The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-09-23
Aid German Unions
Or Another War,
|u. S. Labor Warns

Washington (LPA)-Unless the
US adopts clear cut policy of aid
ing the trade union movement and
other democratic forces in Ger
many, a new nationalism, like that
which Hitler thrived on, will de-
velop in Germany, possibly in alli-
ance with Russia, and threaten the
world with another war. This is
the somber warning sounded in the
report of a Labor Dept advisory
subcommittee released last week.
The subcommittee of the Labor
Dept Trade Union Advisory Com
mittee spent month in Germany,
studying social, economic and poll
tical trends, and talking with Ger
man labor leaders. It's members
were AFL European Representa-
tives Irving Brown and Henry
Ruiz, and CIO Int'l Affairs Direct
or Michael Ross. Arnold Steinbach
of the Labor Dept Office of Int'l
Labor Affairs accompanied them.
German democrats fear that the
US military occupation authorities
under General Lucius Clay are
handing Germany back to the
same forces in the economic and
political life of Germany who were
mainly responsible for the rise and
maintenance of Nazi Germany"
they reported.
A democratic Germany as we'll
as further increases in production,
require that the US support the
labor movements demand for joint
labor management control of in
dustry, and stop the drift towards
"a managerial and bureaucratic
economy" Former Nazis
are returning to power, the Ameri-
can labor delegation was told.
Some industries should be social
lied, the report implies, stating
that Catholic trade unionists are
as much for the socialization of the
coal mines as the socialists"
Trade unionists have played a
role in post Hitler Ger
the US labor men assert,
pointing to the new cooperation be-
tween socialists and Catholics, who
maintained seperate union struc-
lures before the war, and their
success in keeping Communist in
fluence at a minimum in western
Germany.
The US authorities are praised
by the union men for their support
of the anti-Communist workers in
Berlin. But the report is extremely |
critical Of US Gen. Lucius Clay's |
failure to return Nazi-confiscated
property to the unions, his failure
to put social security plans into
operation, and his unreal concept |
Of wages" which has made collec-
tive bargaining impossible.
"On important issues connected
with the future structure of the
German economy and, therefore,
vital to the workers, labor is not
heard and consulted" the AFL and
CIO spokesman report. Many Ger
man unionists told them that since
the return to the US of Joseph
Keenan,, formerly Gen. Clay's labor
advisor, the influence of labor on
policy has markedly decreased.
Among the recommendations of
the committee are:
Increased participation by the
German unions in economic decis- |
ions from the factory level to the
top economic planning agencies;
"A clear-cut US policy of en-
,ouragement to the democratic |
labor movement, and consultation
with the unions on all questions af-
fecting the welfare Of the work
ars;
3-Reestablishment of the job of
labor advisor to the US command
er;
4-Improved housing for the
Limitation of real collective
and
6-Final determination of what
German plants are to be dismant-
ed, and an end to the policy of
caring down non-war plants, and
workers. dwellings attached to con-
lemned factories.