See. 34.66 P. L. A R. U. S. POSTAGE PAID Charlotte. N. C. Permit No. 628 uixui-iiji_ii_ii_ii_li_i_jLiui-ii-njui nnn nr ir~r nn i TiecM ‘S'Uefa \ Editor’s Note: The following is a summary of the year’s news highlights in both the A.F.L and C.I.O, starting with September, 1952 SUMMARY BY LABOR PRESS ASSOCIATED SEPTEMBER: The AFL convention, for the first time in history, - endorsed a presidential candidate, Democratic Nominee Adlai Steven son. The convention acted after hearing both Stevenson and Eisen hower. LLPE Director McDevitt urged the delegates to put political action ahead of everything but emergency union work until after the November election. The convention also: re-elected Green and other top officers, renewed its unity bid to the CIO and UMW, and called for effective price controls, rent controls where necessary, public housing, extension of social security, federal FEPC and national health insurance. Meeting prior to the convention were the AFL Metal Trades, Building Trades and Union Label Departments and the International Labor Press of America which presented 30 plaques to outstanding AFL publications. Added to the list of unions indorsing Stevenson and Sparkman were the AFL Machinists, CIO Oil Workers, CIO Rubber Workers, California AFL, CIO Amalgamated Clothing Workers, CIO Textile Workers, CIO Woodworkers and CIO Paperworkers. A strike of 38,000 IAM members at Lockheed and Douglas air craft plants in California was called off Sept. 29 at the request of President Truman. Negotiations were moved to Washington for White House and federal mediation assistance. A soft coal strike was averted when Lewis signed contracts with Northern and Southern coal operators calling for a $1.90 a day wage hike and 10-cent a ton increase in welfare fund payments. Hard coal operators agreed to a 20-cent a ton increase in welfare payments, with a wage raise to be settled after soft coal negotiations. UMW’s millionth medical benefit check paid the hospital and doctor bill for the birth of twin sons of a West Virginia miner. Lewis answered the AFL’s unity call by a proposal for a conference to effect immediate unity. Westinghouse settled with IUE for wage boosts of 7.5 to 13 cents an hour for 45,000 employes, but General Electric refused to make an acceptable offer for its 71,000 employes, represented by IUE. A strike against GE set for Sept. 20 was canceled to allow for a meet ing of the IUE-GE conference board which had power to set a new strike date. Eastern railroads nnaiiy graniea me union »nop u uwrv|ia> a ting rail unions. Settlement of 68 grievances, Mme two years old, canceled strike action against the New York Central Railroad by the Engineers, Conductors and Firemen. An increase in the cost of living for tfce sixth straight month brought a 2-cent an hour pay increase for 1,260,000 rail workers. UAW-CIO asked General Motors to revise the wage scales and minimum pension provided in the 6-year contract increases which runs until 1966. UAW also won Wage Stabilisation Board approval of substantial increases at three North American aviation plants, on the ground that aircraft pay should equal that in the auto industry. A $1 million damage suit was filed by UAW against International Harvester for violation of the vacation clause of the Melrose Park, 111., contract. A contract granting a full union shop and 10-eent an hour wage hike ended a strike of 18,000 URW members against Goodrich. The NLRB asked the US Supreme Court to overrule a lower court ruling which would force union members to cross picket lines or be fired. David Cole, veteran arbiter, replaced Cyrus Ching as head of the Federal Mediation Service. Harry Bridges’ 1960 perjury con viction and deportation order was upheld by a federal appeals court in San Francisco. • Eisenhower and Taft, labor’s No. 1 enemy, made up after con ference at Columbia University and Taft announced that he and Ike see eye-to-eye on Taft-Hartley. Stevenson, in his Labor Day address in Detroit and in his spebeh at the AFL convention, called for repeal of T-H. The ITU started publication in Charleston, W. Va., of Labor’s Daily, only daily labor newspaper in the US. SIU opened the first union-owned and operated night dub in Brooklyn. The New Jersey CIO won a 10-year fight for on-the-job voter registration at several large industrial plants in Middlesex County, but GOP election officials blocked attempts to extend in-plant. registration to other counties. OCTOBER: Political action was the theme of the month. Stevenson got additional endorsements from the AFL Teamsters, United Mine Workers, CIO Electrical Workers, Ohio AFL, CIO Chemical Workers, CIO Marine Workers, Chicago AFL and others. * Philip Murray declared an Eisenhower victory would bring a "blitzkrieg against labor” and Walter Reuther told a UAW veterans conference in Washington that the real fifth column in America is the Wall Street gang that wants to turn the clock back to the 1920’s. PAC reported CIO voter registration at an all-time high and PAC Director Jack Kroll, who correctly predicted Truman’s 1948 victory, said the next president would be Stevenson, both houses of Congress would be Democratic and Die would get a maximum of 160 electoral votes. Sen. Wayne Morse (R. Ore.) announced he was disillusioned with Eisenhower’s alliance with the reactionary wing of the GOP and would campaign for Stevenson. A few days later he resigned from the GOP. j. Some 350,000 soft coal minors struck in protest against a WSB decision cutting 40 cents from the fl.90 a day wage boost negotiated by UMW. WSB labor members voted against the cut, pointing out that the miners do not have certain fringe benefits enjoyed by other unions. At the request of President Truman, Lewis asked the miners to return to work, pending an appeal to W8B to restore the cut. Dan Tobin retired after 46 years as president of tbs Teamsters, And was succeeded by executiye vice-president Dave Beck. AFL Textile Workers the CIO Textile Workers 7889—278 in an NLRB election for bargaining rights for 11JW employes of Dan River Mills in Virginia. James S. KiUen, AFL Pulp-Sulphite vice-president, was (Continued ea Page 2) .*****»»*** MR. GOMPERS Samuel Gompers, a founder and first president of the AFL. He held the AFL’. top post for 37 years until his death in 1M4. 1 --- j Sam Gompers Million Dollar Executive Type 4. WASHINGTON Labor Day Statement By DAVID A. MORSE. Director-General « International Labor Office GENEVA.—On this Labor Dsy of 1953, the men and women whose resourcefulness sad energy hare made the United States the most sbundant land in history will recapitulate their achieve ments and demonstrate anew their resolution to attain peace and continuing prosperity for themselves and their children. But at the ««me time they will recognise that this goal is not to be easily achieved—that its attainment will require unity of effort, clearsightedness and a calm yet resolute approach to the many difficuult problems which this country and the world community must face and solve. We live today in a dynamic age in which vast forces must bo understood and mastered if we are to avoid disaster and pro vide assurance to mankind of the possibility of fulfilling its great potentialities. Dangers face us on every side. The rela tions between nations continue to imperil peace. The world economy remains distorted. Misery and need exist side by side with 'waste and unused resources. These circumstances give rise to grave problems in whose solution American labor has the highest stake. They are how ever. problems which I am, confident can be solved—perhaps slowly but nevertheless certainly—with the help of existing international institutions and provided we tackle them with persistence. I believe also that the American labor movement, uniting its efforts with those of the workers of other lands and employing to the full the means available in the International Labor Organisation, can contribute significantly to tbeir solution. Hie ILO for its part stands ready, to meet any demand that may be made upon it to thf end that fear sad want may be abolished and peace made' lastingly secure. Peace, Freedom'And Prosperity Goals Of World Free Labor Fourth AFL PmWwit President Meany’s Labor Day Address By GEORGE MEANY President, Aatricu Federation of In behalf of the free workers of America, it ia my privilege on this Labor Day to extend frater nal greetings to their fellow uwrkers throughout the world. From its inception, the American labor movement has maintained close and friendly relations with free labor in other nations, For very practical reasons we spurned isolationism and sought to extend our international friendships. We realised that when the free dom of workers in one land was expunged, the freedom of work ers in all lands was threatened. We understood that when the prosperity of workers in one na tion was undermined, the welfare of workers everywhere became in secure. The experiences we have j undergone in two world wars have nerved only to confirm these basic truths. WORLD-WIDE CHALLENGE Today free labor facet a world wide challenge from the forces of dictatorship, its inveterate enemy. Almost a generation ago, Musso lini and Hitler found they first had to destroy the freedom of la bor before they could climb into power. Today Franco and Peron are following their example. Their sphere of influence is limited. The big threat to the peace of the world and the free dom of workers at this moment comes from the Kremlin. The Communist dictatorship has en slaved millions upon millions of workers behind the Iron Curtain. It had ground these workers down with a merciless oppression that is a throwback to the days of This year we saw some of those workers rise. Through the win dow of Berlin—the only window left open in the Iron Curtain, we saw men and women in Eastern Europe out of sheer desperation defy Soviet tanks and machine guns with their bare fists. Spon taneously, without plan,, without weapons and without hope, they quit their jobs and marched through the streets, gaining the support of whole communities as they voiced their protests. CRACKED UNDER STRAIN We had been told that the Com munist dictatorship was too strong, too overpowering, too In vincible for an iasuraaetion to suc ceed. Yet ft cracked under the strain of this mass uprising. The courage of the workers of East Berlin, East Germany, Csecho slovakia, Hungary and Poland, confounded and confused their Communist overlords. ' Even when the Red commissars PETER J. McGUIRE First Labor Day celebration was held la Now York ta IMS after Peter J. McGuire (above) arced the iafaat New York Cea tral Labor Uaieo to sponsor a holiday koaeriac workiag peoi)a> McGuire had founded the Carpen ters Ualoa the year before aad was aae of the found ere of the AFL ia IBM (LPA). Birth Of Labor Day Dream Of N.Y. Carpenter . By PETER J. McGUIRE Father of Labor Day On this day the hosts of labor shout their Hosannahs! From a thousand groves and hillsides, by rippling brooks and gurgling streams, conies the glad acclaim. No festival of martial glory or warrior's renown ia this; no pag eant pomp of warlike conquest no glory of fratricidal strife at- , tend this day. It is dedicated to Peace, Civili sation and the Triumphs of In dustry. It is a demonstration of fraternity and the harbinger of a better age—a more chivalrous thne when labor shall bo boot hon ored aad well rewarded. Pagan feasts and Christian ob servances haw come down to *1 through the long ages. But it was reserved for this century, and for the American people, to give birth to Labor Day. In this they honor the toilers of the earth, and pay homage to those who from rude nature have delved and carved all the comfort and gran due r we behold. More than all, the thought, the conception, yea the very inspira tion of this holiday came from men in the ranks of the working people — men active in uplifting their fellows, and leading them to better conditions. It came from a little group in New York City, the Central Labor Union, which had Just been formed and which in later years attained widespread influence. On May 8, 1882, the writer made the proposition.. He urged the propriety of setting aside one day in the year to be designated as “Labor Day,” and to be estab lished as a general holiday for the laboring classes. He advised the day should first be celebrated by a street parade, which would publicly show the strength end esprit de corps of the trade end labor organisations. Next the parade should be followed by a picnic or festival in some grove, end the proceeds of the same be divided on this semi-co-operative ften, eta.: J Each union or organisation y " (Continued an Pnge •>