STRIKES IN U.S.A.

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 March 1941, Page 7

STRIKES IN U.S.A.

STEEL WORKERS INVOLVED

CLASHES WITH POLICE

[BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN.-—COPYRIGHT.]

(Recd. March 29, 9.55 a.m.). JOHNSTON (Pennsylvania), March 28.

Morris Mallinger, an official of the Steel Workers’ Organising Committee reported, to-day, that members of his union had started a walk-out at the giant Cambria works of the Bethlehem Steel Company here, in protest against the scheduled election by steel workers of the Organising Committee’s rival, namely the employees representation plan. Mr. Mallinger said the men were leaving their posts in five sections, to prove to the company that they would not tolerate any intimidation, and to prove that they were organised. I At the Richmond circuit, Judge . Hoelscher summoned a Grand Jury to investigate the disorders, yesterday, when the International Harvester Company plant was opened. Pol- , icemen and'pickets and four C. 1.0. ‘strikers were severely injured. l Several thousand members of the ; C. 1.0. Steel Workers’ Organising Committee picketed the mills at Cary (In'diana) of the Carnegie (Illinois) Steel Corporation, to-day, barring the gates to workers who could not show union cards. n _ Sheriff John Knotts, of Lake County, proclaimed a-state of emergency in the steel-making district, yesterday, but deputies and policemen assigned to the plant did not attempt to interfere with the picketing. Pickets marched to the plant from a mass j meeting, passing through streets lined 'with thousands of spectators. Workers who could not show paid Steel ; Workers’ Organising Committee cards 'were thrust aside from the gates, but no other violence was reported. At Bethlehem, the committee of the Industrial Organisation announced that the four-day strike at the Bethlehem steel plant had been settled, the term’s including the re-employ-ament of all strikers without the loss of seniority or discrimination.

GARAGE WORKERS.

(Recd. March 29, 10 a.m.) NEW YORK, March 28

A thousand garages in Manhattan and The Bronx remained strikebound to-day, as the result of the refusal of the union rank and file to accept the negotiators’ settlement. Three thousand members of the Garage Washers and Polishers’ Union of the American Federation of Labour voted down the proposal which would have given them vacations with pay, and left all other issues to be settled by mediation. The dispute affects 8,500 workers. The terms of the tentative agreement have been accepted by the General Manager of the Metropolitan Garage Board of Trade, and the secretary and treasurer of the Union.

MEDIATION EFFORTS

WASHINGTON, March 28.

Mr. Clarence A. Dykstra, chairman of the newly created National Defence Mediation Board, has ordered immediate action by the board in four disputes referred to "it by Miss Frances Perkins, United States Secretary for Labour. The board will begin work to-morrow with a separate panel' for each dispute. At Milwaukee workers affiliated to the Congress of Industrial Organisations have agreed to consider an appeal from the Allis-Chalmers Company to resume work immediately. The union called a mass meeting for 6.30 a.m. on Friday. Seventy maintenance men entered the plant to prepare for a resumption. At Pittsburgh, the United States Steel Corporation and the Steelworkers’ Organising Committee has agreed to extend by one week the deadline for their new agreement, thus avoiding the suspension of steel production on April 1. Contracts affecting 261,000 employees expire on March 31. The men made nine demands affecting wages and conditions of work. In San Francisco, leaders in the American Federation of Labour and shipbuilding employers have pledged themselves to settle all disputes by arbitration and to ban all strikes and lock-outs in the Pacific Coast shipbuilding industry during the national emergency.

MOTOR-CAR PRODUCTION. (Received March 29, 10 a.m.) NEW YORK, March 28. The Journal of Commerce says the usual seasonal pattern of automobile production will be altered markedly early this Summer, as the result of the likely absence of, a uniform changeover policy. The producers are now planning to fit in their changeovers in accordance with defence requirements. Some, for example, will undertake their transition to the 1942 model production I late in May. Others will wait unI til August and September. The flexible changeover period is made possible by the changes for the 1912 i model. Such changes will be limited largely to the body rather than the engine. RUSH TO BUY. (Recd. March 29, 10.50 a.m.). DETROIT, March 28.. The defence production boom and fears of shortage in automobiles, this Summer, have created buyers in such numbers, that a new first-quarter production record has been established. Never before have the United States .and Canadian automobile assembly lines been geared so high. The first quarter of the year production is estimated at 1,560,000 cars and trucks. The previous highest was 1,546,000 in 1929. The principal worry of the automobile companies is sufficient manpower to run the assembly lines, when the industry’s new aeroplane engine, tank, and ordnance arsenals and aircraft sub-assemblies, plans to absorb auto-mechanics. j ■ . 1 RADIO RECEPTION. i (Recd. March 29, 10.50 a.m.) , WASHINGTON, March 28. ! More than 800 radio stations made final engineering tests, to-day,_ before shifting places on the dial, in conformance with the North f American broadcasting agreement to eliminate interference. . . ■ The agreement was signed by Uni- . ted States, Canada, Mexico and Cuba,

and becomes effective on Saturday. Engineers of the Federal Communications Commission expect the changes to eliminate or minimise much radio interference from the powerful Mexican border stations, that interfered with receiption in this country. They will be forced off the air. Generally, the uniform shifts will affect 802 of 893 standard broadcast stations, now received above the 730 kilocycle marking on the dial. They will now be heard at slightly different points, usually higher.

GERMANS LEAVING.

WASHINGTON, March 27.

A German Embassy official in Washington said that substantial numbers of German women and children had been leaving the United States for their homeland since the outbreak of the war. They have been assembling in New York in small but regular streams from all parts of the country, and taking passage on American or Spanish ships for south-west-ern Europe. CURRENCY AGREEMENT. TORONTO, March 27. According to the Toronto “Financial Post,” the Canadian Government is not enthusiastic about the Washington plan for placing the Canadian and United States currencies on an equal basis, although the move would automatically cut the Canadian war bill by 10 per cent. However, in view of recent statements by the Prime Minister (Mr. Mackenzie King), it is believed that some far-reaching agreement between the two countries is certain. The “Financial Post” predicts that the new financial policy which Mr Mackenzie King forecast will be built round the free entry of more British goods to strengthen Canadian credits in London, Canadian borrowings from the United States through changes in the American neutrality law, and an exchange agreement of some sort between Canada and the United States. '