~r6RESSIVE STR

RANK AND FILE 0

UNITED ELECTRICAL, RADIO AND MACHINE WORKERS OF AMERICA " form an organiza- tion which unites all workers in our industry on an indus- trial basis, and rank and file control, regardless of craft, age, sex, nationality, race, creed or political beliefs, and pursue at all times policy of aggressive struggle to improve our conditions."

from Preamble to UE Constitution Aggressive Struggle Rank and File Control

It was fear of power that principle As negotiations for the 1979 General represents which led corporate executives, po- Flectric contract got under way, the UE pub- litical bosses and licity department received a phone call from some labor leaders to try to , kibor reporter of a major business publica- destroy the UL during the late forties and for tion stationed in Washington . He wanted to two decades after. know the name of the lawyer who would And it was the power of lleadiitg up the union's negotiations. that principle that was the source of the union's ability to When told that UE negotiations would be survive their onslaught . conducted by a committee representing the The term "rank and file control" local unions in the company's chain of plants would by itself be meaningless unless linked to and headed by the union's officers . he wasn't the policies arising out of the rest of the convinced and insisted . "A11 right, but who is preamble . Specifically, "aggressive the lawyer in charge?" struggle" on an "indus- trial basis" and spelling out the all-inclusive- That newspaperman could not be blamed ness of' the working people the union seeks to for his question or his skepticism because his organize . experience has been with unions where so- Building and maintaining called experts including lawyers play leading a union on such grounds is a roles in negotiations. very difficult task because it chal- lenges the whole direction of our society, a While the UE has the help of its dedicat- direction which leads to ever smaller parts of ed lawyers and research department in techni- the society dominating the great majority . cal preparations for contract negotiations, they This is apparent in what has been happen- operate in the context of the fundamental prin- ing with elections, for example, as well as the ciple of "rank and file control" as set out in arms race and threat of war. the preamble to the union's constitution. Increasingly, the American people stay In organizing campaigns, too, the union away from elections because they feel that seeks to persuade workers that only their par- they are fixed or that the-re is little choice be ticipation at every stage of organization, con tween the contending major parties. The rank tract negotiations and in the life of the local rind file are shut out by the wealthy who con- can result in the building of an effective organ- trol the advertising media, and influence elect- ization. ed officials, with high-powered lobbying and The founders also broke with the prac- huge campaign contributions . tice of having officers serve terms of four years or longer. The present trend in most When the people protest being put unions is to return to such a practice. through a disastrous and unneeded war, they are told to be quiet because only the "experts" The UE founders set limits on officers' know what is good for them. salaries -- no more than the top rate earned Or when three-quarters of a million Amer- by a union member oil the job. This helped icans demonstrate against nuclear war, their discourage those who would seek office be- working concern is laid to ignorance or the charge that cause it was more advantageous than they are being manipulated by communists, in a plant. It has helped keep elected officers Russians at that . from thinking like the bosses and acting like them towards the membership . In every sphere of life, the essence of democracy -- the people's right to determine They established a shop steward system their lives -- is curtailed . based on units small enough to enable the steward to be in close contact with the mem It is in this atmosphere that a labor re- bers and their shop problems. porter finds it difficult to accept that rank and file trade unionists could meet and con Union conventions were organized to be tend witli a corporation -- even though they made up basically of dues-paying, working of staff are the ones who work at the machines and members of the union rather than officers who have suffer the consequences of conditions in the members beholden to the common elsewhere in plant . appointed them, as is the labor movement. In their continuing efforts to denigrate The union consistently and persistently the need of working people for genuine un- encourages rank and file members to partici- ions, the employers and the media make use pate in organizing campaigns in their own of the defects of the labor movement to pro- in others, thereby helping to train mote an attitude of cynicism towards all un- plants and union leadership. ions. them for They point to high salaries of union offi- Those who founded the union in 1936 con- cers, examples of' corruption and lack of - emphasized the principle of rank and file their mocracy - the very practices that prevail in trol because of their own experience and corporate life and which rank and file trade knowledge of trade union history in the .S . unionism fights . The bosses of industry much prefer to reach agreement with a few top union offi- cials and are horrified when the rank and file refuses to go along, again accusing it of ignor- ance and of all things, greed .

ELEMENTS OF UE DEMOCRACY

The founders of UE addressed themselves to all these issues, as the union's constitution and practices show . COMPANY UNION EXPERIENCE

Some had belonged to company unions or to American Federation of Labor craft un- ions where the rank and file were expected to pay their dues but not speak up when union policy affecting their lives was being decided . Among the union's founders were some who worked for in Lynn, Mass. There, during World War 1, a labor-management committee were uase3 on perpetuating division among called the Joint Adjustment Committee had working people instead of uniting them . been set up at government direction as the re- sult of a strike . The committee's decisions It was that experience that led them to were referred to the plant manager. His deci- write into the preamble to the constitution sion was final. that they would seek to organize on an in dustrial basis, "regardless of craft, age, sex, nationality, race, creed or political beliefs." One worker was so taken in by this car- icature of labor organization that he wrote in The year the UE was founded there ex- the plant paper, "We passed through two wage isted in the electrical manufacturing industry reductions without labor difficulty of any unions whose constitutions limited member kind ." ship on the basis of craft, age, sex, race, reli- gion, political belief and even state of a work- At GE and many other plants, there were 's health. Works Councils and Employee Representation Plans masquerading as unions and designed to Here are some of the restrictive member- divert workers from forming genuine unions. ship clauses : In some places, as at the Schenectady, N. . "Applicants for membership must be GE plant, there had been craft unions which Christian White Males - of the full age of the company succeeded in smashing, not least 21 . . ." because they operated separately on behalf of limited groups. "Any man is (eligible for membership) The trade union movement was replete . . . except those who are members of the with examples of one craft union in a plant Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) . . . undertaking a struggle against the employer Colored : Where there are a sufficient number only to find another going along with the boss. of colored helpers they may be organized as What the country witnessed in 1981 when air an auxiliary local and shall be under the juris- traffic controllers struck and every other sec- diction of white locals having jurisdiction over tion of the industry worked was once common- that territory . . ." place. Industrial unionism was the answer to This reference to colored helpers shows that divisiveness in the factory . how such a union helped enforce the - ployer's denial of a right to a decent job to black workers . It was racism with a union DIVISIVE UNIONS label that prevented workingclass unity.

The union's founders had also experienced "Any white person between the ages of unions that were such in name only as they 16 and 65 . . . who believes in the existence of a Supreme Being, who is free from Heredi- could be expelled from the union as a "com- tary or contracted disease (is eligible for mem- munist" and fired by the boss because he was- bership. . . )." n't a union member. "Any person or member known to hold The leader of one such national union membership in the Industrial Workers of the boasted to UE Sec.-Treas . Julius Emspak at a World, the One Big Union or any organization White House meeting of President Roosevelt's of Communists or who by act or deed does World War 11 Labor Victory Committee, "All or says anything in the furtherance of the ob- 1 have to do is draw my breath and my pay." jectives or welfare of those organizations . . . And the pay was huge. No need for him to shall not be eligible for membership in the as- lead a struggle ; everything was under control, sociation . . ." especially the rank and file. There was a com- Obviously, such restrictions perpetuated munity of interests between this kind of "labor lahor ~ %\ cakness in the face of the employer, leader" and the employer. especially as American industry built plants The consequences of these restrictions a- thousands and even tens of thous- employing gainst organizing the unorganized were tragic of workers. an(1s for working people and the country . Between 1920 and 1929, the average hourly wage in Such .+ labor movement enabled employ- the electrical manufacturing industry, for ex- ers to use workers denied jobs or union mem- ample, rose by less than one cent. GE's pro- hership because of all these "reasons" as cheap fit nearly tripled in that period. labor or scabs.

This happened . when the steel and pack- FAILURE TO ORGANIZE inghouse workers tried to organize shortly af- ter World War l . When the industrial union movement was Often, craft unions functioned merely as being organized in the 1930's there were only dues collection agencies that employers went three million members in the AFL plus sever- to for carefully selected workers who would al hundred thousand in unaffiliated unions such not make "trouble ." They were employment as the railway brotherhoods. agencies rather than instruments of struggle. The huge electrical manufacturing indus- And if a worker (lid cause "trouble", he try that had been developed in the first third

"My father always used to think that capitalists and labor don't mix," Myrtle McGuire, a founding member of the UE at the Camden, N .J. RCA plant told the UE NEWS in an 1949 interview. Her father was Peter J . McGuire, founder of the Carpenters Union who is credited with having pro- posed the establishment of a Labor Day.

According to his diary, which Miss McGuire recalled, her father walked from Lynn, Mass. to Salem, Mass. for four and a half months, there and back, to organize the textile workers. "We didn't have any money to buy coal, the day father died," a second daughter present at the inter- view recalled. "He died freezing." As the interview was taking place in the daughters' home, the UE was fighting a red-baiting attack at RCA . Referring to that attack, Myrtle McGuire said, "All those charges of 'communism' against our lead- ers only helps the company ."

Peter J. McGuire, revered by many who engage in such divisive activities, was a founder of the English- speaking branch of the Socialist Labor Party, according to Labor's Untold Story. 01` the 20th century was virtually union-free except for some ineffectual craft unions. Within three years, by 1939, UF. had grown into a powerful force of sever- al hundred thousand members. This was done by the workers themselves without any finan- cial help from any other union, unlike some other unions in the new movement. It was led largely by young, rank and file organizers.

UE'S RAPID GROWTH

Within three years, by 1939, the UE had signed a national agreement with the General Electric Co. Two years later, Westinghouse was under national agreement although the there was the greatest development of social company fought hard at the plants and in the legislation ever enacted in the U .S. courts to stop this. Social Security pensions, unemployment Hundreds of other companies came un- insurance, the wage-hour act, the Wagner La- der contract . Whole cities became "UE bor Relations Act and much more grew out Towns" . This is turn was reflected in the of the unleashing of the rank and file . growing political influence of the union's lo- cals and districts . The high point of American labor strug- gles was reached in the winter of 1946, a few Not that there weren't hitter struggles, as months after the war ended . at Maytag in Iowa where the governor called out the troops to try to break a strike and UI : leaders were charged with criminal syndi- calism. Or at RCA in Camden, N .J . where the HISTORIC STRIKE MOVEMENT U1 took on a powerful corporation in a strike the same year the union was organized . Po- lice attacks and mass arrests could not stop Responding to a proposal by the UL, the the drive for a union there. Steelworkers and the Auto Workers and the UL; decided to strike the major corporations The economic power of the employers they had under contract so that working peo- had always been translated into dominant poli- ple could recover some of the losses they had tical power as well . But now, for the first suffered during the war hecaLISC of employer time, the labor movement was building an eco- profiteering. nomic force that made it an influential politi- cal force as well . For the only time, so far, in U.S. history, all of major industry was shut down almost It was during that period from the begin- simultaneously . Many other unions were in ning of the unemployment movement of the spired to join the battle . American labor was early 1930's through the industrial union showing that it had grown up to the point the begin- movement that lasted from 1935 to where it could take on the powerful monopo- ning of World War 11 six years later that lies and win . It was obViou', that a union which could Nor did they ~int unions in other coun- inspire such a inovenient would be hated and tries that would resist such policies by their feared by the corporations and their political own governments. It was Charles . Wilson, representatives in government. UE's very ex- the president of the General Electric Co ., who istence under the principles it lived by was an in 1946, as he became an aide to the Trunlan inspiration to workers in other unions and a Administration, declared that ,"The problems threat to those who wanted a compliant labor of the United States can be captiously sununed movcnlent . ull in two words : Russia abroad and labor at The 1946 strike came as the country was home." launched on a "cold war" with the Soviet Un- CIA funds were poured out to the AFL ion . the nation which had suffered the great- to disrupt the trade union movements in Italy est hunlan and material losses of any ally dur- and France by setting up rival organizations ing World War 11 . and financing thugs to break strikes. American industry had grown very power- At home, the Taft-I-Iartley Act was the ful during the war through profiteering on employer weapon aimed at weakening the la- huge government orders . The losses suffered bor movement by encouraging divisions within by America's allies and the destruction of the its ranks, reducing its ability to organize, to economies of the enemy nations encouraged strike, and to engage in political action. these corporations to think they could domi- nate the world. They began their drive to turn the world into their oyster and they UNIONS SEEN AS'RED PLOT' sought the support of American labor. It was at that time, that the basis was laid for mov- From its beginning, the industrial union ing the jobs of American workers out of the movement was subjected to a ceaseless barrage country . of charges that it was merely a communist plot to overthrow the U.S. government . The charges were made by the employers and the CORPORATIONS HIT BACK leaders of the American Federation of Labor, both of whom feared this rapidly growing la- bor giant . The 1946 strikes had barely been settled Typical of the employer's view when the corporations conspired to change the was a pain- phlet issued by the National Association for Wagner Act which working people had won in Manufacturers entitled, "Join the CIO and the 1930's establishing for the first time in Build a Soviet America" . U .S. history that workers had a nationally-rec- ognized right to organize . The employers wanted to make it more difficult for unions to organize, to engage in political action, to maintain rank and file-con- trolled trade unions. They didn't want to deal with unions that would challenge domestic or foreign policies disguised as being "ill the interests of the coun try" but actually designed for advancing the interests of a new breed of corporation - the multinationals . UE was such a union . Backing up the corporate effort to stop an effective labor movement from being built was the appearance of "Kentucky Col." John I'. Frey, head of the AFL's Metal Trades Dept . before the House UnAmerican Activities Com- mittee in 1938. He told that body of corpor- ation-minded legislators that the Congress of Industrial Organizations was a giant commu- nist conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. govern- ment and entered the names of almost 300 CIO leaders and organizers as "communists" . Employers used that "testimony" to discour- aL-le Workers from organizing. Responding to that anti-labor propaganda, a young organizer for the United Auto Work- ers by the name of Walter Reuther warned workers that when bosses denounce 'a militant union leader as a "red" it is "because he is a ~it. Pres . Albert J . Fitzgerald called it an at- tempt to destroy the loyal, dependable union man, a fighter who democracy built into the labor movement and helps his brother and sisters and is not afraid particularly the UE. For of the boss ." there was no question that the OF was a prime target of the anti-labor forces . If Walter Reuther had retained this under- "The issue ." the union leaders standing when he became head of the UAW told the Senate spokesmen for big business, "is the u- some years later and then of the CIO, the his tory of the labor movement might have been nity and democracy of OF and its continua different . tion as an effective, fighting organization con- trolled by the membership." The basic provisions of the Taft-l-iartley They cited the preamble to the UE con- Act were written by the National Association stitution as the guarantee of equal rights for of Manufacturers and the U .S. Chamber of all members "to hold any office or position in Commerce . Lobbyists for GE, Allis-Chalmers, the union for which he may be chosen by Inland Steel and J .1 . Case and a lawyer for his fellow members, but also the right of all Chrysler were among those who helped write members, collectively, to elect any member this bill to amend the Wagner Act. Westing- they may choose to any office or post in the house was among the corporations that testi- UE ." fied in favor of it . Despite strong opposition from the indus- trial union movement, and even its veto by UNION DEMOCRACY AT STAKE President Truman under union pressure, the employers were determined to get their law, and they did. The General Electric Co . was The labor movement, especially the CIO among those who hailed its passage. Workers led by John L. and the United Mine The CIO leaders had pledged to stand firm strong opposition to this un- Lewis, expressed against the law's provisions and insisted they . ion-busting measure would not sign affidavits swearing that they 1_IE's three national officers appeared be- were not communists and thereby bury the fore the Senate Labor Committee to denounce law by non-cgmpliance . But it soon became evident that many would not stand by their `~ pledges. Before the bill became law all had agreed that the freedom of the labor movement from government control was the issue, not commu- nism. Using the non-communist affidavits as the opening wedge, the law was designed to crip- ple the labor movement. At the CIO convention immediately fol- lowing the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, UE Director of Organization James J. Matles blistered those who were turning tail.

Matles reminded them that every mem- ber of the CIO executive board had pledged not to sign the affidavits, which were required when a union sought a Labor Board election . Matles added that it reminded him of a "back to work" movement . The decline of the labor movement that F-le informed the convention that nobody soon set in was the answer. outside the ranks of a union "should or can dic- tate to another what the policy of that Interna- Employers who had hailed the passage of tional union shall be." the Taft-Hartley Act began firing shop leaders who wouldn't bo%k to it. Militant trade union In other words, he reaffirmed the rank and ism was made synonymous with subversion. file control of the UE. Congressional committees converged on cities where there were strong UE locals to harass the The AFL was meeting the same week and union members. the Taft-Hartley law came under discussion there The CIO leaders who had joined this "back also. UMW Pres. John L. Lewis, who had taken to work" movement by signing up under the his organization back into the AFL, denounced Taft-Hartley law provisions the readiness of that body's affiliates to join sprang like jackals at the membership of the UE and the Taft-Hartley bandwagon . of 10 other unions that insisted on standing by the princi- "I represent an organization," he declared, ples which had inspired them . "whose members believe they pay their officers Those labor leaders who did bow to to fight for them, not to deliver them into slav- the law were drawn into government posts, and ery," in- vited to display their respectability before ga- "How much heart do you think you will therings of employers. give the members of our organizations out in While the AFL was participating in the the industrial centers of this country when they cold war drive against unions in Europe, the see their great leaders, with all the pomp and CIO played the same role at home. ceremonials of a great convention, kneeling in obeisance before this detestable and tyrannical Addressing the 1949 UE convention, Sec.- statute? Do you think you will encourage Treas. Emspak denounced those who sought re- them?" Lewis asked. spectability by crawling "on your belly to the

1 0 boss, on your belly to any lousy politician who "That assessment was proven correct . offers you a trip to Washington . . ." When the merger that was hailed by its As a former GI employee at the Schenec- matchmakers as opening the way to a burst of tady, N .Y . plant, he recalled that the company organizational energy was consummated, the had in earlier years broken unions there, in Erie, new organization claimed about 16,900,000 in Lynn, in littsfield and in Fort Wayne . workers out of a labor force of about 51 mil- 1981 figures were 15 "They broke them by the red-baiting that lion . The comparable work force of about was current then," Emspak recalled . "They million members out of a the expulsion of broke them by buying off the leadership, just 90 million. Even discounting smaller as they are trying to do now and are doing." about 1,600,000 in the Teamster and unions, it is obvious that the merger had failed Emspak expressed confidence that "we are in its basic goal. going to stave a union based on rank and file What was lacking was the spark of rank democratic principles . . . that is not dedicated and file trade unionism dedicated to vigorous to serve a political machine . . . that is going to struggle that had motivated the CIO at its serve the economic and legislative interests of founding - but not at its demise . our members . . ." The takeaways, the concessions, the poli- The l. f=: left the CIO in 1949 because the tical ineffectiveness that characterizes the pres- CIO . with UAW Pres. Reuther in the lead, was ent labor movement is . unfortunately, the con conducting raids on UL locals and splitting the sequence of the splitting of the industrial union labor movement. The UE warned that there movement around cold war issues. was no need for two AFL's. adding that since the CIO had departed from its founding princi- ples it had ended its usefulness to American workers . HISTORIC DIFFERENCES When that prophetic statement was veri- fied in the merger of the two organizations in From the earliest days of the American la- 1955, the UE noted that "the labor movement bor movement, two basic approaches to the re has not played a leading role in unifying the lationship between employer and worker have_ people against the attacks of big business. been in contention .

"This is so because the official leadership One has been a belief that there is a com- of both the AFL and CIO have supported Wall munity of interests between both poles of our Street's policies, both foreign and domestic. industrial society, worker and employer. They have infected the ranks of the working The other is that labor and management people with red-baiting and cold war propagan- have opposing interests that cannot be brought da . This resulted in a divided and weakened into harmony, and that only through struggle labor movement, confusion and division in the against those who control the economy and rank and file and the creation of wide gap be- consequently the political life of the country tween the policies of these labor leaders and can workers protect and advance their well- the needs of the working people . being. "Unity of the working people, "the state- William Sylvis, founder of the Molders Un- ment predicted, "in terms protecting of and ad- ion and moving spirit behind the formation of vancing their interests will not automatically be the country's first national trade union federa achieved when the proposed merger reaches tion -- the National Labor Union - was among fruition." the great labor leaders who was convinced that HOW "QUALITY CIRCLES" WORKED IN 1925 AMERICAN WORKERS had to contend with "quality circles" decades before their employ- ers "discovered" them in Japan in the 1970's. How these worked and their real purpose was des. cribed in the magazine "Factory" in 1925.

An official of Bethlehem Steel wrote of such a shop council that, "Grievances, in importance, are rapidly being replaced by such constructive operation problems, covering such subjects as in- creased production, better quality and service."

A vice president of Swift & Co., reported in the same industry journal, "The attitude of our assembly has been broadened so as to include practically all matters of interest to employees' wel- fare without due prominence to wages, hours or grievances."

The president of Knox Hat Co. was even franker: "Grievances of the personal type", he re- ported, "such as those having to do with wages, hours of work, working conditions, and so on, have practically ceased. Those that the council now discussed are more likely to do with tools and ma chinery of production. That, of course, suits us perfectly, for it means greater production and low- er costs."

But it didn't mean better living standards for workers. Four years after those reports were printed, the country fell into the deepest depression in U.S. history - a consequence of the uncon- scionable drive for profits of which the anti-union quality circles were part .

unless the workers were prepared to struL,gle . ~of tht %world between the oppressors andthe ~ahit~il would grins! them down . oppressed of all Countries . a struggle between capital and labor which must grow in intensity "Capital ." Sylvis declared in 1,868, "blights from year to year and work disastrous results and withers all it touches. It is a riew aristocra- to the toiling millions of all nations if' not com- cy -- proud, imperious, dishonest, seeking only bined for mutual protection and benefit." profit and fhe exploitation of workers." That language reflected the fact that among It is because lie recognized the need of all those who helped found the labor movement workers standing together in the face of this enemy that he fought for the admission of black workers and women to the ranks of organized labor in the face of strong, prejudicial opposi- tion by fellow union leaders.

"OPPRESSORS AND OPPRESSED"

The conservative role of the American Fed- eration of Labor for most of this century makes it difficult to realize that its founders also rec ognized tire fundamental struggle behind those two forces .

The preamble to the AFL's constitution declared : "A struggle is going on in the nations 1 2 of the last century were many who held that only the building of an economic system con- trolled by the working people would end ex- ploitation by employers . Between the earliest years of the labor movement, and its rejuvenation through the in- dustrial union movement of the 1930's, those who held that labor and management could lie down together, without labor being devoured, were dominant in the trade unions although there were courageous rank and file struggles against them .

They went along with, or even promoted, SUClr schemes as profit-sharing which set work- So anxious was er against worker for the greater profit of the the Westinghouse Electric Corp . t employer; stock ownership plans in the illusion drag its workers into such circles that that this would make the corporation more it even offered to pay the cost of sending union democratic . labor-management productivity leaders to Japan to see how they work . Some schemes which resulted in increased speed-up unions took up the offer . But knowledge of and reduction of jobs . labors experience with such schemes in the past and recognitioir that they were just one more They negotiated no-strike agreements, de- example of a speed-up scheme designed to by- priving workers of the only weapon left when pass t}« union in the plant led the UE to turn employers rejected all reasonable resolution of dowa the ins eaation to enlist . differences . Addressing the 1981 UE convention, Sec.- The effect,, of the splitting of the labor Treas. Bori, Block told of a meeting with West- movement in the late 1940's became especially inghoiise officials where the union committee evident as the economy sank into deep depres was told b~ the company, "We can't understand sion in the 1970's and early 1980's . The em- you peopl-,° . We think you are out of step with ployers demanded givebacks of gains won over the rest of' the labor movement on the duestion many years . Hundreds of thousands of work- of duality circles ." ers were led to accepting these demands, instead of fighting back . TThe UE officer replied that the UE is not out of step. "We're in a different parade, march- ing to the beat of a different drummer .

"QUALITY CIRCLES" Brother Block reminded the delegates that employers "understand the class nature of our society and will do everything they cart to pro- One employer scheme that was widely pro- tect"their end ." moted in the news media, in labor-management conferences and in shop meetings was "duality UE's policies have always been based on circles." Corporate officials discovered tlrc,;c in the understanding, as he put it then, that "there Japanese industry and sought to sell them to is no common interest between the boss whose American workers as the way to beat competi- goal is more and more profits and the workers tion from abroad . who produce the wealth of this nation ." 1 3 who con- Recognizing the reality of this struggle, the It is ironic that some. of those demned the UE in the post-World War 11 years dele'lates adopted a resolution which described for opposing the building up of the industrial quality circles as devices "to break down work might of the country's enemies in that war, are natural mistrust of bosses, and then get ers' now strong advocates of imposing severe trade company how jobs workers to begin telling the restrictions on those countries on the ground can be speeded up and made more productive, that they take jobs away from Americans . in other words, how to get the work out with The American people are up against perma- I'cwcr people. . . nent unemployment figures in the high millions, growing poverty, and declining living standards . "In sum," the resolution concluded,`quali- t\- circles are in attempt to create a shop floor policies have

In examining political issues, whether they Strengthening the opposition to the arms be domestic or policies adopted by the govern- race which threatens the world with war, and ment in foreign affairs, the UE recognizes that transferring funds from the military into services these. too, reflect the conflicting interests of and programs to meet the needs of our people the employers and the workers . can stop the deterioration of American society . At the first convention of the CIO in 1938 . FOREIGN RUNAWAYS Pres. John L . Lewis sin_eled out the UE as an ex- Especially in foreign affairs, workers have ample of new advances made "in the period of agree- to contend with efforts to equate support of depression" with the signing of a national General Electric Co. government policies with patriotism . ment with the In 1980-1982, the UE was being singled out government policies UF."s examination of in the press as the union which almost alone in from the standpoint of whether they serve the the labor movement had fought concessions to people or the powerful employers led the union the employers in the latest depression. to be among those who opposed U .S . interven- tion in Vietnam from its earliest days . Consistent adherence to the principle of There is little doubt that if that interven- aggressive rank and file trade unionism has been tion had succeeded there would now be U .S . the basis of this record of almost half a century electronics, radio, television, textile and other of struggle. factories operating there, as in South Korea. The tremendous problems that face Amer- The American people paid heavily in lives ica's working people call for the fight of a uni- and money for the Korean War. The Korean fied labor movement based on those same prin- people have been saddled with a cruel dictator ciples. ship that denies them elemental rights to organ- ize. And American workers have seen many of The UE is dedicated to helping achieve their jobs shipped there . that kind of a labor movement .

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