WORK FOR ALL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 June 1941, Page 6

WORK FOR ALL

IN AMERICAN DEFENCE INDUSTRIES PRESIDENT CONDEMNS DISCRIMINATION. AGAINST NEGROES & OTHER RACIAL GROUPS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON. June 15. “American workers, both organised and unorganised, must be prepared to welcome lhe general and much-needed employment of fellow-workers of till racial and national origins in the defence industries," said President Roosevelt, who asserted that he had received complaints of nation-wide discrimination against fully-qualified negroes and other minority racial and religious groups in the defence industries. The President added that every available source of labour capable of producing defence material must be tapped in the present emergency. He requested the Office for . Production Management to take immediate steps to facilitate the full utilisation of the nation’s productive manpower. The Office for Production Management announced that commercial firms and banks had lent a total of 1,093.000,000 dollars to defence manufacturers. The United States Office of Education announced a “no vacation policy ’ for trade and industrial schools training defence workers. Many schools will operate on a 24-hour daj' schedule.

The Maritime Commission will take ever tomorrow six Danish freighters in its first action under the new ship requisitioning law. Representatives of 50.000 workers in east coast shipyards endorsed an Office for Production Management proposal that they agree to abstain from strikes for two years. An agreement with the owners includes provision for a 12 per cent wage increase.