Pickets for Victory

The most disgraceful jurisdictional strike in U.S. labor history closed two Michigan war plants last week and crippled a third. The cause was fantastic: a fight between C.I.O. and A.F. of L. for control of Pontiac's grocery clerks.

Because the C.I.O. clerks won a contract, the A.F. of L. threw picket lines around Pontiac's 200 independent groceries. The teamsters, their colleagues, then refused to make deliveries across the line. The stores had to close.

In retaliation, the C.I.O. clerks put pickets around war plants. At Pontiac

Motor Co. (guns and tank parts), 7,000 C.I.O. autoworkers refused to cross the line. At Yellow Truck & Coach Co. (Army trucks), 3,000 autoworkers turned back. At Baldwin Rubber Co., 600 C.I.O. rubber workers walked out. There were street fights.

The public wrath got two quick results. After one day, the strike was called off. And at week's end C.I.O. President Philip Murray, who has put off making peace with the A.F. of L., got off an urgent letter to Rival William Green, offering to try--really try--for an inter-federation agreement.

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