Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1948-08-06
What's
New?
By
Edwdrd J..
Duck,
Assistant
Division
Director,
National
Auto-Lne


wage adjustment they have
sought for a long time. But
it's gone.
No one can expect the cleo
tricians, millwrights, truckers,
Inspectors, checkers and other
deserving groups to feel happy
about what has happened, but
there isn't much the interna-
tional union can do about it,
in view of what has taken
place,
AS one member of the Auto
Lite unit of Local II, / am
frank to say that l voted
against accepting the COM
pany's terms. At the present
am on leave for union work,
so it won't affect me person
ally. But there are oyer 1000
employees who could have
used the additional wage in
crease. 1t will affect them
for a long time to come.
The membership voted by
secret-ballot to accept the
deal. That is it. But l simply
cannot understand why any
plant chairman would call
meeting of the membership
and urge them to take the heat
off the corporation by accept
ing the management's mo"
when he knew very well that
there were two more weeks of
negotiations left before the
expiration of the strike dead
line.
We heard a lot of conversa-
tion about a press release that
was givne to the newspaper,
mentioning that a strike
would be called if the unions
demand of thirteen cents for
non-production were not met.
Hasn't this been the usual
procedure for years and years?
Is there something wrong"
about applying pressure when
the workers are seeking a
wage increase? Wasn't it
done at Auto-Lite in the past,
and wasn't it done at General
Motors and Ford this year?
Didn't the newspapers carry
the threat of a strike at Acklin
STAN ping and Champion
Spark Plug, among many
others, just a few days ago?
Did the chairmen or commit
temen try to take the heat off
their management, or did they
raise the devil about the story
being in the newspaper? They
did not. They used their full
strength against the corpora
ton. They cooperated with the
local and the international un-
ion. They won their fight.
They didn't surrender two
weeks before their strike
deadline, and they didn't sell
their fellow workers down the
river like John Begg did at
Auto-Lite.
Auto-Lite members might
very well ask their chairman
why he never complied with
the 60-day notice of the Taft
Hartley law. The agreement
expired June 10th. His notice,
according to the Taft-Hartley
law, would have had to be
filed with the proper parties on
April 18th, if the union were
to be allowed to strike when
the contract expired. He re-
fused to file it, and told the
steward body it was "such a
complicated affair it would re-
quire a Philadelphia lawyer to
do IT," The fact is that it is a
very simple form. After he re-
fused to take care of it / made
out the forms for him and sent
them in myself, when l learn
ed on June IA that he hadn't
complied.
John Begg made up his
mind not to threaten the Auto
Lite company with a strike,
and not to permit the COM
pany to be threatened Why?
When Regional Director
Ballard told Vice President
Falvey in the meeting of July
% that there would be a strike
if the production adjust
ment of 13 cents were not
granted by August Is, John
Begg had no objection. In
fact, he made some very posi-
tive statements to the man
agement himself. But the very
next day he wrote a handbill
pretending to disagree with
our press release, calling a
special meeting"
Toledo Scale workers got
increases ranging all the way
to 36 cents. Champion Spark
Plug workers did nearly as
well, with a large group get
ting flat 20-cent raise. Au-
to-Lite non-production en-
ployees have been swindled
out of theirs in a plot so
smelly it is nauseating.
This union can beat Royce
Matin, but il cant heat Mar