Detroit evening times., 1945-11-13
BEHIND
THE NEWS
BY Paul
MaIIon

are made 20 work against their
own best interest TO the damna-
tion of the rights Of the people
can he seen in the inside story
of the Washington bus and
street car strike on the very
day Of the labor-management
national conference m e citing
here.
For "a hours the transporta-
tion system Of the nations
capital was completely stopped.
Government employees managed
10 get TO work and back because
every one who had car
brought 1t out, and others hitch
hlkcd, bat hours were required
for many some not getting
home 10 dinner until after 9
p. m or TO work until noon. and
a few being forced 10 walk the
miles to and from.
News pictures We're presented
showing Waves or WACs smll-
ing and thumbing rides, and
Jokes were printed about the
fellows who owned cars waiting
for the prettiest girls, but the
public was angry silently,
glumly, perpleXedly angry,
.THIS is how II happened:
Il An unannounced after
midnight meeting of the street.
car and bus workers was called
in hurleSque theater- Many
showed up with a half pint or
more to see the night through.
II was a secret meeting from
which the press and public
were excluded. The morning
papers the day of the strike
carried no warning in home de-
livery editions.
The workers voted il sud-
denly around 2 a. m. The first
the average citizen heard of II
was when he arrived at his
street or bus station 10 find
lines of people waiting. The
strike had been called on a
publc-be-damned policy
This was not a wild or new
union bat an old, established
AFL crowd, frequently called
conservative. Due 10 war, ii
has many new women and men
members. because the women
have filled in 10 drive the elec-
trio cars. Al the secret meet
ing my government-observer
informantS tell me. the women
were the extre mi s s They
spoke and yelled louder than
the men.
Indeed after the walk out
had been voted, the meeting re-
fused to listen TO any reason
able voice Of top national lead
ers (who did not go in or
government authorities w h o
tried 10 address the gathering
and were shouted down Pub
liShed pictures show the en-
ployes in their continuous Ses-
sion, glowering with rage.
THE strike embarrassed the
Il national union chiefs. who
recognized il, as did every one,
as an ironical comment on the
labor-management conference.
Management, however. sat back
and looked at union discomfort
in natural glee.
Now you might reasonably
suspect the timing of this strike
was for that purpose. My IN
formants, who are as highly
placed on the inside of the
situation as il is possible TO
be, tell me no.
They think the employees Just
became obsesSed with a desire
to assert their power. particu-
larly against the Truman adj
ministration and its National
Labor Relations Board as well
as against the national union
bigsh o. IS assembled for the
labor management conference.
This was the key and secret be-
hand the whole AFFAIR. not be-
ing published or publicly men,
toned by any one.
TRUTH is the union wage de-
L mand was a long running
case, twice decided by the War
Labor Board. On the first try
for a 30 cents an hour increase.
the company offered 5 cents, but
WLB threw the case out In
the second Try, WLB authorized
a Z cents an hour increase dis
guiSed As a bonus, and the COM
pany agreed.
Backed by such decision. the
company naturally would not,
and indeed, could not go fur
ther, while the union persisted
in getting its demanded 30 cents
really not expecting TO get that
much
A strike called at such a time
naturally could not be success
ful BY the second day. the men
had lost their appetite 10 assert
their power. They welcomed
government conciliators for the
arbitration they had spurned.
| suspect Mr.. Truman's smart
n ew Labor -adviser-in-the- back
ground John r. Steelman. who
knows labor more objectively