CANADIAN MOTOR STRIKE

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22073, 22 April 1937, Page 9

CANADIAN MOTOR STRIKE

', - . ' ■■•■ V. 1900 MEN OFFER TO RESUME ACCEPTANCE OF FIRM'S PROPOSALS EMPLOYERS FEAR RESULTS OF REOPENING (UNITED PBESS ASSOCIATION— COPYRIGHT.) (Received April 22, 1 a.m.) TORONTO, April 21. The Premier of Ontario (Mr M. Hepburn) announced that a delegation representing 1900 strikers at the General Motors plant at Oshawa, informed him that they desired to return to work on the basis of the proposal made by the company yesterday. ThQse excluded union recognition. The men notified the company that they promised full protection and guaranteed peace and order at Oshawa if the plant were reopened. Officials of the company said informally that they believed it would be unwise to open the plant in view of the temper of yesterday's mass meeting. ■ • The Oshawa strike involves 3700 workers, so that those by Mr Hepburn constitute about one nan of the total number of strikers. The claim for recognition of the union has been refused by the General Motors Corporation, chiefly on the ground that it .did not wish to preludice its relations with the Ontario Government by acting in opposition to the declared policy of. the Premier not to recognise anv foreign union. Ihe union concerned, the United Automobile Workers' Union, is a body with membership in Canada and the United States, and it has recently become affiliated with the United States industrial body Mr J.' L. Lewis's Committee for Industrial Organisation; _ , On Tuesday the General Motors Corporation offered a .44-hour week and wage increases as conditions for the settlement of the strike, but persisted in their refusal to recognise the union.