(oe)

If you worked for Reming-
ton-Rand as a skilled aligner
in 1933, you may have earned
as little as $350 a year. The
girls in the plant got as little
as sixteen cents an hour.

If you joined the union in
1933, you learned all about
the Mohawk Valley Formula,
so described by the National
Labour Relations Board. This
formula was recently referred
to by the Canadian Labour
Congress as one that orig-
inated the strike - breaking
techniques still employed
against trade unions today.

SF

THE WESTERN CANADIAN LUMBER WORKER

MOHAWK VALLEY FORMULA —

By OLD TIMER

In 1933, the workers in six
Remington-Rand plants, un-
der the leadership of the AFL
Metal Trades Department,
formed a Joint Protective
Board of the Office Equip-
ment Workers.

Because Mr. Rand would
not recognize the union as a
bargaining agent, you went
on strike for five weeks. Fi-
nally with a ninety percent
membership, the union won
bargaining rights. This was
made possible by the NRA,
later declared unconstitution-
al in the U.S. courts.

Intimidation

———— sss a

The real trouble arose in
1936, just after the Wagner
Act was upheld by the USS.
Supreme Court, and collec-
tive bargaining was given a
legal status.

The workers were con-
cerned because of rumours
that Mr. Rand was about to
move his production to an-
other city to defeat the un-
ion’s negotiating possibilities.
They asked for an interview
and were refused any satis-
factory answer. They voted
to strike by a vote of 3200 to
568.

All employees in the Rem-
ington-Rand plants then re-
ceived ballots distributed by
Management.

“Are you dissatisfied with
present working conditions?
Are you in favor of a

strike?”

The employees downed
their tools until this balloting

was called off. The company
closed the plant for two
weeks. Rand ordered that six-
teen union leaders be fired
for violation of the existing
contract which ruled out dis-
crimination by one employee
against another. The union
could get no reply to any pro-
test made to Rand and went

on strike.

Then you saw the Mohawk
Valley Formula in action.

It included nine steps:

1. Conducting a forced bal-
loting, under the direction of
the foremen, to misrepresent
the strength of the union, call-
ing strike leaders “agitators,”
forming a Citizens’ Commit-
tee under threat to move the
plant.

2. Arousing the community
by calling for “law and order”
because of “wholly imagined
violence.”

3. Calling mass meetings of

citizens to hear the Company
representatives.

4, Calling for armed depu-
ties.

5. Starting a “back-to-
work” movement.

6. Setting a date for the
opening of the plant.

7. Staging the opening of
the plant dramatically.

8. Turning the locality into
“a warlike camp.”

9. Keeping up a campaign
of publicity to convince the
remaining strikers that the
plant was in full operation.

Armed Force

Three hundred deputies
were signed up.

A Citizens’ Committee was
formed to act as vigilantes.

A detective bureau furnish-
ed thirty-odd armed guards.
A “for sale” sign appeared in
front of the plant. Streets
near the plants were roped
off, and tear gas guns appear-
ed in the factory windows. In
a few skirmishes, tear gas
bombs were fired. A com-
pany union leader marched
500 strike breakers into the
plant on the opening day
scheduled.

Rand paid more than $25,-
000 to Foster’s Industrial and
Detective and another $25,000
to the Burns’ Detective
Agency.

The strike was broken
when 2,500 workers returned
to work two days after the
strike bagin. The Labour
Board found Rand guilty of
unfair labour practices and
ordered the reinstatement of
all strikers unemployed.

Rand was hailed by .the or-
ganized employers as a super-
strategist and the originator
of a fool-proof strikebreaking
technique.

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This struggle marked the
opening of an important phase
of the struggle for the right
to organize, to bargain collec-
tively and to strike.

WRITE-OFF SENTENCE

First-time teenage traffic
violators appearing before
City Judge John Warner in
Pampa, Tex., get a choice of
sentence. They can elect to
pay a fine or write a 1,000-
word theme on traffic safety.
The judge, a journalism ma-
jor, grades themes on origin-
ality, neatness, content, con-
struction and spelling. A
writer must make a grade of
70 to pass.

New officers of Local 1-207
IWA, are as follows:

President, Keith W. John-
son; 1st Vice President, Ben-
ny Ouellette; 2nd Vice Presi-
dent, Anthony Deutsch; 3rd
Vice President, Joseph
March; Financial Secretary,
Arne Christensen; Recording
Secretary, William Sulak;
Conductor, Frank Ludwiczak;
Warden, Jens Andersen; 6-
year Trustee, William Hrd-
licka; 4-Year Trustee, Vinko
Zigart.

Why the Thunderbird ?

Through legend born before the day the white
man was known in North America, the
Thunderbird has survived the ages as a symbol
of good among the native inhabitants of the
British Columbia coast. A descendant of
the lightning and thunder for which it was
named, this mighty creature was believed to
be a messenger of the Great Spirit, representing
prosperity, acting as a powerful force of good
against evils that threatened the peoples of this
primitive world. It is because of the high regard
in which the Thunderbird is held, that it has
been chosen to symbolize the service offered by
B.C. Air Lines to British Columbia coastal residents.

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B.C. AIRLINES LIMITED