The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-06-23

strikes and the threatened All
s, 1888.
in the Buffalo strike which
was led by the Aeronautical
Workers Federal Union No. 1926
"A. F. Of L. there was no organi-
rational attempt made to enlist
the aid of all other aircraft or
CARNATIONS. The union also failed
to spread the strike to all the sub
salaries of the company. We also
have information on hand that
when the Advertisements Fedora
ton, a newly organized independ-
ent organization in the East, rep
resenting pilots, mechanics, techni-
clans, aircraft students, etc.; on
the local airportS, approached the
union for information concerning
the strike and the possibility of
helping in the strike, they received
a reply from John Murphy, Labor
Advisor of the union, thanking
the Federation for the offer, ETC.;
but giving no information at all
concerning the strike. the strike
demands, the possibility of joint
action, etc. In spite of this the
Advertisement Federation success
fully prevented the recruitment of
Scsbs from Roosevelt Field, Floyd
Bennett, ETC.; and also sent a tel
egram to the chief of police in
Buffalo protesting the police at
tack on the strikers. There was
no attempt made at all by the
union to set up joint strike COM
mittee of the Hartford group and
other aircraft organizations to
spread the strike in the industry.
In the Hartford strike against
Pratt and Whitney Co., subsidiary
of the United Aircraft Co., which
was led by the Industrial Aircraft
Workers of America ian independ-
ent union), which had split away
from the A. F. of L., the union
also made no attempt to spread
the strike to all of the subsidiaries
of the United Aircraft Co. There
was no provision made to pull out
the engineers and Office help who
remained working during tn e
strike, although committee rep
resenting the engineers approached
the union on this question. The
union also failed to approach and
set up a joint strike committee
OF the Buffalo group in order to
spread the strike to other sections
of the aircraft industry.
If the above had been carried
out we are quite sure that the
story regarding the settlements
wcWd have been entirely different
from what it is today.
On October 6tn, 1898, an al. line
pilots strike threatened which
was len by the Air Line Pilots Is
ISOLATION, a narrow craft union of
the A. F. of L. consisting only of
pilots employed on transport air
lines. This was completely sold
out by the A. F. of L. officials.
In this threatened strike. the of
f1cialS agreed to an unnamed
federal fact finding committee, !"
to settle their strike. The COM
mittee was supposed to give its
report within six months. The six
months period was up on May 5,
1884, but still there is no report,
and nothing is being done about
it. Meanwhile the income of all
air line pilots has been cut ire
mendously by installing the hourly
pay rate in plac eof the mileage
pay rate.
During this threatened strike
period, because of the A. F. of l..
narrow craft policy, there was no
attempt made to involve the me-
chanics and other air line work
ers in the strike. No attempt was
made to elect a broad rank and
file strike committee, instead all
negotiations were conducted by
David L. Bencke, president of the
Pilots Association and other Off
Gals. The Pilots Association de-
hberately barred all pilots from
membership who were not en-
ployed by the Transport Air Lines.
The result of this policy can be
clearly seen from the following
excerpt of an article in the N. Y.
Herald Tribune, October 9th, 1888
by G. B. Allen:
department OF Commerce rec
ords show that on July 1st. 1888,
there we're more than 1000 Ii
censed transport pilots in the U. S.
Unless the Governments methods