CHARLOTTE LABOR JOURNAL
VOL. XIX; NO. 5
CHARLOTTE, N. C., -THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 1949
Subscription Price $2.00 Year
Wage Increase Ruled Illegal;
. Ruling By The Supreme Court
, WASHINGTON—A wage increase bigger than a labor
union demanded was declared illegal by the Supreme Court
recently because the employer failed to notify the union of
the raise. The court ruled unanimously that when an em
ployer is negotiating with a union on an increase, he can’t
grant a general increase without consulting the union. To do
so, the court held, is a violation of the national labor re
lations act, which guarantees the right of collective bar
gaining.
The company involved was
Crompton-Highland Mills, Inc., of
Griffin, Ga. The CIO Textile
Workers union had been certified
as bargaining agent for workers
in the plant, and negotiations
were in progress for a contract.
Talks reached a stalemate De
cember 19, 1945. Twelve days
later Crompton-Highland granted
a wage increase ranging from
two to ~stx cents an hour—more
than the union had asked during
negotiations. It did so without
notifying the union in advance.
Justice Burton, delivering the
court’s’ opinion, said the occasion
was clearly “appropriate for col*
lective bargaining.’’
He said the circumstances
would be different if a similar
offer had been made by the em
ployer during negotiations and
had been rejected or left unac
cepted by the union.
A wage increase then, he said
“might well carry no disparage
ment of the collective bargaining
proceedings.”
Crompton-Highland argued that
it granted the wage boost because
the union had terminated negotia
tions and because an increase was
necessary to keep a working
force in a highly competitire
field. , /. | " .. *
But 'the court accepted the
findings of the National Labor
Relations board that while the
talks were at an impasse the un
ion had not broken them off en
tirely.
“We do not have here,” Burton
said, “a case where the bargain
ing had come to a complete term
ination cutting off the outstand
ing invitation of the certified bar
gaining representative (the un
ion) to bargain as to any new
issue on such a matter as rates
of pay.”
The high tribunal’s action re
versed a ruling by the U. S.
circuit court at New Orleans,
which had refused to issue a de
cree enforcing the NLRB finding
against the company.
The Supreme Court sent the
case back to the circuit court
with instructions to issue a de
cree. It said the lower court,
may however modify the terms
of the NLRB’s order.
In another action today the
court refused to extend the time
in which Gerhart Eisler alien
Communist may appeal his con
viction on passport fraud charges.
He has until. June 6 to file an
appeal but the matter is now aca
demic because Eisler has fled the
country.
Polio Precautions
The golden rule ef personal clean
liness should be observed particu
larly in the usual summer polio
i epidemic months. Food should be
kept tightly covered and safe from
flies and other Insects. The same
applies to garbage, which, where
other disposal facilities are lacking,
should be burled or burned.
■THE NATIONAL FOIRHIATIOR
FOR INFANTILE PARALYSIS.
GREEN SUPPORTS NEW
HOUSING MEASURE PRO
VIDING LOW-RENT
HOMES FOR WORKERS
Washington. — AFL President
William Green appealed to Con
gress to approve pending legisla
tion which would enable “mod
erate income” workers’ families
to obtain decent housing at rea
sonable rents.
Mr. Green testified before the
Senate Banking and Currency
Committee’s housing subcommit
tee in behalf of the Sparkman
bill which would make possible
low-interest government loans to
building co-operatives.
The measure, he said, would be
only an “experiment” toward
helping families with an annual
income between the $2,000 and
$3,750 annual income brackets to
obtain satisfactory living quar
ters. About 40 per cent of the
nation's families fall within this
income bracket, Mr. Green testi
fied.
This would be a non-subs idized
program, he emphasised, one
which would not cost one cent
of the taxpayers’ money yet
jyould provide acutely needed as
sistance to families who cannot
qualify for the low-income pub
lic housing program but are too
poor to buy or rent the high
priced housing now being con
structed by private real estate
interests.
“We think that a solution has
been reached,” Mr. Green told
the Senate committee, “in the
provisions of this bill which
would make possible large-scale
rental housing projects by co
operative and other nonprofit cor
porations. These projects would be
financed by direct loans from the
federal government at the going
federal rate of interest (now 2%
per cent), plus M of 1 per cent
for administration, for an amorti
zation period of up to 60 years,
but not to exceed the useful life
of the project.
“We firmly believe that this co
operative housing program will
meet the practical test of pro
viding decent housing that mod
erate income families can afford.
Under this program total month
ly payment or rents can be re
duced to as low as $50-$60 by
savings which would be achieved
in at least 4 ways: (1) reduced
monthly financing costs through
the lower interest rate and the
longer amortization period; (2)
saving through the non-profit fea
ture; (3) savings because of an
extremely low vacancy rate com
parable to the experience in pub
lic housing; and (4) reduced op
erating and maintenance expenses
made possible by avoiding luxury
services to tenants and arrang
ing for a certain amount of ten
ant maintenance. In addition
’ states and localities could make
major contributions toward the
achievement of additional savings
by granting partial or complete
tax exemption to co-operative
and non-profit housing groups set
up under this program.
“The bill wisely provides for a
new separate constituent unit
within the Housing and Home
Finance Agency, the Co-operative
Housing Admiinstration, the head
of which will be appointed by
the President with the advice and
consent of the Senate. We be
lieve that this is a most signifi
cant feature of the bill, because
without a separate constituent
unit we are convinced that this
pioneer program would never re
ceive the recognition and inde
pendence so necessary for its suc
cess.” <
Throngs Attend Union Industries Show
4 I
Crowd* like that above thronged the vast Public Auditorium in Cleveland to witaeae the spectacle
Presented by the 194* version of the Union Indus tries Shew, an annnal event sponsored by the AFL's
Union Label Trades Department to tell the pablic the story or successful labor-management rela
tions. The photo shows the main foor of the ex hi bit halL Similar scenes were the rule in a larger
basement area.
- Typical of the exhibits which drew the admiring glances of thou
sands of spectators was that of the National Brotherhood of
Operative Potters shown above. Lnion members are demonstrating
the skill and techniques required in their trade.
NOTICE
The reason this issue of The
Journal is late is due to an ex
tensive job of remodeling which
has been going on in our plant
since the first of May which put
our facilities out of order until
it was completed.
The back wall on our building
wns ready to topple over and the
landlord was compelled to rebuild
the wall at once. The need was
so urgent that only little notice
could be given us. While this
work was underway we asked the
landlord to make other improve
ments and from now on we will
have The Journal to you on time
each week.
For this delay we are deeply
apologetic and ,Jhank our sub
scribers and advertisers for their
patience. All back issues of The
! Journal will be coming to you
in short order.
THE PUBLISHER.
When Editors Sell Out It’s Not News,
So Press Plays Down Illinois Scandal
By ARNOLD BEICHMAN, New York Correspondent for
The AFL News Service
NEW YORK.—American press agencies and newspapers
were rapped sharply by Don Hollenbeck, radio news anal
yst and commentator on his weekly program “CBS Views
the Press,” for suppression of a scandal story involving
51 Illinois editors and the defeated Republican governor,
Dwight Green.
“The story and the way it was
treated by the press,” said Hol-|
lenbeck, a veteran newspaperman
and foreign correspondent, “con
tribute to the history of Ameri
can journalism one of its grimi
est pages.”
Last month, the Chicago Daily
News and the St. Louis Post
Dispatch screamed on their front
pages that a bunch of Illinois
newspaper editors had been car
ried on the state government
payrolls as well as columnists,
employes and relatives of the ed
itors for about 7 years and that|
more than half a million dollars
had been paid out to these peo
ple who were given sinecures.
According to the expose, “most
of the payrollees reported little
or no service for their money ex
cept to print editorials and news
stories from (Governor) Green's
publicity mill.”
The Milwaukee. Wise., Journal
'called the whole thing a dis
grace to the press and sent a
man of its own to investigate.”
“As the Journal said,” Hollen
beck declared, “Whether the edi
tors gave honest service for the
money they collected was beside
the point: the point was, the
paper said, that readers expected
impartial news reporting from
their papers and how could an
editor be impartial who was on a
state political machine’s payroll?”
For two weeks the story kicked
around Illinois and “our great
and complex news-gathering or
ganization completely fumbled
this story of major news value
and it has even now been so
scantily handled in the Now York
newspapers,” said Hollenbeck.
The first major newspaper out
side Chicago and St. Louis to run
the story was the Washington,
D. C., Post, 11 days later. The
next day, Publisher Arthur Hays
Sulzberger of the New York
Times saw mention of the story
in Newsweek and when he dis
covered his own editors didn’t
know about it, ordered a story
from the Times’ Chicago corre
spondent.
At last the Associated Press
“got its ponderous self into mo
tion and 13 days late sent out
an 800-word story but without
the names of the editors involved.
The AP’s executive editor. Alan
J. Gould, admitted the AP had
erred. He said.
“We are exposed to justifiable
- - i..
criticism that we passed up for
nearly two weeks a newspaper
investigation about newspapers
and their tie-up with a state gov
ernment Rightly or wrongly, the
feeling arises that, if any other
interests or organizations such
as industry groups or labor un
ions had been involved, the story
would have been all over the
place without delay."
The International News Service
(Hearst) said it didn’t use the
story because it considered it “of
the expose variety,” therefore
outside the province of a news
service and the United Press
didn’t run the story for almost
three weeks.
“But there is involved here,"
said Hollenbeck, “more than the
failure of news services to break
stories out of state boundaries.
It seems the reflex action was
working: the ingrained tabu that
nothing about a newspaper or a
newspaperman should be consid
ered news, and certainly not any
hint of rascality.
“The most curious and inter
esting aspect of the entire case
is the fact that one week after
the story was out, the American
Society of Newspaper Editors
met in Washington and talked
piously about what they might
do to improve the press. So far
as we can learn, the Illinois case
wasn’t even breathed about, al
though it must have been com
mon property among the journal
istic family very soon after It
happened.” jr
1949 Spectacle Largest
Ever Presented By AFL
Cleveland.—AFL President William Green led a host of
top AFL and public officials who participated in the open
in? of the 1949 Union Industries Show heralded far and
wide as the most practical demonstration of labor-manage
ment teamwork in the world. In colorful ceremonies here,
Mr. Green cut the ribbon spanning the doors of the public
auditorium to open officially the largest spectacle staged
thus far by the AFL’s Union Label Trades Department in
eo-operation with manufacturers of union-label products
and suppliers of union services. „
AFL SENDS FOOD
TO BERLIN TO AID
THE RAIL WORKERS
NEW YORK — Matthew Woll,
chairman of the AFL’s interna
tional labor relations committee,
announced that the AFL has ar
ranged to send $5,000 worth of
CAE food parcels to striking
Berlin railroad workers.
* This action is the latest ges
ture on the part of the American
Federation of Labor which,
through its relief arm, the Labor
League for Human Rights, dis
tributed during and since the war
thousands of dollars worth of
relief packages to free trade un
ionists in Europe who are bat
tling against the infiltration tac
tics of Soviet Russia.
Announcing this action* Mr.
Woll released the text of a cable
sent to the U. G. O., the anti
Communists federation of labor
in Berlin, which reads as follows:
“Please convey Berlin striking
railroad workers our warmest
solidarity, their courageous fight
against Russian totalitarian op
pressors and Moscow's menial
German stooges, the Communist
■cabs, is vital phase of interna
tional labor struggle for social
justice and human freedom. In
token of our moral and material
support we have arranged imme
diate shipment of $5,000 worth
if food in CARE parcels for
strikers and their families. Long
ive free trade unionism through
iut Germany and the world.”
NLRB HANDICAPS
LEWIS' DEMAND
FOR A UNION SHOP
WASHINGTON. — Coal indus
try sources said today the recent
National Labor Relations board
decision forbidding John L. Lewis
to demand a union shop givas
them a potent weapon in nego
tiating a new contract. The
NLRB ordered Lewis and his
United Mine Workers union to
refrain from demanding a union
shop as part of any new coal
agreement He was directed to
give his promise to comply by
June 13.
19% RENT BOOST ALLOWED
ON 98,808 RENTAL UNITS
Washington. — Landlords are
getting a break under the new
Federal Rent Control Act of
1949.
Tighe E. Woods, housing expe
diter, reported that in May and
June 50,752 landlords’ petitions
were granted, increasing rents on
98,608 rental units. Rents were
increased an average of $6.50 per
month per unit, or about 19 per
cent, the announcement said.
Sixty per cent of the increases
were granted on grounds of ex
penditures by landlords for major
capital improvements and in
creases in services. Forty per
cent were granted as hardship
and inequity relief.
In the same two months, area
rent offices handled 83,666 com
plaints from tenants. In 29,969
cases where violations were dis
covered, compliance was obtained.
There were 11,871 overcharge
cases in which landlords were re
quired to pay $949,576 in refunds
to tenants and payment to the
federal treasury.
Also, there were 12,121 cases
in which the landlord had reduced
essential services and were re*
quired either to restore the serv
ices or reduce the rent.
More than 20,090 certificates of
eviction were issued throughout
the country in the two-month
period.
wr. ureen turned me snow as
an “effective answer to the chal
lenge of communism,” in a brief
address delivered to the throngs
which waited to enter the corri
dors of the huge exhibit hall.
Participating with Mr. Green
were Mayor Thomas A. Burke of
Cleveland, who called the spec
tacle “one of the greatest public
exhibits ever held in Cleveland,"
and I. M. Ornbum, secretary
treasurer of the Union Label
Trades Department and director
of the extravaganza. Their re
marks were carried to additional
millions of people over the nation
wide network of the Mutual
Broadcasting Co.
Within a matter of hours after,
the opening of the show, crowds
estimated at nearly 30,000 persons
worked their way past the 300 or
more exhibits which covered
every inch of the exhibit hall’s
90,000 square feet of display
space distributed over two floors.
The aisles in the auditorium were
constantly jammed as throngs
paused to examine the examples
of industrial products manufac
tured by skilled union workers.
Stressing the importance of the _
show, Mr. Green said that its pur
pose is to "emphasise to the
American people mat organised
labor is witling to co-operate
constructively with employers
who treat their workers fairly.”
“We in the American Federation
of Labor,” he said, “are determ
ined that our free enterprise
system shall survive in America
and that freedom and democracy
shall not be obliterated by force
in other nations of the earth."
Mr| Ornbum emphasized the
value of the exposition in pro
moting good relations in the in
dustrial field. He said:
“Through this unique enter
prise, employes and employer*
form a new partnership which
means industrial peace and in
creased production at wages which
guarantees sufficient purchasing
power to buy back the goods and
services available. Thus, the Un
ion Industries Show becomes the
very symbol of America’s pros
perity."
Eye-catching exhibits ranged
from a national contest among
apprentice bricklayers for a $M0
prise for the best quality work
produced. To a parade of models
exhibiting the newest in fashions
manufactured by members of the
International Ladies Garment
Workers Union.
Neatly-turned pottery, spark
ling glasswear, jewelry, leather
goods and the myriad products
of a giant bazaar illustrated the
excellence of “union-made" pro
ducts. For the first time outside
of a factory the process of Insu
lating copper wire with an ex
truded plastic cover was demon
strated by workers from the In
ternational Brotherhood of Elec
trical Workers employed by the
General Cable Corporation.
As an example of union serv
ices, the AFL Laundry Workers
Union set up and operated a com
plete modern laundry.
In another section of the hall
white-clad bakery workers turned
out cakes and pastries by the
thousands which were sampled
eagerly by the throngs. Cakes
were given away every 15 min
utes to holders of lucky number
tickets distributed to the specta
tors. *
This practice of handing oat
samples and souvenirs was fol
lowed by nearly every exhibitor.
During the 5-day exhibit, it was
• (Continued eg Page 4)