ANTAGONISM TO FORD

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 78, 19 April 1937, Page 7

ANTAGONISM TO FORD

; Violation of Law AUeged "tfSHAWi; "April 17. A mass meeting of strikers. acceptedi the proposal of General MotorB for the resumption of peaca negotiations without the attendance of the C,I.O. officials.^ The conference was planned in the office of Premier Hepburn during the day. Mr Millard, president of the local union, and Mr Cohen, the union 's attorney, will represent the strikers. Alt partioa predicted a speedy settlement. Earlier Mr Homer Martin said the A.W.U. would charge the Ford Motor Oompany with a violation of the Wagner Act before the Labour Rela- . tions Board, but refused to disclose the, aature of the charge. It is rumoured it will involve a clause forbidding an employer to coerce or intimidate hisi amployees, possibly eiting the "recent Ford warniugs against the. unions. A Detroit message states Mr Reuther, president of the Westside local A.W.U., announced a drive to organise the Ford employees. He will start soon a series of mass meetings. He said several thousand were enrolled already. Ford workers in Kansas City have. fchreatened a new strike in retaliation for assaults. Officials of the A.W.U. place the blame upon hired thugs. Two were waylaid in the street and beaten with blackjaeks. In San Franeisco an officially sanctioned City Labour Councif strike of ; more than 3500 employees of fifteen large hotels has been ordered to start i at five this afternoon following the i eollapse of negotiations. A threatened strike of 850ft employees of the Southern Pacific Railway has been postponed pending the report of an emergeney mediation board appointed ; by President Roosevelt. The firemen allege discrimination in favour of : engineers and conductora.