ENDING STRIKES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23928, 31 March 1941, Page 8

ENDING STRIKES

PROGRESS IN AMERICA PLANTS RESUME WORK CONFCTTCNTKS I'ENDING <!? pi'(l. r,.:w p.m.) WASHINGTON. March •>!! The Defence Mediation Board yesterday telegraphed the Vanadium ('orporation, the Condenser( orpora(ioii and the Intermit iomil Harvester Company, as well as the unions concerned, asking them to resume production immediately, and simultaneously inviting the parties to come to Washington immediately for discussion of the disputes. The International Harvester Company announced to-day that it would reopen all its closed plants and send representatives to the Defence Medialion Hoard next Monday. Strikers at the Condenser Corporation agreed to return to work on the basis ol' a plan arranged by the Defence Mediation Hoard after a conference lasting seven hours. Jeering at Workmen Allis, Chalmers and Company's plant at Milwaukee, which has been closed bv a Strike since January 22, reopened to-day in compliance with the. Government's demand. One-third of the normal day shift production men reported for work, and were subjected to much jeering. The Congress ot industrial OrganisaI ions section of t lie I'nited Automobile Workers telegraphed to President I'oosevelt their refusal to resume production at the works of Allis. Chalmers and Contpanv, accusing the Secretary of the .Navy," Colonel Knox, and Mr. \Y. S. Knudsen, Director of Deience Production, of conspiracy with the company officials to force a Govern-ment-sponsored "back to work ' movement. Meanwhile, part of the production force has resumed work and the output is 40 per cent of normal. Steel Workers Resume The .settlement of the strike at the Midland Steel Products Company. Detroit., which had forced the closure „f the Ford Motor Company's Lincoln plant and threatened to reduce production by half in other Michigan automobile factories, was announced to-day The Congress of Industrial Organisations announced that the four-day strike at the Bethlehem steel plant had been settled. The terms included the reem plovinenf of all strikers without loss of seniority or discrimination. Several thousand members of the C.1.0. Steel Workers' Organising Committee picketed the mills of the Carnegie Illinois Steel Corporation yesterday! barring gates to workers wh" could not show union cards. Sheriff John Knotts, of Lake County proclaimed a state ot emergency in the -tool-making district, but deputies and policemen assigned to the plant did not attempt to interfere with the An official of the Steel Workers' Organising Committee reported yesterday that the committee's unionists had started a walk-out at the giant Cambria works of the Bethlehem Steel Company at Johnsontown, Pennsylvania, in protest, against the scheduled election by the committee's rival, namely, the employees' representation plan. Garage Hands' Strike One thousand garages in the Manhattan and Bronx districts of New York remained strike-bound 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' I'liion of the American Federation of Labour voted down a proposal which would have given them vacations with pay and left all other issues to be settled by mediation. The dispute affects 8500 workers. The terms of the tentative agreement were accepted by the general manager of the Metropolitan Garage Board of Trade and the secretary-treasurer of the union. Mr. William Green, president of the American Federation of Labour, appealed to members to" avoid strikes in the defence industries. He said: "The future of the nrttion, of our democratic institutions, and ot the very existence of the free labour movement, is a* -take." USE OF GAS WEAPON NEED FOR PREPAREDNESS (Kent. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON. March ■_>* The Home Secretary, Mr. Herbert Morrison, stated in the House of Commons that the use of gas was abhorrent to the British Government, and Britain would in no circumstances he the first to employ the gas weapon, says a British official wireless message. "No attention need be paid to any attempt by the enemy to cast doubts on our attitude or suggest that our defensive measures imply some intention to take the initiative.'' he said. "Unhappily, we cannot put any faith in the .statement which the enemy has made that he will not use gas. : "On the contrary, his whole past record shows that he will stop at nothing and that if he conceives the use of gas to lie ot military advantage to him he will use it for that reason, it is essential that Britain should be prepared."