Evening star., 1937-03-28

stewards were to give the signal, throw
down their tools and sit. Supposedly
most of the union members would sit
with them. That was up to the stew
ards. Actually the higher-ups didn't
care whether they sat or not. The
company police, of course, knew all
about this proposed coup. The meet
ing had been held in the utmost
secrecy, but the news leaked out, as 1t
was intended that it should. Guards
were drawn away from the motor shop
to protect the threatened building.
Secret Meeting Held.
Now as the stewards left this meet
ing bits of paper were slipped into the
hands OF certain selected ones who
were absolutely trusted, ordering them
to attend a meeting that night in
downtown hotel. Altogether there
were IA of them They we're the only
men in the Chevrolet plant who ac-
tually knew what was going to happen
the next day.
They were to stage the real sit-down
In the motor shop at another zero
hour. That is, of all the men who
held that particular plant not one
outside the leaders knew what was
going to happen five minutes before
hand At the same time arrangements
were made for some OF the loyal
stewards to invade the motor shop,
which was not very strongly organ
lied, with about $50 men from another
shop inside the walls which was the
most strongly organized of all.
The various zero hours arrived, and
everything went of on schedule, al
though one misunderstanding almost
disrupted the whole procedure. On
bluff outside the factory grounds was
Mr.. Bishop with loudspeaker, direct
ing operations. The doors of the
motor shop were barricaded; those
who didn't want to stay were let out,
and the whole plant was very seriously
crippled.
The stewards who staged the coup
couldn't explain to their prospective
followers what was about to happen.
They had no certainty except moral
certainty based on knowing their own
gang, that q single man would follow
their example, and unless they had a
preponderant majority of the workers
actually in the shop they were in
danger of being overpowered. But
there is always tendency to follow
the leader in a bold move, and the
board of strategy knew this.
Small Group Desirable.
Once the workers are in possession
Of plant the fewer sit-downers the
better In some cases it has been
necessary deliberately to thin out the
ranks. The fewer there are to feed
the easier it is to get sufficient food
to them and the easier to keep order
when the terrible monotony of pro-
longed occupation trays mems nerves
and they begin to get irritable.
What's to prevent company re-
capturing its own plant, regardless Of
who gets hurt?
The U. A. w. A. officials present q
legal argument Of sort, but in the
same breath admit that very few
Judges ever would uphold it. This will
be discussed in a later article. Act
ually there is nothing to prevent a
company re-capturing its own plant
by any force at its command or any
force it can get from the State-except
the two most potent forces In the
world. First, it would be damaging its
own property, perhaps beyond repair.
It would release the men inside from
any moral obligation-they insist they
are very strict about this moral obli-
gation-to refrain from sabotage. And
they could do incalculable damage in a
very few minutes. AS it is, nobody
has seriously charged that they have
not left the plant in as good shape as
they found them. The other after
noon, for instance, they were slow
about evacuating the Chrysler plant
because the stewards insisted that
everything must be cleaned up before
q man stepped outside. They claim,
and for the most part the claim is ad-
mitted, that they maintained rigid
discipline.
Second, any one hurt or killed would
be a martyr and probably the worst
dis-service any industry can do itself
is to create martyrs. Industry has
changed from the old days when strik-
ers were shot down by militia because
industry probably always loses by 1t in
the long run.
Seek Public Sympathy.
The men who plan these sit-down
strikes are master psychologists. They
put their faith In industry's desire to
retain public sympathy.
Surely they can shut of food II
they want to-" says Mr.. Bishop. We've
told them SC. But we've also told them
that the minute they do stop it there
will not be a sit-down strike any
longer There'n be a hunger strike
and who wants to be held responsible
for men starving to death?"
That's how it's done In the auto
mobile industry. This industry, the
strikers claim, is particularly vulner-
able to the sit-down technique. In
the drst place Its operations are chain
like, 80 that a break Of any link in the
chain cripples everything. In the
second place, it has = lot Of strong.