The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1949-10-20
Steel Industry
And Union Dig In
For Long Strike

Pittsburgh (LPA)-At the end
of the second week Of the Steel
strike no immediate settlement was
in sight. Cyrus S. Ching, Federal
Mediation Director, was sounding
out Bethlehem Steel in New York
City on Thursday but headquarters
of the United Steelworkers was
learning of these negotiations only
through the newspapers.
The Steel workers of the Pitts
burgh area assembled Thursday in
Homestead to listen to Philip Muir
rays second speech of the series
which he is making throughout the
steel district. He told his audience
the steel industry is living in the
hope of starving the union "into a
state of economic submission, to
drive them back into the mills and
put them into state of despair .
He charged that the industry has
practiced the rankest kind of in
timidation against the Presidential
fact-fnding board, and named
Enders Voorhees,, US. Steel Corp
finance chairman, and John Homer
president of Bethlehem Steel Corp.
as having threatened the board
Murray also said that the indus
try asked Wall Street and the
Natl Association of Manufacturers
to the hearings to help win their
case.
That the industry was preparing
for a long struggle is borne out by
the fact that in the early days OF
negotiations, deep freezes contain
ing carloads of food were put in
Homestead, Braddock mills and
also in mills in Donora and Ali
quippa. This seems to be a general
pattern.
No one, who has been through
the steel area or who has seen the
vast enthusiastic crowds congre-
eating to hear him can doubt that
the steel workers are solidly be-
hind Murray.
The steel area is quiet around
Pittsburgh. If it were not for the
clear blue skies and the absence OF
smoke, stranger would not guess
there was strike. The token pic
kets are from four to twenty, are
quiet and relaxed.
In South Chicago things are a
little livelier. There is mass picket
ing before Inland Steel Corp
where white collar workers are
barred. In Detroit, Great Lakes
Steel was being picketed by land
and sea, a fleet of small boats such
as cabin cruisers, patrolled the
Detroit River to keep office work
ers out and prevent supplies from
going in.
Meantime the day of the last
pay check is swiftly coming. Union
officials will not draw a cent OF
pay during the strike, Murray an
nounced.
The contracts of the O,OOC
workers employed in steel fabrlca-
ton will expire between the lotn
and the 31st of October unless the
union extends the contracts. A ray
of hope is seen in the fact that the
union has extended the contract
of the five Blaw Knox Company
plants until May 21, 1860. Their
| 5 900 workers would have quit
Sunday had their contract not been
extended. Other discussions fol
extension are on the way.
The Aluminium Corporation OF
America faces a strike in the near
future if no settlement is arrived
at. before midnight Monday, Octo,
ber II. A strike notice was served
Alcoa on October z, with 10000
workers scattered in plants from
Bridgeport, Conn. to Mobile, Ala.
affected.
Allegheny Ludlum which has
$4,000 employees in New York and
Pennsylvania had a contract end
ing Saturday, October 15, whicf
the union extended 15 days at al
most the last minute in move
which may be of great significance
Negotiations with Alcoa and ALE
gheny Ludlum are being carried
on by James Timmens, USW Vice
President.
The smaller industries which
have already settled with the union
are working full blast up to Thurs
lay, Oct. 13, these small contracts
covered 10000 workers. Also max
j ing hay, are such unorganlzed
plants as Weirton Steel and Mesta
Machine in Pittsburgh.
The Steel strike is indirectly the
cause of the closing of industries
dependent upon it. Layoffs range
from 100 bus drivers in Gary, Ind
to $500 employees of the lntena-
tional Harvester Co. The Chicago
Association of Commerce says that
$50, 900 Metal Trades Workers face
layoffs because of raw material
shortages.
A national emergency is in the
making and Philip Murray places
the blame squarely upon industry