The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1950-01-05


steelworkers it was unwilling to
discuss pensions. General Electric
Co. refused to consider United
Electrical Workers demand for a
$500 yearly pay boost. UE struck
Philco Corp. in Philadelphia and
Singer Manufacturing Co. in Eliz-
abeth, n. j., demanding 15-cent
raises and other benefits. Textile
Workers said they would not seek
any wage raises during the year
but would strike in protest against
any wage cuts.
The AFL Executive Council
meeting in Cleveland, tore into re-
dictionary businessmen, and poiitl-
clans who were trying to talk the
country into a depression to defeat
labor's industrial and political pro
grams. Consumer purchasing power
must be kept up, AFL warned. ClO
Executive Board, meeting in Wash
ington, called for wage hikes tc
boost sagging buying power.
Communication Workers of Am
erica (230,000 members) voted to
affiliate with the CIO, joining with
Telephone Workers Organizing
Committee and several independ-
ent local unions. American Fedora
tion of Hosiery Workers asked the
AFL for a charter.
June: The speedup strike at
Ford ended and contract talks con-
tinued. The Brotherhood of Rail
way Clerks reached agreement for
10000 members with the Railway
Express Agency based on an emer-
gency boards findings-a 40-hour
week and seven-cent raise. Local
unions throughout the country won
pay raises. Teamsters, painters,
chemical workers, bakery workers,
bricklayers, electrical workers, con-
struction workers., carpenters,
streetcar workers, oil workers, and
auto workers-all AFL-got boosts
ranging from five to 20 cents. Int'l
Association of Machinists won a
201a cent raise for Philadelphia
auto mechanics. CIO Chemical
workers won an eight-cent hike for
atom workers at Oak Ridge after
threatening to strike. Brewery
Workers in New York won an 80
day strike with a So weekly pay
raise and employer-fnanced pen
sion fund. CIO maritime unions
won contracts with $3.50 monthly
raises.
Nationwide bargaining rights
were won by American Newspaper
Guild in an NLRB election for 105
Associated Press Bureaus from
coast to coast. A six-year-old press
scandal ended when AP, ordered by
the court in libel suit, sent out
retraction of 1943 story which had
reported members of Natl Mari
time Union on a "sitdown" at
Guadalcanal.
Both AFL and CIO stepped up
their 1850 election plans after the
Senate voted 5040 to keep Taft
Hartley on the books. Labor's Lea
que for Political Education mark
ed Senators Taft of Ohio, Donnell
of Missouri, Capehart of Indiana,
and Millikin of Colorado, for their
heaviest fire in the 80 elections.
For the first time in nearly ten
years, Congress approved a public
housing bill; provided for aid to
localities to build $4,000 low-rent |
housing units for slum clearance,
rural housing, and. research into
how to build better homes cheaper
and faster. Work began on a bill to
encourage coop housing for mid
dle-income families.
The Senate ratified the Atlantic
Pact, 92 to 13, despite Taft efforts
TO defeat or weaken it. Representa-
tives of trade unions in 33 coun-
tries met in Geneva, to plan for
nation of q new international or
of free trade unions.
AFL Secretary George Meany and
CIO Secretary James Carey, work
ing in close cooperation, took lead
ng roles. United Nations Economic
& Social Council requested an in
vestigation of slave labor, includ-
ing in the Soviet Union.
Missouri and Delaware repealed
heir "little Taft Hartley" laws.
Labor mourned the death of JUS
ice Frank Murphy of the Supreme
Court, A. F. Whitney, president of
The Brotherhood of Railroad Train
men, and Van A. Bittner, called