The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1940-05-09
Facing the Facts
With PHILIP PEARL

They expected and prayed for a
clean sweep. Instead, the A. F. of L..
auto workers won outright victories
and exclusive bargaining rights in five
General Motors plants; they will get
chance to win over two or three ad-
ditional plants in run-off elections and
the Patternmakers and Machinists,
between them, won the right to exclu-
sive representation Of their crafts in
five more plants.
/. Thus the CIO failed to obtain a
strangle-hold on the General Motors
organization. Without such strangle-
hold they are lost.
This is why. The CIO auto work
ers union is built on sand. 1t has
never been able to collect dues from
its membership. In the past year John
l.. Lewis has been forced to siphon off
some two million dollars from the
treasury of the United Mine Workers
to finance the auto workers union. This
money was used not to organize but
to buy union members and union Off
cials. The CIO organizing campaign
in the auto union was one of wholesale
bribery.
| Lewis considered the expenditure of
these vast sums as an investment. He
hoped and prayed the elections would
result in a clean sweep for the ClO.
Then he intended to demand that Cen
eral Motors give him single contract
covering all their workers, including
the check off.
No Check-Off, No Dues
Now these hopes are dashed. The
company will insist on bargaining
separately with the workers in each
plant. 1t has perfect right to do so
1t will never agree to the check-off.
And without the check-off the C1O
auto workers union will continue to be
a drain on the CIO and a liability to
John L. Lewis.
No union whose officers are bought
and whose members have been sold
down the river can command loyalty
from it's members. Without loyalty
there will be no dues. Without dues.
the union will be unable to stand on
it's own feet and operate on it's own
income Lewis will have to keep on
paying the bills.
This is bitter disappointment to
Lewis. He gave his hand away in his
speech at Flint, Mich, when he said
he expected the auto workers union
to pay back it's heavy debts to the CIO.
This could have been accomplished
with the check-off. Then Lewis would
have been able to milk the dues from
the CIO auto workers union and use
the money to finance other campaigns
Now he can see no way of getting the
CIO out of the red. oI 6s
These are not all his troubles. He
expected to wipe out all competition.
But the victories of the A. f. of l..
auto workers union checkmated him.
He will still have to fight and spend
to keep what he has. The A. F.. of l..
union will never give up. 1t will con-
tinue pressing it's organizing campaign
relentlessly. 1t will do it's utmost to
show by example how a stable, self
governing, self-disciplined union can
DCICllI lIS IIICIilDCIS. IL Will oDleiiH CIiS
highest possible wage and the best
possible working conditions for the
workers it represents. And it won't be
long until the workers represented by
the CIO union look with envy at the
better conditions obtained by their col
leagues represented by the A. f. Of l..
The Red Danger Sign
But Lewis outstanding and continu-
ing trouble is that he still has the
Communist wreckers in charge of his
auto workers union. They are still
running the union on orders from Mos
COW. The President of the union is a
mere fgure-head. Even the CIO auto
workers publicity man is paid more
than the president. The real control
is eXerted by Communist agents who
are more interested in stirring up dis
content and revolution among the
workers than in improving conditions
And the Communists will not let go
even if Lewis should try to force then
out. The automobile industry is a key
industry in this country. 1t is more
important in war than in peace. Sta
Inns hostility to the United States is
apparent in every word of propaganda
issued by his henchmen in this coun
try. 1t is more to his advantage tt
wreck the American automobile indus
try than to stabilize it.
There will be more CIO strikes
There will be more suffering and hun
ger for the workers. For that is wha
the Communists want.
Under these circumstances, it is no
optimism but sound reason which
prompts us to predict that the Cl(
reign in the automobile industry will
be violent and short-lived. 1t may tax,
a year, it may even take two years
but the American Federation Of Labo
is bound in the end to win over tn
automobile workers eventually and es