NATION-WIDE TELEPHONE AND COAL STRIKES

Chronicle (Levin), 8 April 1947, Page 5

NATION-WIDE TELEPHONE AND COAL STRIKES

Bgpss Assn .■

STATE SEIZES NEW JERSEY TELEPHONE PLANTS

By Telegraph

-Copyright

Reeeived Tuesday, 11.5 a.m. NEW YORK, April 7. Nation-wide coal and telephone strikes started in the United States this morning. Reports from the bituminous fields indicate that most of John L. Lewis' 400,000 soft coalminers failed to resume work today When the six-day mourning period for the Centralia mine victims ended. Government officials gloomily predicted that the "safety strike" would cause an indefinite interruption to soft coal production, seriously affecting steel and other industries. r^> The strike of telephone workers, which began after their representatives had rejected a last-minute appeal by the Secretary of Labour, ' Mr. L. Schwellenbach, for a 48-hour postponement wherein to negotiate, was further extendea across the United States as the 6 a.m. deadline was reached in%the various time zones. The strike is virtually general except in a few states such as ,New England, where the telephone unions are not affiliated with the national organisation, and Virginia, where a new law requires five weeks' notice of a public utility walkout. . In New Jersey the State immediately seized 204 plants of the New Jersey Bill Telephone Company, and called on the firm's 24,000 striking employees to work for the State. ine seizure was made under the State anti-strike law enacted after the electricity strike last year. . " . . o It is estimated that 325,000 telephone workers m various The union demands include a twelve dollars weekly wage increase, a longer vacation and improved pension benefits.