
a foothold in the auto shops, due to
coercion and spying. But now a great
many of the workers are organized in
to strong unions and will, no doubt,
use their organization to enforce col
%lective bargaining by widespread
strikes.
In the two strikes recently ended
in Detroit, the tool and die makers
and the Murray Corp. body workers,
the strikers went back into the shops
strongly organized. The Murray
strike, led by the Metal & Machin-
cry Workers Section of the Industrial
Workers of the World, gained nothing
for the workers except a vague prom
Use of no discrimination, but the men
returned to their jobs promising to
strike later.
The strike of the tool and die max
ers, directed against every plant in
the Detroit area except Graham
Paige and Ford, ended VIGOROUSLY
when the Mechanics Educational So
ciety, the tool and die union, signed
agreements with four large auto man.
ufacturers, 81 smaller shops organized
in the Jobbers' Assn, and 10 indie
pendent small job shops. Minimum
wages were fixed at Soc an hour and
a 40-hour maximum work week was
won. Only the General Motors Corp.
plants failed to sign agreements.
Packard Motors, Hudson Motors, Con-
tinental Motors and the Murray Body
Corp.-all signed agreements with
the M. E. S. The principal gains
were won in the small job shops where
wages had been reduced to SOC an
hour for a 12-to-14-hour work day.
The M. E. S. has established itself
as a powerful workers organization.
Members are being signed up daily
and more than $1,000 tool and die
makers have joined in Detroit, Flint
and Pontiac alone. Locals have been
started in Dayton, Toledo, Cleveland
and South Bend and organization ac-
tivity has spread to Lansing, Grand
Rapids and New York City. Union Of
ficials regard the recent strike as
merely a skirmish and are preparing
their forces for the fight against the
General Motors subsidiaries which
have so far successfully resisted I'M
ion recognition.
The M. E. S. was begun by about
Is or 16 tool and die makers last
April and is composed of the most
skilled men in the industry. Locals
were begun in Flint and Pontiac. AT
ter some weeks of organization, the
Flint local presented demands to
Fisher Body, Chevrolet, and A. C.
Spark Plug, all General Motors units,
but no agreement was reached. Sept.
81 saw the Flint tool and die makers
on strike and they were Joined a week
later by the Detroit and Pontiac To-
Gals. The union has no affiliation
with any other labor body.