LABOUR UNREST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22700, 12 April 1937, Page 10

LABOUR UNREST

ONTARIO CONFERENCES MOTOR EMPLOYEES PREMIER'S STRICTURES "PAID FOREIGN AGITATORS" By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received April 11, 9.45 p.m.) MONTREAL, April 11 The conferences to settle the strike at the plant of General Motors (Canada) Corporation at Oshawa, Ontario, have collapsed. The Premier of Ontario, Mr. M. F. Hepburn, refused to deal with the delegation, including Mr. Thompson, of the Automobile Workers' Union, or ""any other paid foreign agitator of the Committee of Industrial Organisation." „

The union leader Mr. Homer Martin arrived and had consultations with the local union. Mr. Hepburn stated that Mr. Martin also" was not acceptable and insisted that the General Motors Corporation had made concessions which would assure the settlement of the strike "except for Mr. John Lewis and his .paid organisers." Pickets permitted the penetration of the lines in parts of the factory. It is reported that the General Motors Corporation is prepared to recognise the Automobile orkors Union, but not as an affiliate of the Committee of Industrial Organisation. * Mr. Henry Ford has issued another statement to the effect that laboui unions were the worst things he had ever met and he promised that his company soon would demonstrate w ages, production and competition such as had never been seen before. Ho reiterated that he would never recognise the Automobile Workers' Union or anj other union for collective bargaining. Mr. Ford declined to confirm the rumours that he intended to increase the,minimum wage to 10 dollars a day. which would exceed union rates. CONTROLLING BODIES WARFARE IN AMERICA ELECTRICAL UNION'S DRIVE (Received April 11, 9.45 p.m.) PITTSBURG, April 11 The American Federation of Labour has abandoned tbe traditional craft unionism and has adopted tho industrial union plan of the Committee of Industrial Organisation, in open battle against the organisation. The electrical union has started an intensive drive to enrol all employees, including the clerical staffs and the workers of the Westinghouse and two other electrical companies. The Committee of Industrial Organisation retaliated in a statement giving the Westinghouse Company week in >-hich to sign a contract to replace the oral agreement reached several weeks ago in London. WIFE JOINS PICKET NEW JERSEY EMPLOYER DIVORCE SUIT PENDING (Eeceived April 11, 9.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, April 10

A whimsical vein ran through the strike at New Jersey. The estranged ■wife of an industrialist joined the picket line' of his employees, carrying a tanner reading: "Unfair to workers." It is reported that the woman's divorce suit has just been filed and that she'charges her husband with extravagant living and is asking for 1000 dollars a week as alimony. She induced the workers to demand a higher wage. FRESH CAMPAIGN MR. LEWIS' ORGANISATION COMMUNICATION SERVICES (Received April 11, 9.30 p.m.) - ' • NEW YORK, April 10 The New York branch of Mr. John Lewis', Committee of Industrial Organisation announces that it has begun a campaign to organise 270,000 employees of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the largest corporation in the United States. DIGGERS OF GRAVES A SECOND DISPUTE EVENTUAL SETTLEMENT (Received April 11, 5.5 p.m.) NEW YORK, April 10 A message from Newark, New Jersey, says the grave diggers' sitdown 'strike spread to the Roman Catholic cemetery there. Eight burials were scheduled but only two graves were,; dug. A child's coffin lay in an open grave for more than an hour Jiefore volunteers covered it. The wages demands of the men were granted later but they refused to work until the North Arlington strike was settled^. However, the trouble ended when it appeared that the cemetery _ superin- * tendent would lose his position. The diggers thereupon returned to work without increased wages.