Newspapers / The Charlotte Labor Journal … / Dec. 17, 1942, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The Charlotte Labor Journal and Dixie Farm News (Charlotte, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
- “United We Stand lor Victory” - The ONLY REALLY INDEPENDENT WEEKLY in Mecklenburg County Wm4SmmSiFar » Weck|y lte Read”* Represent the LARGEST BUYING POWER in Charlotte She Charlotte labor "Journal 12 YEARS OF CONSTRUCTIVE SERVICE TO NORTH CAROLINA Endorted by the N. C. State Federation of Labor AND DIXIE FARM NEWS Official Organ of Central Labor Union; Standing for the A. F. L. READERS VOL. XII—NO. 29 YOU* AOVKRTIICMKNT IN THE JOURNAL *• A GOOD INVMTMINT CHARLOTTE, N. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17,1942 JOURNAL ADVERTISERS DESERVE CONSIDERATION OR THE HEADERS $2.00 Per Year ELECTION OF OFFICERS IN LABOR LOCALS IN CHARLOTTE LAST WEEK PARAMOUNTED OTHER ACTIVITIES BY. J. A. MOORE The most interesting of all of Labor’s Activities the past week has been the elections in several crafts, the results of some of them I have not been able to obtain, however, I will report that Local F. 33 I.O.T.SE. has been organized and their charter was installed several days ago. I regret that I have been unable to secure the names of the officers elected but, I am sure, they are high type people. They are affiliated with the Moving Picture Operators, and the Film Exchange Clerks. These two organizations need no introduction of the field of labor.. The first of these have several such staunch members as W. H. Fowler and Bro ther McAllister; the latter is represented by our good brother, Jack Wads worth, who, of course, will guide this new local union. Local Union B 33 I.A.T.S.E. held their election Friday night with the following being elected: President H. E. Ritchie; Vice-President, Sue Turner; Business Agent Jack Wadsworth; Treasurer Lucille Carpenter; Financial Secretary Mildred Warren; Recording Secretary, Mrs. Helms; Sergeant at-Arms, Floyd Norman. Some of these officers were re-elected but I am not in possession of the names. However, it is to be noticed that Jack Wadsworth was mentioned in a former article as “Business Agent,” and I believe he told me that the two local unions were planning on a joint meeting soon. Local union 263, International Association of Machinists also had an election of officers Friday night, with the following being re-elected: Presi dent J. P. Waggoner; Vice-President, W. B. Wallace; Recording Secretary, E. L. Barkley; Financial Secretary, T. C. Calhoun; Treasurer, G. B. Gonnells; Conductor, Jack Pace; Inside Sentinel, Roy Brennon; Trustee, J. A. Moore. All these officers were re-elected except Jack Pace who is a new man in our local and we believe in giving them something to do now and maybe they will keep on doing something. Mr. L. C. Ritter, General Chairman District 4, International Association of Machinists, was a visitor at the meeting of the Machinists and I think he proved himself entirely worthy of the high office to which he has been elected by the Railroad Machinists that are in the Association. He has had much experience in the labor field, and most especially that of dealing with adjustments of disputes that are bound to arise in a job as big as a rail road shop. Another interesting election was that of the Brotherhood of Railway and Steamship Clerks, which resulted as follows: President. R. R. Harris; Vice President, W. E. Kerr; Recording Secretary. Miss Chloie Conder; Financial Secretary, D. W. Cook; Treasurer, C. H. Way; Legislative Representative, C. R. Meacham, Chairmen; Chaplain, Jack Batte; Sergeant-at-Arms, J. S. Barrow; Inner Guard. L. W. Craig; Outer Guard, J. P. Smith; Board of Trustees, C. R. Meacham. Chairman; E. R. Efird and J. S. Barrow; Pro tective Committee, W. J. Dickson, Chairman; R. R. Harris and C. R. Meacham; Delegates to Central Labor Union, J. S. Barrow, R. R. Harris, C. R. Meacham and W. E. Kerr; Director Labor Temple, Inc^ R. R. Harris; Delegate to Grand Lodge Convention in St. Louis, Mo., R. R. Harris. The above elections were conducted at regular _meetings of the Local Unions and were very harmonious and it is my wish for all the officers elect, a Very Prsperous Year. DEMOCRACY* JAT THE CROSS ROADS A. F. of L. Labors Monthly Survey Heartened by the master strategy of American forces in Africa and its success, union members throughout the country are girding for even greater production effort. We know that more will be required of us. We have new battle lines to support. New supplies of civilian goods will be needed as America follows her occupation of territory with supplies of food and clothing for populations left destitute by Nazi policies. New demands for production, manpower problems increasing daily as production expands, heightening intensity of effort everyywhere as the Allied offensive begins—all this brings a new challenge to Democracy at home. In our civilian agencies which direct the war effort on the home front, unless democratic organization is ready to meet war demands, we shall. suddenly find civilian representation swept aside and control handed to a dictator at the head of each agency. In price and rationing control (OPA), war pro duction control (WPB), the War Manpower Commission, and the War Labor Board, labor and management, as well as the public must have representa tion both on top policy making boards and on the regional and local boards which administer these policies at the regional and local levels. DEMOCRACY OR DICTATORSHIP IN WAR AGENCIES? This democratic control machinery must be established as quickly as pos sible, for war needs are urgent. In manpower, late in October, even before the administrative machinery was set up to handle manpower problems, we narrowly escaped a law giving sweeping powers to a single manpower di rector, enabling him to establish forced labor in the United States. Labor’s strong protest to the President stopped this serious step toward dictator ship. The administrative machinery urged byb the Management-Labor Manpower Policy Committee must be in operation before any manpower procedures can be effective, whether voluntary or compulsory. The Fed eration insisted that machinery for voluntary cooperation should at least have a trial before freezing workers to their jobs. Another danger signal is the bill to suspend the Wage-Hour Act, introduced in the Senate early in November under guise of lengthening the work week to supply manpower. The real purpose of this bill is to cut wages by eliminating overtime pay ments, for the work week in war industries is already close to or exceed ing the 48-hour maximum efficiency period. Actually, such methods would retard, not help, the war effort. Because they are steps away from Democracy toward rigid reggimentation, they would destroy the spontaneous, wholehearted energy of will, mind and muscle which free men bring to their work. Democracy is indeed at the cross roads in this country and the next few weeks may decide whether we will save here at home the way of life we are fighting to preserve. SOCIAL SECURITY BOARD ISSUES WARNING REGARDING THE 1938 WAGE RECORDS Lone T. Proctor, manager of the Charlotte office of the Social Security Board, last week urged all employees covered by the Social Security Act who have reason to believe that their 1938 wage records may be incomplete to secure a statement of their earnings from the Board. Mr. Proctor explained that a request for a change in the wage record must be made within four years after the year in which the wages in question were earned. Effective January 1, 1943, the Social Security Board’s records of wages, paid in the year 1938, will be conclusive. After this date, it will be difficult to make any changes in individual wage records for 1938 except to con form to tax returns filed with the Bureau of Internal Revenue by employers. A postcard form for requesting a statement of wages can be secured from the Charlotte office of the Board. If, after receiving this statement, the employee determines that his 1938 wages are incorrect or incomplete, correction steps can be taken. Since the statute of limitations on these wages become operative shortly, the time at which such wages are questioned is very important. The manager said that although employees can secure a full statement of their earnings once a year, the mass filing of such requests is not en couraged as this increases administrative costs. “However,” he added, “the Board must maintain accurate and complete wage records and should have all ommissions brought to its attention.” Gen. McNamey Lauds AFL Workers WASHINGTON, D. C-—Following is the glowing tribute paid to AFL workers on the Dee. 6 “Labor For Victory” pro gram by Lieut. Gen. Joseph T. McNamey, Deputy Chief of Staff of the U. S. Army: “During our first year—our year of preparation—Amer ican war factories have poured forth a harvest of munitions that has never been equalled in history. “Labor, management and the armed forces have put their shoulders to the wheel Mid will keep them there for the duration. All of us share a responsibility that cannot be divided. “You of the American Federation of Labor who arranged this ‘Labor For Victory’ program are busy supplying us with the tools of your trade. It is our job to carve the victory with them. Let me tell you what some of the planes built by A. F. of L. workers are doing in battle. “Flying Fortresses not only dropped tons of bombs but brought down more than half of the 167 enemy planes de stroyed or probably destroyed by the Army Air Forces be tween Nov. 1 and Nov. 23. One Flying Fortress bagged seven Nazi planes in 12 minutes. “Members of the American Federation of Labor are building Flyingg Fortresses at the Boeing factory. “Not long ago, five B-24 Liberators bombed the power station and shaft head of a mine at Kaiping, China, which has supplied Japan with 75 per cent of her coking coal. The re sultant flooding of that mine may have put it out of commis sion an entire year. “Members of the American Federation of Labor are building B-24 Liberators at the Consolidated factory. “The twin-engined P-38 Lightning, mounting .50-caliber machine guns and a cannon, is one of our newed fighting planes. It does better than 400 miles an hour and its cannon can blast a bomber in the air or a tank on the ground from a mile away. In action in Africa, the Southwest Pacific, and the Aleutians, it has lived up to its name. “On Nov. 25, Lightnings destroyed 14 enemy planes over Tunisia and not one of their own was lost* “Members of the American Federation of Labor are building Lightnings at the Lockheed factory.” U. S. BY THE END OF 1943 WILL PRODUCE VOLUME OE WEAPONS AS GREAT AS THAT OF THE REST OF THE WORLD COMBINED The United States, it is estimated, now are producing twice as much combat armament as the Axis, and by the end of next year it is expected that the United States, alone, will produce al most as great a volume of fighting weapons as all the rest of the { world combined. In order to attain that vast output of war goods, I civilian goods and services must be cut to a bare minimum. Not more than 75 billion dollars worth of goods and services will be available in 1943, to all the people of this country. But at the same time our total national income has steadily been rising, until it has reached a level of about 115 billion dol lars a year, even with taxes taken out. Which means that for every $1.15 that we have to spend, there will be only about 75 cents worth of goods or services to spend it on. Part of our 40 billion dollar surplus buying power will be drained off by additional taxes, while voluntary restrictions in buying and voluntary savings also will help check the rise in liv ing costs caused by competition to buy scarce goods. If, however, we want to make our stocks of scarce goods go as far as possible _and we do—if we want to make sure they’re evenly distribubted, then we must rely on rationing. We must rely on both the coupon rationing with which we are now familiar, and the new system of “point” rationing which will start after the first of the year. POINT-RATIONING IS NEEDED The present coupon “unit system” is well adapted to ration ing such products as siigar and coffee, which can be divided up on a simple per capita basis, but it cannot well be used for rationing diversified foodstuffs, since tastes vary quite as much as do sup plies, and not all persons want the same items in their daily diet. By giving a higher point value to scarce commodities and lower points to those that are plentiful, the consumer having a total number of points to “spend” for a particular group of products during a given ration period is free to “pay out” more of his points for scarce items, or to consume larger amounts of low-point abund ant foods that may be substituted for the scarce ones. __ • -— I *************************** SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND Typo Auxiliary Christmas Party December 21st Woman’s Auxiliary No. 107 to Charlotte Typographical Union No. 338 wi'l b"V' their December meeting and Christmas party at the home of Mrs. Hugh M. Sykes, 1701 E. Boule vard, Monday night, December 21st, at 8 o’clock. An interesting program has been planned by the entertainment commit tee. There will be a tree and a Santa Claus. All members are reminded to bring a gift for their “Pal,” and also to bring a doll which will be sent to the Salvation Army for their party for the Underpriviled children. CO-OPERATION IS WORKING Union - management co - operation, now being given a test on the largest scale in history, is working, as the American Federation of Labor always contended it would. Government re ports show the unmistakable success of such co-operation, with more than 3,300,000 workers aiding in the job of boosting war production through more than 1,650 labor-management commit tees throughout the nation. Huge increases in output have been reported to War Production Drive headquarters of the War Production Board, since the opening of the cam paign to build union-employer councils in every war plant. In addition, there have been hun dreds of reports on successful salvage drives; on the elimination of waste; on the speeding up of operations; on the substitution of readily available materials for scarce items; on im provement of production; and on the reduction of absenteeism. America’s unions have led in call ing for the establishment of active labor-management committees, the War Production Board says. It might well have added the results have fully justified labor’s advocacy of this means of worker-management co-op eration. -V CAUSE FOR PRAYER We’ve always wondered why Senate sessions are opened with prayer and now we know. The chaplain looks around at the Senators and then sends up a fervent prayer for the rest of the country. -1-V- V PITY THE MOTORIST It’s a hard world for the motorist these days when he must divided his time in worrying about inflation and a slow leak in his precious inner tube. DEMAND THE UNION LABEL Label in yonr hat? Label in yonr shoes? Label in yonr clothes? Label on ypnr printing? Union barber shave yon? Union carpenter build yond house? Union painter paint it? Union bricklayer put the foundation under it and the pillars in front of tt? Union plumber fit oat yonr aanltary equipment?
The Charlotte Labor Journal and Dixie Farm News (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 17, 1942, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75