The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-01-15
|78 Factories
 Idle in Strike
Continued from Page D

third largest affiliate of the C1O.
 Every phase of the electrical production from the manufacture of tiny hearing aids to giant tur- pines, was affected by the walkout which forced workers in 16 states into idleneSs. Included in the list were such war scarce items as radios, washing machines, vacuum cleaners and electric coasters.
 Peaceful picketing was the order of the day as the workers took their places in the lines strung around the struck factories and little violence was anticipated. How ever, in the majority of places, extra police were detailed to the plants to guard against any out breaks.
 Union Offer Rejected
 Negotiations between the union and the Big Three" which have been going on since September, were broken off Saturday when the companies rejected union offer to accept a $l.20 daily wage in- crease with the balance of the $2 a day demand to be submitted to arbitration.
 GEE had offered a flat lO-cents an hour boost for all workers re- ceiving less than $1 an hour and a 10 per cent increase for those re- ceiving more than that amount. The union proposal was IS cents an hour. General Motors proposed a straight increase of 13 1-2 cents an hour and Westinghouse sug- gested that its workers be put on a 45 hour work week with overtime pay of time and a half for the last five hours to boost take home pay.
 Workers affected included 100000 employs in 43 plants of the General Electric Co.,, the largest of the Big Three" 75,O00 Westinghouse wor- kers in 30 plants and 25,O0O General Motors empioyes in five plants.
 42,O0O In New England
 Fifteen thousand electrical wor- kerS were affected in metropolitan New York and 10000 were made idle at the giant parent plant o4 General Electric at Schenectady. The dispute marked the first time in A years that GE's Schenectady plant was closed by a strike.
 Approximately 42,0O0 of the strikers are employed in Massach- usetts, Connecticut and Rhode Is- land. The biggest plant affected in the New England area was the Lynn, Mass, factory of General Electric employing l6,000 workers.
 GM's biggest unit closed by the walkout was the Dayton, O., plant where i8,0O0 workers are employed
 Westinghouse biggest plants are located at East Pittsburg and Es- sington Pa. and Bloomfield, N. J. Five thousand are employed in the Bloomfield plant.
 Schenectady Products Essential
 The majority of the factories closed by the walkout were engaged in the manufacture of electrical household appliances, but the GE plant at Schenectady was working almost exclusively on the manufac- ture of heavy turbines, generators and motors, and other equipment used in the reconversion of other industries.
 Although the strike was directed against the Big Three" was being watched closely by other electrical manufacturers. The outcome will probably serve as a yardstick foi settlement of other wage disputes in the industry.
 The unions pattern of striking against only a portion of the tn- dustry was the. same as the strategy used in the automobile strike. This plan calls for a paralysis of tac biggest companies until competition from other firms forces them to accede to union demands.
 $1,LOO,0O0 a Day Lost
 The strike against General Elec- tric alone will cost workers and their families SI,OO0,OOO a day, the company estimated. GEE officials called the strike a tragedy" that would delay reconversion to peace- time production.
 The union said the strike was being called 'in the interests of the public as well as employees of the three companies"
 Tn statement issued last night, Albert J. Fitzgerald. president; Julius Emspak secretary-treasurea and James J. Matles, director Of the JEW, charged that the com panies sought to provoke" the walkout over a period of months.