Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1946-09-13
What's
New?
By
Edudrd Ducl
RePreSentdtNl
2-B
UAW.CIO

llCl Z itO SCAAJ AAAS Abs VIZ
war has weakened the union.
We were going places five
years ago, and nothing less
than a world war could have
stopped us. 1t came. 1t did.
Our standard of living was
the highest ever achieved by
any people anywhere in the
history of the world. We were
eating more and better food,
We were buying new homes,
cars, and electric appliances,
and we had good clothes.
People didn't worry too
much about prices because the
wage increases we had OBJ
tanned through union con-
tracts enabled us to purchase
most of what we thought we
needed. We knew we weren't
rich, but we did have money
to take a weekend trip to the
lake once in awhile or attend
a college football game when
we felt like going.
Came the war and the skids
were creased. We slid. We're
still skidding, only now we're
on a tobaggan. Where we'll
stop no one knows. Another
depression, maybe. Could be!
Everyone's conscious of the
fact that the working people
are taking a royal beating.
Food prices have doubled and
in many cases tripled. The
packinghouse people tell us
there's no meat. We know
there's a reason for the short
ages in the things people need
most.
We know we are being vic
timized by those in control.
And we know that it Is being
done with the full consent of
our elected government rep
resentatives and their friends
whom they appoint to carry
out the dirty work.
WAILING
Still no one does anything
to halt the banditry and sit
down strikes of the organized
industrial monopolists. We
are a babble of tongues, voic-
ing resentment in mixed tones
of confused wailing.
What the union needs most,
and has neglected most, is
sound, organized, and we'll di-
rected educational program.
No one need deny 1t. Organ
ization of the laboring people
is nothing more than the first
step. What do we do, organize
them and let it 60 at that?
Does the fact that someone
pays dues and becomes bound
by a contract with his en-
ployer mean that our problem
is solved?
Organized labor has not or
ganized the great bulk of the
working people as yet, and
still worse it has not really or
ganized those who are said to
belong to the union. That Job
is before us. The AFL is not
alone in holding card car
riers." The chief sport of CIO
members in Toledo and else
where is congregating in beer
taVerns and on street corners.
or anywhere people get to-
gether and talk, and telling
each other everything that's
wrong with the union, with
their committeeman in par
tlcular, and with the guys at
the above all.
How often has your COM
mltteeman or steward ap-
preached you and reminded
you that you should register
to vote, so that you can elect
people who will put an end TO
the Quislings who manage to
get themselves elected to i'm
portant offices year after
year?
How often has be com
planned about tn e grocer
charging SO cents for a pound
OF coffee or 70 cents for q
pound of butter? How often
has he reminded you that your
wages, even after the 1917
cent raise, will not enable YOU
to support your family de-
Gently, feed and clothe your
children, and purchase the
things any human being is
entitled to under modern eco
nomic society?
The committeeman WI o
takes an interest in protecting
your out-plant interests is a
rare creature today. II should
be his job to mobilize the
pressure of those under his
care, and to work for a uni
fled, concentrated attack on
the forces which are fighting