STEEL PLANT STRIKE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20492, 28 February 1941, Page 5

STEEL PLANT STRIKE

12,000 MEN INVOLVED EXTENSION PREDICTED (Reed. Feb. 28; 9 a.m.) BUFFALO, NEW YORK, Feb. 27. The Committee of Industrial Organisation Steel Workers’ organising committee has declared a strike of 12,000 men employed at the Bethlehem Steel Corporation’s. Lackawanna plant; Unionists predicted that similar strikes will follow quickly at other Bethlehem plants, tying up the production of £250,000,000 worth of defence orders, involving 600,000 workers. The strike was called despite Washington efforts to halt it for which reason it is considered to be a demonstration of the determination of the C. 1.0. to organise all the major industries. The C. 1.0. already has obtained an agreement with the largest steel company, namely, the United Slates Steel Corporation, but has fought for many years a war with a little steel group of which the Bethlehem Steel Corporation is the principal member. The Bethlehem Corporation owns mines and shipyards and if it is fought out it would be the biggest battle between labour and capital for many years.

The earliest stages of the strike brought a flare of violence. C. 1.0. strikers deployed in a two-mile picket line fronting the seven gates of the huge plant. Many automobiles \vere smashed.

The Bethelehem Steel Corporation to the sheriff for protection, alleging that the strikers were creating terror and that police protection had broken down, creating a situation of real menace to the defence programme.

The union leader claims that the strike is the most effective he has ever seen, but the general manager asserts that the strike is a dismal failure. Only one bar mill is shut down for lack of workers.