Evening star., 1941-04-06
AIIis-Choimers Union
Told Nation Where
To Get off, He Says

PN the Associated Press.
NEW YORK, April 5.-William
S. KnudSen, asserting that the
disclaimers case had shown
that radical leaders" could tell
the Nation where to get off"
declared tonight that 90 per cent
of strikes must be eliminated or
the defense program would fail.
To this end, the director of the
Office of Production Manage
ment proposed that these steps
be taken:
All strike votes be placed under
supervision of the Labor Depart
ment.
A certain minimum of time" be
required between a strike vote and
the effective date in order that the
Cancellation Service and the Defense
Mediation Board may attempt to
end the dispute without a work
stoppage.
Il do not believe" Mr.. Knudsen
said in an address before dinner
of the Veterans of Foreign Wars,
that legislation against strikes is
necessary or enforceable, but l do
believe that during the emergency
period a definite procedure should
be followed in order that strikes can
be held to a minimum"
Hours Can't Be Made Up.
Stressing the urgency of the times,
he declared: We have just got to
get over this strike epidemic.
The hours lost can never be made
up and they are precious. Let us
settle the disputes, large and small,
around the table and keep the plant
going"
Mr.. Knudsen said the labor sit
uation had grown worse mostly due
to organizational and jurisdictional
strikes"
Strikes like the Lackawana.
International. and Bethlehem at
Johnstown, and Ford" he continued,
are purely for the purpose of speed
ing up the union organization effort
in the plant.
The Allis- Chalmers strike after
starting out as closed shop strike
wound up as a union security strike
after a lot of confusion in wording
of a so-called referee clause which,
to say the least. was ambiguous.
Nation Told Where to Get Off,"
THE Cancellation Service of the
Labor Department, the o. P. M,
and the union tried for two months
to find a way of settling the argu-
ment, only to find at last that the
original strike vote was fraudulent
and that the strike was called with
out the consent of the membership.
A thing like this is very hard to
deal with.
The fact that the strike vote
was fraudulent was gone over light
ly. The fact that 100000 hours of
time is lost in order to find out
what happens to union man who
isn't paying his dues was not even
important-the important part was
that the radical leaders, with the
help of other unions in Milwaukee
and vicinity. could show the State
and the Nation where to get off
and have both our friends and their
foes across the water have this
wonderful piece of morale builder
served with their next mornings
breakfast"
War a Question of Material.
Opening his address, Mr.. Knud-
sen declared:
The background for all this is
that war is today a question of
material. One man in the field re-
quires the backing of 10 men at
home-not only men, but machines
and raw material as we'll There
fore, we are particularly fortunate
in having an abundance of men,
machines and materials to put to
work to back up our forces for
home protection, but we also have
surplus potential with which to
help others.
over across the ocean a battle
of life and death is being fought
in the field, in the air and in the
shop. Over here, thank God, we
have only the battle of the shop,
but it is just as serious, just as i'm
portant, just as indispensable, that
(See KNUDSEN, Page AID