The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1944-01-06
Seno+e Group Hits Employer Tactics
In Los AnqeIes And Scr Francisco

Washington, ID. C.-The Senate Civil
Liberties Committee charged that or
ganized employers have deliberately
attempted to sabotage collective bar
gaining i'm Los Angeles and have un-
duly intcrlcred with it in san Fran
cisco.
The charges were contained in the
sixth and seventh sections of IL report
by the committee to the United States
Senate on extensive Investigations INTO
West Coast conditions over The last
decade. The committee is composed OF
Senators Robert NJ. LaFollette and
Ebert ID. Thomas.
In Los Angeles the committee found
that "the most influential business ana
financial interests have deliberately
attempted to sabotage the national Ii
Dor policy of collective bargaining nS
expressed in the National Labor ReIa
tionS Act" The report added:
Despite the enactment of that law
and its declared cOnStituliOnality by
the United States Supreme Court. thcS"
business and Industrial leaders deter
mined to nullify il not only by negative
but also by positive. action. pVrs,Wnt
TO this determrml ion, they enghged in
Il series of organzed conSpiracicS To
destroy labor'S civil liberties They
sought to prevent bona iide collective
bargaining from obtaining Il strong
foothold in the urban community of
Los Angeles and its tributary business
and agricultural areas.
"l'o carry out their conspiracy they
set up various employers associations
and auxiliary groups of women, con
SumcrS, HgricuIturiStS, and even en-
ployeeS. They laviShly financed these
organizations and for the most part
supplied them with II type Of profeS-
Sional personnel that by reason of their
background was wholly out of SYM
pathy with trade-uniuniSm. They con
cuded alliances with the local press,
local police, local law-cnforccmcnt
officials. and local business nrganiza-
tionS Behind their Illegal and anti
social policy they concentrated eco
nomic and political power that deIicd
any local application of the law and
custom of he nation"
Another significant aspect of thc
conclusions of The committee report
WAS The determination, based upon the
record that the anti-ubor activities OF
the organized employers were backed
and sponsored by other groups i'm the
city such rs the banking and financial
groups. certain leaders of the local
press, and, until recently, many Of the
public officials In this connection tn"
committee observed:
"ThiS mad" the situation peculiarly
difficult for trHdr-unionS and for those
public officials whose duty il was to
protect The rights of labor The very
mcrcc comprising the sum total of the
business influence in the community
actually debating and stimulating the
development of tactic after tactic tu
defeat the national labor policy, made
anything but the strongest measures
futile. The creation and maintenance"
Of this policy of anli-uniuniSm in Los
Angeles for magnitude and versatility
of the effort far SurpaSScS anything
the committee has previously CnCUuni-
cred in It's four-ycar inquiry"
Tn" committee noted that the city
of Los Angeles, famed during the
1905 rs II stronghold of anti-Uuiuu
industry, presented in lis most intense
form the problems which are prevalent
in other urban and industrial Hrvas
where influential forces dominating the
cnir" community refused lO accept TN"
national labor policy. In lis final state