The daily worker., 1934-04-30
Terror Increases.
Betrayal Looms In
Fisher Body Strike
Means TO Smash
Means O Smash
Strike

CLEVELAND.-The honeymoon
phase of the Fisher Body strike is
aver. Saturday the company sp-
piled for an injunction to restrain
0icketing, The motion for the in
junction was not passed on that
lime by the court, but the hearing
viii be resumed Monday.
The company also paid for a full
page ad in the Plain Dealer in
which they stated their case. They
claimed that the strike did not
have the full support of the men;
that only 700 out 8,400 voted for it;
and that the pickets are coercing
The workers and preventing them
from going back to work. They
claim that the strike is a blow at
the Presidents recovery program
and against the spirit of the Ma
tional Recovery Act.
In relation to the chief demand
Of the workers, 80 per cent wage
Increase. this ad states: AT any
time such a demand would be con-
sidered exorbitant. At this time it
is entirely out of line with wages
paid in Cleveland or anywhere else
in the United States. The man
sgement of the Fisher Body Cleve-
land Division naturally will refuse
to meet it,"
They state their policy clearly
against recognition of the A. F. Of
L.. Nor will the management enter
into any agreement with so-called
representatives of our employees
who cannot show conclusively that
they have ben selected freely.
without coercion, restraint or in
timidatioH from any source, as
provided in the presidents agree
ment. To do so would be to break
faith with the large body of local
employees who have selected other
means of representation"
1t is clear now that Fisher body
will not grant any of the demands
Of the workers. The A. F. of L.
stated no policy as yet. At meet
ing of six hundred Fisher Body
workers, demands were raised that
the A. F. of L. should call out the
Detroit General Motors and other
Fisher Body plants. A committee
was appointed from the top to go to
Detroit, but one of the A. F. of L.
officials discouraged the idea. 1t
is clear that a. grand sell-out is
being prepared by the bureaucracy.
Since Tuesday the plant has been
shut tight. Fisher Body made no
attempt to start production against
the obvious determination of the
men TO prevent any Scabbing. The
workers picketed in small numbers
at the gates following the orders OF
their misleaders. But they stood
opposite the gates in large num-
bers, sometimes up to three thou
sand.
During this period the police frat
ernized with the strikers and
claimed that they would protect
pickets and prevent scabbing on
condition that they have nothing
20 do with the Communists. There
was a united front of the A. F. of
L, bureaucracy, imported thugs and
The police in preventing any Com
11unist literature being distributed.
n spite of this, hundreds of copies
If the Spark Plug, the Fisher Body
shop paper were distributed.
This peaceful period is now over,
The company is now using every
means to break the strike. If the
men resist the sell-out which will
inevitably be prepared by the A. F
If L. fakirs. they will find the
seemingly friendly police turn into
bitter enemies, protectors of the
scabs as at the Chase Brass and
Copper strike, where they used the
police station as an employment
agency for the scabs.