Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1946-07-05
Regional
Views
By Richard Gosser
Director Region 2B. UAW-ClO
LABOR CRISIS

In the annual report submitted to the dele
gates at the Cedar Point Region 2-B confe7
ence the statement was made that labor wan
in time of crisis and that we would be at
tasked from all sides.
You need not be prophet to forsee what
Is going to occur in the months which lie
ahead in the light of what Congress has done
to hit the American workers already over
taxed pocketbooks. The action of Congress in
handling the continuation of price control
spells the troubles of the future in which labor
will discover its dollars will purchase less and
less while management whips up more and
more production.
It is a simple case of mathematics to sup
pose that If the workers of this country pro-
duce commodities which are to sell for zoe
billion dollars and only make enough to pur.
chase back half of what they make that we
must either work the surplus off on some other
country or become overstocked with goods
that cannot be moved in here.
Initiation never has done anyone any good
except those who through their manipulation
have managed to profit from it. And it won't
do the workers any good this time.
ON THE WAVE
Those who talk and write as though infla-
ton was something that occurs overnight are
not kidding anyone. Ask any worker in the
plants if they have had initiation and they will
tell you that ever since 1941 this country has
been undergoing gradual rise in prices de-
spite OPA.
When government through war bond sales
and the War Labor Board was able to hold
wages down, we heard very few complaints
from big business about price control because
the formula had been found to keep wages
down, a formula which was not applied with
equal effectiveness to prices.
Even when the workers wages were frozen
so that not all the complaining of the workers
could thaw them out, prices managed to ease
their way upward. This was shown by the
survey undertaken by a joint committee of
CIO and AFL which proved that the price OF
living had increased more than so per cent
although OPA was supposed to be at Its best
during that period.
But wages didn't rise so per cent. Instead
thew were held within set confines and with
but few exceptions where inequalities existed,
they remained frozen throughout the entire
war.
TROUBLE
Now that price control has been knocked
out and free enterprise is allowed to follow
the old rules of the game, we are heading
straight for serious trouble.
AS labor finds itself less able to purchase
the things which people need in order to live
bread and meat and clothing and decent
homes-the demands for more wages to meet
the rising cost of living is bound to come with
greater force than ever.
It is my belief that by October initiation
will have hit all of us so hard that we will find
labor forced to demand increased wages and at
the same time insist that the price structure
be left unchanged. If the next demands OF
labor are to lead to still further increases in
wages, then we are never going to be able to
stop the spiral until it is stopped by its own
lack of economic common sense and the crash
which is bound to come the same as it did
in 1929.