DEFENCE INDUSTRIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24635, 17 June 1941, Page 5

DEFENCE INDUSTRIES

WORKERS IN AMERICA DISCRIMINATION DEPRECATED (Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON. June 15. American workers, both organised and unorganised, must be prepared to welcome general and much-needed em-* ployment of fellow workers of all racial &nd national origins in the defence industries, said President Roosevelt, who asserted that he had received complaints of discrimination throughout the nation against fully qualified negroes and other minority racial and religious groups in the defence industries.

The President added that every available source of labour capable of producing defence material must be tapped in the present emergency. He requested the office for production management to take immediate steps to facilitate the full utilisation of the nation’s productive man-power.'

The office of production management announced that commercial firms and banks had loaned a total of 1,093,000,000 dollars to defence manufacturers. ■

The United States Office of Education announced a “no vacation policy” for trade and industrial schools for training defence workers. Many sichools will operate a schedule of 24 hours a day.

The representative of 50,000 workers of east coast ship yards endorsed the proposal of the Office of Production Management that they should agree to abstain from strikes for two years. The agreement with the owners includes provision for a 12 per cent, wage increase.