AMERICAN STRIKES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 111, 12 April 1937, Page 7

AMERICAN STRIKES.

MR FORD’S STAND. ANOTHER CONFERENCE FAILS. NEW YORK, April 11. The conference to settle the Oshawa strike has collapsed. Mr M. Hepburn (Premier of Ontario) refused to deal with a delegation including Mr Thompson, of the American Workers’ Union, “or any other paid foreign C. 1.0. agitator.” Mr Martin arrived for the union consultations and Mr Hepburn declared he was similarly unacceptable, and insisted that General Motors had made concessions which would assure the settlement of the strike “except for John Lewis and his paid organisers.”

Pickets permitted the penetration of the lines to parts of the factory. It is reported that General Motors are prepared to recognise the A AV. U., but not as an affiliate of the C. 1.0. Mr Henry Ford has issued another statement saying that labour unions are the worst thing that ever struck this earth, and promised that his companv would soon demonstrate wages, production, and competition such as had never Iveen seen before. He reiterated that he would never recognise the A.W.U. or any other union for collective bargaining. He declined to confirm rumours that he intends to increase the minimum wage of ten dollars a day, which would exceed the union rates. The C. 1.0. in New York announces that it has begun a campaign to organise 270.000 employees of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the nation’s largest corporations. . „ , ~ A vein of whimsy ran through the New Jersey strike "situation when the estranged wife of an industrialist joined a picket line of his employees, carrying a banner reading “Unfair to Workers.” It is reported that l'.*r divorce suit has just been filed charging that .her husband lived extravagantly, and asking 1000 dollars a week ahmony. She induced the workers to demand a higher wage. The grave-diggers’ strike has been, settled. When it appeared that the cemetery superintendent would lose Ins job, the’diggers returned to work without a wage increase. Eight burials were scheduled hut only', two graves were dug. A child’s coffin was left in the open grave for more than an hour before it. was covered by volunteers.