Evening star., 1946-01-15
Electric
Workers Strike
In Is States
GE, Westinghouse and
GIN WuIkout Called
1909 Effective

By the Associated Press.
NEW YORK. Jan. 1.-two
hundred thousand electrical
workers in 16 States from Mas
sachusetts to California struck
today against three companies
which produce the major part
of the Nations home and in
dustrial electrical appliances.
a Albert j. Fitzgerald, international
president of the CIO United Elec-
trical Workers, announced at am
that the walkout in plants of Cen
eral Electric, Westinghouse and
General Motors was 100 per cent
effective, according to all bulletins
received at UE national headquar-
ters up to that time"
Mr.. Fitzgerald said $1,000 women
and $4,000 salaried and white COL
lar workers were among those who
left their jobs. He said this was the
largest number of women to strike
in recent years. Women and white
collar workers will be represented in
picket lines, he said.
Declared 100 Per Cent Effective.
The union president declared the
walkout was 100 per cent effective
at 8 am. in plants at Philadelphia
and Pittsburgh, Lynn and Spring.
field, Mass; Schenectady, N. Y;
Bloomfield, Newark and Jersey City.
N. j., and Dayton, Ohio. A total of
$4,000 workers are employed in these
plants.
A. w. Robertson, Westinghouse
chairman, said at Pittsburgh the
firm had asked for police protection
to get maintenance and necessary
supervisory personnel through
picket lines about its Pittsburgh
district plants.
International headquarters of the
union announced shortly after am.
that the walkout began on sched-
ule." Mr.. Fitzgerald said:
Because of the refusal of the
General Electric, Westinghouse and
General Motors Corps. to grant the
unions s2-a-day wage demand, 200,-
900 employees have been compelled
to go on strike"
Union headquarters announced
that picket lines were being organ
lied.
Many Items Affected.
Possibility that the strike might
be averted faded yesterday when the
union-the Nations third largest
the Labor Department in Washing
ton and the firms reported that no
developments had arisen to postpone
the walkout.
Virtually every type of electrical
equipment, from tiny hearing aids
to giant locomotives and turbines,
WILDE affected. The list of appli-
ances made by the firms include
items off the market since Pearl
Harbor and many vital to reconver-
sion of other industries.
Among other products, the firms
manufacture electrical refrigerators,
radios, vacuum cleaners, electric
stoves, lamps and light bulbs.
Involved in the strike are 100000
General Electric employees. $4,000
Westinghouse workers and $4,000
employees in the electrical division
of General Motors.
States which have either GE,
Westinghouse or General Motors
plants are California, Connecticut
Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts,,
Michigan. Missouri, New Jersey.
New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania
Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Maryland
West Virginia and Kentucky.
Companies Offers.
The unions wage demands had
been countered by General Electric
with an offer. of 10 cents an hour
raise for employees earning less than
81 an hour and 10 per cent increase
for those earning more than 81.
General Motors-already involved
in a strike of 175,OO0 CIO United
Auto Workers-offered an increase
OF 1872 cents an hour and West
inghouse proposed to increase the
work week from 40 to As hours
with no change in wage rates. The
union has said the average weekly
wage of the workers was $35.
Mr.. Fitzgerald, as CIO-UEW in
ternational president, had said the
union would call off the walkout if
GE and Westinghouse would meet
United States Steel's offer of a Is
cents-an-hour increase, and General
Motors would give it's electrical en-
ployes the 171a per cent increase
proposed by the Presidents Fact
Finding Committee for automobile
workers.