STRIKE THREAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1941, Page 5

STRIKE THREAT

IN AMERICAN MINES DEMAND FOR COMPULSORY UNIONISM. LABOUR MEMBERS LEAVE MEDIATION BOARD. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) WASHINGTON,. November 11. Apparently in preparation for an emergency in the Appalachian mine situation the ’ Army Department has established an intelligence centre in Pittsburg to survey the coalfields and keep in touch with the miners and owners. It is feared that the Defence Mediation Board’s decision against compulsory unionism in. the mines may cause a resumption of the strike/ in the Appalachian mines, which supply the major steel plants of the nation. The president of the Congress of Industrial Organisations, Mr Philip Murray, and the secretary-treasurer of the United Mine Workers of America, Mr Thomas Kennedy, have resigned from the Defence Mediation Board. They sent a joint letter to President Roosevelt saying that the rejection of the miners’ demand for compulsory unionism in the Appalachian mines had made it impossible for Labour to retain confidence in the board’s future actions. Another message states that there is still no news of the intentions of Mr J. L. Lewis, on the question of calling a strike of 53,000 American miners employed in pits which are supplying exclusively seven great steel works. The union demand is for a “closed shop”—i.e., that the five per cent of the miners who are not members of the union should be compelled to fall into line with the 95 per cent who are members.

AXIS SABOTAGE GENERAL MARSHALL’S WARNING. WASHINGTON, November 11. The Army Chief of Staff, General Marshall, in a broadcast, warned the United States to guard against a sudden and widespread attempt by the Axis Powers to sabotage United States munitions. He said the Axis already had launched a propaganda attack designed to disrupt Army morale. The clever methods used succeeded in upsetting' families of soldiers and misled Congressmen. STEEL PRODUCTION APPEAL BY PRESIDENT FOR MAXIMUM. (Received This Day, 9.15 a.m.) WASHINGTON, November 12. President Roosevelt has appealed to the steel industry to work to the limit to produce sufficient to arm America and simultaneously supply the nations resisting aggression. He sent a letter to a meeting of 800 steel executives asking that individualistic interests be forgotten throughout the emergency. Mr Knudsen, in a speech at the meeting, revealed that the United States would attain the peak of production in the second quarter of 1942.