Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1945-08-31
Workers
Storm USES
Offices

w a > II IN u " IN, Aug, ~
(LPA)-Job offices all over the
country were stormed by work
ers laid off by war contract
cancellations last week, and
looking for peacetime work.
At the same time, official
Washingtonians were picking
themselves up from the spots
where they were blown by the
blitz of the sudden japanese
surrender.
Union leaders in communities
were almost the only people
coming to the fore with positive
suggestions for immediate ac-
ton to meet the crisis caused by
the wars end. In mass meet
ings, city-wide conferences of
unionists, government and bust
ness officials, they were urging
.labor's program of full produc-
ton, at high wages. Quick re-
conversion of individual plants
to lessen interim unemploy
ment was also urged by union
lists. In addition, of course,
they were backing up labor's
program for Congressional ac-
ton.
NAM Is Calm
The only people who refused
to recognize the gravity of the
situation were the spokesmen
for the National Association of
Manufacturers and the Com
mittee for Economic Develop
ment. Both groups, made up of
employers, issued statements
composed on what the NAM
News called "a calm and re-
assuring note" The NAM
laughed down government and
labor estimates that unemploy-
ment would run as high as 8
or 100000 by Christmas.
Meanwhile, the War Man
power Commission is compiling
the first in what it expects will
be a series of reports, collected
from every part of the nation
by telegram, giving information
on numbers of unemployed.
Fragmentary reports, mainly
from the large cities, indicate
that labor's predictions are very
close to hitting the mark.
The Associated Press, in a
quick check less than week
after VI day, estimated that
at least 100000 workers were
fired because of contract termi-
nations. The Office of War
Mobilization and Reconversion
had predicted that only 1,100,-
900, would be out of work at
the end of the first month after
VI day, and most observers
agree that the AP figure shows
the government agency as over
optimistic.
.AFL Predicts Peak
The AFL publication, Labor's
Monthly Survey, expects $780,
600 jobless by mid-September,
and a peak of 100000 unem-
ployed in March, 1916.
Detroit, where all concede
there are more than 250,000
jobless, is the hardest hit city
in the country. Coming in a
close second is Los Angeles,
also affected by aircraft cut
backs, but expected to recover
much more slowly because its
peacetime aircraft industry will
not take up the jobless workers
Shipyards in Pennsylvania,
N. j., Massachusetts,. Maine,
Oregon, California, Maryland,
Georgia, Florida and Texas all |
are feeling the effects of the
Navy cutback, and the cancel
lation of $425, 100000 in con-
tracts for the construction of |
merchant ships In Philadelphia,
thousands of layoff slips were
handed out to workers return
ing from the surrender day
holiday.
The 100000 workers at the
Wri G hit and Curtis Wright |
plants across the country were
sent home, and at best only
about half will be taken on for
peacetime work. Most aircraft |
plants expect to take back
about that proportion of their
wartime workers. GIN will shut |
down entirely its Eastern Air
craft division. General Electric |
expects when reconversion is
complete to have $4,000 work
ers contrasted with $4,000 at |
the height of the war.