Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1948-04-09
A Free Choice

- ShSbS~
On April 21, employees of the General
Motors New Departure plant of Sandusky
will he given an opportunity to vote In
National Labor Relations Board election TO
freely determine their choice between the
I1pited Automobile Workers-CIO and the
International Association of MachlnlstS
(unaffiliated).
II is our belief, and experience con-
firms the judgement, that not all unions
are equally effective in dealing with man
apement to advance the interests OF the
workers. Further, it is our belief that the
employes of the New Departure share this
view and recognize that in making their
free choice of unions they should select
the organization which has achieved the
hest reputation in securing benefits for the
people who work in the plants.
That employees can remedy an error
was demonstrated only this week when
the workers Of the FOstOria Screw Prod
ucts Co. voted by three-tO-One majority
to transfer their bargaining rights from
the lam TO the UAW-CIO after the lam
had held these rights for nearly IL years.
This is not an isolated case by any
means. for the United Auto Workers in
Toledo and elsewhere throughout this sec
ton of Ohio have repeatedly been asked
to seek bargaining rights in plants where
the lam has represented the employees Tor
years.
There must be a reason, there is rea-
son. WHY the people who have been repre-
sented by the lam very frequently come
to the UAW-CIO asking that it accept the
responsibility of representing them
There are more reasons than one why
this has occurred so frequently. Ii can best
be explained by the workers who, after
years of being represented by IAM TURN
away from that organization TO seek the
services of a more effective union and al
most invariably selected the United Auto
Workers as the most dynamic Organiza-
ton.
In these days of Taft-HartleyIsm,
when labor unity has become increasing
Iy necessary, we are hesitant to go into
the real reasons why thousands of Amer
lean workers have rejected the lam
for the UAW-CIO. However, as we said
at the outset, there is a difference IN
unions and the UAW-CIO has achieved a
reputation for getting things done that
make for better wages, improved working
conditions, Job security and general ad-
vancement of all the workers.
This doesn't mean that the UAW-CIO
is perfect. IL isn't. But, it has, over
period of years, secured gains for the
workers through a program which has
progressively gone forward toward the
goal of security for which every worker
is striving. More than any other union,
the UAW-CIO is a rank and file Organiza-
ton in which the top officers are COM
PEELED to produce or are removed from
office, a fact which was emphatically
demonstrated in the UAW-CIO Atlantic
City convention last fall.
There isn't top officer i'm the JAW
CIO who isn't practically new in his pres
ent job with the exception of President
Walter Z. Reuther, assurance that the
UAW-CIO is a democratic and militant
union i'm which the rank and file control
their own destiny and have the power and
the disposition TO clean house when and ii
their officers fail TO keep the organization
going forward under a progressive pro-
gram.
To the New Departure employees, we
urge that you study the two unions which
are seeking to represent you. Study their
record throughout the nation and remem-
ber that upon your choice rests your well
fare and progress for long time to come.
If that comparison is made, and every
worker who is interested in his own well
fare will make one, there can be no doubt
that the United Auto Workers will rep
resent the employees of another General
Motors plant, after April 81.