Word: strikes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1930-1939
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...threaten eventual paralysis of the entire G. M. organism this autumn, pugnacious little Walter Reuther, director of the G. M. department of United Automobile Workers, last week called 800 toolmakers in a Fisher Body plant at Detroit out on strike. Next day he called out 2,900 more in four other G. M. plants, next day 2,300 in four more. His technique, new and shrewdly conceived, was not unlike amputating one finger at a time to cripple a hand. It was painful to the corporation; it was stimulating, exciting for the workers: something new in the newspapers every...
That last demand irked General Motors most. It was the key to Walter Reuther's whole subtle strike purpose. What union label would he prefer? The C. I. 0. label, of course. But not all G. M. workers are C. I. 0. unionists by any means. And the split of United Automobile Workers into a C. I. 0. and an A. F. of L. faction occurred after G. M.'s present contract with U. A. W. was negotiated. Walter Reuther, declared the company, was making demands and calling strikes at this critical time simply to clinch the superiority...
Walter Reuther's superior, President Roland Jay Thomas of U. A. W.C. I. O., accused the corporation of bad faith. Said he: "General Motors knows that we speak for these workers. The strike vote . . . proved that.''* Why then did U. A. W.C. I. 0. object to an election being held? Because it would delay matters until the tool & die men, if they went on working, should finish their jobs and be laid...
...Philip Murray and Sidney Hillman, backed him up with an eloquence and alacrity which clearly reflected C. I. O.'s larger interest in the situation. Homer Martin, president of U. A. W.'s A. F. of L. wing, snarled back at them that the strike was an "outlaw" designed to "pit a few hundred skilled workers against more than 100,000 production workers...
...underscored this view by announcing that any workers who had to be laid off because of Walter Reuther's strike would be ineligible for the company's 60%-of-pay layoff loans designed to tide employes over unavoidable periods of idleness. Then, holding its fingers, G. M. sat tight...