Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-03-05

tee" drove ahead with their II
United Auto Workers strike
against the Kohler Co., the
Nations second largest pro-
Queer Of plumbing equipment.
For the Senators. the Kohler
strike has developed into a
political issue which has split
the committee into two hostile
camps.
For the people of Kohler and
the nearby city of Sheboygan,
the strike has turned into a
seemingly endless cold war-a
war not only between COMPANY
and union, but between people
sympathetic to the two sides
1t is a situation not unlike that
which prevailed In many border
areas during the Civil War -
brother against brother, always
the bitterest and most unyield-
ing sort Of conflict.
The milestone passed in
Kohler almost unnoticed be-
cause there have been too many
such mileStones. More attention
will be paid to the fifth of next
month, because it will mark the
fourth anniversary Of the Auto
Workers strike against Kohler
Trouble Preceded Strike
The strike began on Monday.
April S, 1854. But the trouble
started long before that-back
before 1852, when JAW organi-
Zers moved into Kohler and
started signing UP members :,
back before World War II,
when the Kohler Workers AS
ISOLATION, a company union,
was fiourishing back even
before the disastrous strike Of
1884. in which two persons were
killed and more than two-score
wounded.
This was not an organizing
strike" which the JAW called
in 1854. Local 1888 of the United
Auto Workers was the legal
bargaining agent for Kohler
employees, and the union had
had a contract with the COM
pany for a year. The strike
developed from a bargaining
table deadlock over contract
improvements.
Now. after nearly four years,
the issues which resulted in
the strike are almost forgotten
and a new primary issue has
arisen in its stead. The issue:
Reinstatement of most-but not
quite all-thoSe who went out,
and stayed out, on strike.
Settled by Immigrants
To understand the Kohler
strike, it is necessary to under
stand a little about the people
Of Kohler and the area they
live in.
Sheboygan, Wis.-"the great
est little town in the world,
according to the old vaudeville
song-lies on the western shore
Of Lake Michigan about SO
miles north of Milwaukee. A
community Of $4,000 or so, ii
originally was settled more
than a century ago by a
great wave Of German immi-
grants - those who fed the
Fatherland after the 1848 diff
Guilty. One of the families that
settled there was named Koh-
Ter.
Other groups Joined the
Germans in Sheboygan, among
them the Holland Dutch. One
Dutchman. Allan Graskamp
heads Local 1888; a cousin OF
his, Dale Oostdyk. is one of the
most fervent supporters of the
company.
There are Slovaks there, too,
and Irish, and assorted white
Americans of other stock and a
few-very few-Negroes.
Kohler Village lies just out
side Sheboygan. At Kohler
there is the plant and there are
homes where about 500 families
live, and there is very little else.
The company employs about 80
per cent of the villages bread
winners and pays about rs per
cent of its taxes. Though the
village is governed by elected
officials, the company's voice
is not without listeners in the
village council.
Uncle of Ex- Governor
The president of the Kohlel
Co. is Herbert v. Kohler, ar
elderly man whose manage.
ment views are conservative il
the extreme. He runs the com.
pany with an iron hand, an.
swerable to no one except q
handful of owners. Kohler, like
Ford before the public Stocl
sale, is a closely-held corpora
ton.
Herbert Kohler is the uncle
of Walter Kohler, a former
Governor Of Wisconsin. Wal
ter's father-Herbert's brother
at one time headed the com.
pany. He also preceded his sor
in the Governors mansion Al
Madison.
When the strike began, Koh.
NON.STRIKEP HAD