Brass Knuckles

Not since the 1913 flood had Dayton been so excited. One day last week, word spread that big trouble was brewing on the picket lines at the Univis Lens Co. Some 7,500 Daytonians turned out to watch. They saw 160 policemen move in, pour tear gas into a yelling union mob. A savage, three-month-old strike in which heads had been bloodied, stink bombs tossed at non-strikers, ribs prodded by police billies, had reached its climax.

The trouble began when power-hungry Local 768 of the C.I.O.'s Communist-dominated United Electrical Workers asked Univis for an immediate 10-c--an-hour raise, with an added, unspecified amount to follow. The firm had requested a 60-day extension of negotiations, but the workers refused and walked out.

At first, picketing was peaceful. Then, after pickets broke up a back-to-work movement, Univis got a court order re stricting picketing. Later, nine men & women were fined for violence, two of them given jail sentences. The U.E. local and international were fined $250 apiece.

Fed up with the local's brass-knuckle tactics, 30% of the 658 Univis production workers asked for and got a National Labor Relations Board election. Result: the U.E. was rejected as bargaining agent. Even then, the local refused to call off the strike.

Last week, after the election, Univis reopened, gave an 11-c--an-hour raise to returning workers. The union retaliated by drawing "observers"' from other C.I.O. unions to strengthen its picket lines.

As the violence continued, Ohio's Governor Thomas Herbert rushed to Dayton and persuaded union officials to throw in the towel. But the rank & file electrical workers defied their leaders, voted to remain on strike. Herbert then played his trump: he called out the National Guard to maintain order at the plant. This week, pickets still marched, but Univis apparently would stay open for business.

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