MOVE AGAINST WORKERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 307, 26 November 1937, Page 7

MOVE AGAINST WORKERS.

PICKETERS’ ACTION. CHALLEN GE~ACCEPTED. DETROIT, Nov. 24. The first serious movement by tho Committee for Industrial Organisation against Mr Henry Ford occurred when 1000 picketers attempted to prevent workers entering the factory grounds, but automobiles carrying loyalists crashed the gates. Mr Ford promptly accepted the challenge and applied to the Circuit Court for an injunction to restrain the pickets and others from interfering with the operations of the factory. A petition which the Court took under advisement also asked for the fixation of damages for loss due to interference. The situation is a climax to a longstanding tued in which Mr Ford has not disguised . his hostility to the C. 1.0., and is also a significant indication of the C.1.0.’s belief in its own strength, providing a dramatic reply to recent allegations that it was facing a. financial crisis owing to the nonpayment of dues consequent on trade recession, internal dissension and a loss on the steel strike. A thousand strikers and sympathisers picketed the works this morning and were still present at closing time, but they did not interfere with the departing workers. A policeman whose leg was crushed while escorting, a nonstrikers’ car was the only major casualty. During the day 13 picketers were arrested on charges of assault and disturbing the peace. Mr Delmond Garst, regional director of the United Automobile Workers, said the strike was due to discrimination against unionists. He alleged that 250 officers, shop stewards and other active unionists were not re-employed when the plant reopened a few weeks a.go. ... Ford spokesmen deny discrimination and assert that the unionists want to control the plant. Sympathetic action is possible in other Ford plants. The workers at Kansas City have been warned to be prepared for action.