Montana labor news., 1937-06-24
TOM G|RDLER Is
BIG BAD WOLF
OF STEEL DISPUTE
BY CARL HAESSLER
Federated Press

sA& IA
pendent steel companies would to-
day have agreements, duly signed
with the Steel Workers Organizing
Committee, just like U. S. Steel,
were it not for Tom Girdler, bull
headed chief of Republic Steel. This
is the opinion Of friend and foe OF
the explosive openshop Cleveland
steel magnate, whose plants are the
only ones making a pretense of oper-
alton since the strike began May 26.
What Ford is among anti-union
auto magnates, what Firestone was
among openshop rubber barons, that
Girdler still is in steel. Furious with
the supreme court for okaying the
Wagner act, equally furious with U.
S. Steel for beating the court to il
in signing with the S. w. o. c., ano
still more furious with Jones &
Laughlin and Crucible Steel fol
leading the parade of independents
into the family of agreement signer:
with the union, Girdler has vowed
that he will teach everybody a les
son-the law, the court, the stee.
trust, the signed independents, anc
above all the union.
Girdler and his Republic have laic
in stores of food and munitions. Al
the South Chicago plant supplies are
sneaked in by night via canal. Fore
men have been instructed to report
by the same route. At Niles, o.
Republic is making a grandstanc
play of dropping food by plane tt
the scabs, as FRANCOIS rebels in Spas1
fed their mountaintop garrison unit
it surrendered to the loyalists under
the command of the Spanish labor.
liberal government.
Girdler has powerful allies. Cor,
responding % Hitler and Mussolin
are the mayor and police department
of Chicago and the gunner hood
lums mustered by strikebreakinl
agencies. Regional Director Van A
Bittner's protest to Pres. Roosevelt
was Immediately referred by him K
the department of justice with a re
quest to present the evidence to tn,
U. S. Attorney in Chicago, Michae
L. Igoe.
Igoe is on the executive board O
the Chicago chapter of the Natl
Lawyers Guild, rival of the reaction
airy American Bar Assn. The guild
subcommittee on activities of Law
enforcement officers in Chicago hai
Investigated the conspiracy between
the murderous Chicago cops anC
Girdler's Republic Steel. In a re
port forwarded to Roosevelt the sub
committee after examining witnessei
and having had one of its member
as an observer at the scene of thu
police attack on pickets, found:
"The regular police of the City o
Chicago are not enforcing the law
but are violating the law and arr
actively cooperating with the Re
public Steel Corp. to break tn,
strike.
"The police have forcefully pre-
vented peaceful picketing,
'The police have been guilty 0
illegal and discriminatory arrest 0
union members and sympathizer
and have accompanied the arrest
with brutalities.
Without %provocation the polio
have freely used violence against tn
strikers and sympathizers on ever,
possible occasion.
"All the law violations describe,
above were committed by uniforme,
regular police officers of the City @
Chicago. The lawlessness of the pc
lice in this cast seems clearly to con
stitute not only a gross violation G
Illinois constitutional and statutor,
rights but also a concerted attac,
upon the rights granted employee
by the Natl. Labor Relations Boar,
and the U. S. constitution"
Copies of the complete repor
have been sent also to Mayor Kelly
to the LaFollette committee of tn
senate, the Chicago Federation 0
Labor and the labor board.
About $4,000 steel workers are o.
strike in the Chicago-Ga Gary area an,
over $4,000 altogether in the coun
try. The demands are merely for
signed agreement along Carnegie
Illinois lines of the steel trust, givinI
the S. W. 0. c. the right in writin
to bargain for its own members il
the plants. The Independents tina
are resisting this demand are tn
Republic, Youngstown, and INLAND
None are in actual operation thong
Republic is pulling a bluff in Sout
Chicago and Inland is APPARENT
making scabbing preparations at In
diana Harbor. A small Youngstow
plant in the university town c
Evanston has not been picketed b
the union.