Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1946-03-01
What's
New?
By
EdWdrd Duck
Local II
Educational
Director


have been settled.
For more than 100 days,
175,000 American workers
and their families shall have
suffered privation and hard
ship because of a labor-hating
managements defiance of hu-
man rights. The final settle
ment will be according to
terms which the corporations
representatives could have ac-
cepted last Thanksgiving Day
or thereabouts, had they not
planned to force this struggle
on the workers in the hope
that industrial unionism would
be dealt a telling blow, posi-
bly, even destroyed completely
in the long run.
The most pathetic part Of
the whole struggle taking
place in America today is the
Misunderstanding and apathy
Of the wage earners them
selves.
We see important people,
men and women who stand TO
gain absolutely nothing for
themselves, and who are fl
nancially unaffected by the
outcome of our struggle, TAX
ing a far greater and more
sincere interest in the fight
than a lot of us laboring peo-
pie are taking.
Harold Ickes, Rabbi Wise,
Bishop Shiel, Eleanor Roose-
velt, Melvin Douglas, Edward
G.. Robinson, Henry Morgan
thau Jr. and scores Of other
outstanding American people
have rallied to the cause and
are bending themselves to the
effort of organizing and unit
ing our citizenry behind the
striking workers.
ARE THEY WRONG?
Can the workers be wrong,
when people like these sup
port them? 1t isn't very like
ily. The GIN workers are not
only justified in their de-
mands, but they are deserving
of credit for having made the
greatest post-was contribution
OF any group in our nation.
Someone had to make the
fight. General Motors work
ers accepted 1t as their job
and they have done nobly. No
one should fail to contribute
TO the support of these people
and their families, for all OF
us stand to gain by the sacri-
flee they have made. When
the GIN employees win their
struggle il means that mil
lions of others will win their
wage increase without Strik-
ing.
Americas largest corpora
tion and its largest union
locked horns in the test case
witnessed on one side by or
ganized management and on
the other by organized labor.
Most of us will not be called
upon To make any actual
fight at all. The least we can
do Is to appreciate what these
other workers have done for
us, by aiding their cause fl
nancially and by encouraging
others to do so.
NO VICTORY
AS far as the dispute In
steel Is concerned, we needn't
boast of a victory there, be-
cause the price increase gave
the corporations two dollars
In return for each dollar the
corporations gave the work
ers. III that isn't inflationary
let's hope we never see any
thing that isl
The only way in which we
are going TO be able to live
fifty per cent better than we
have ever lived before, which
Truman, Vinson and others
have predicted for all of us, is
to increase the productivity
and the purchasing power of
the workers. p urch asing
power is certainly not In
creased by raising prices, and
a price raise in such a COM
modify as steel will be repeat
ed all along the line as that
steel goes into products for
consumption.
without holding down
prices our wage increases
mean less than nothing, be-
cause the price increase in
variably will be far in excess
of the wage increase granted
the workers.
So steels case hurt us more
than II helped. Ford and
Chrysler would In all nroha-