"Go to Hell"

To Philadelphia trooped 2,500 convention delegates of the Steelworkers Union, huffing, puffing and spoiling for an old-style knockdown, dragout strike against the steel companies. From Boss Phil Murray down, the unionists appeared fed up with seizure. They had not objected to it at first, when it seemed the quickest way to a big wage raise and the union shop. But expectation had turned to frustration as their collective bargaining demands bogged down in the court test of seizure's constitutionality.

Murray hit the convention's mood with his opening speech. "When all of the legalistic aspects are thrust aside," he cried, "eventually an agreement has to be arrived at, because whatever the courts may have to do with respect to your bread & butter . . . you and the industry will have to settle that when the courts are through . . ." Flushed and angry, Murray reviewed the dispute and its bitter stalemate. "We can't get collective bargaining in the U.S. today," he said, "and the President says you can't strike because you will injure our national defense effort. Well, what do you do? You respect the rules . . ."

"Hit the Bricks." The convention made clear that it blamed the steel companies, not President Truman, for the seizure, and that the union would not strike against the Government--i.e., so long as seizure is not voided by the courts. But the unionists were chafing and champing under the rules.

They showed their temper in threats to "hit the bricks" and "shut down the steel industry tight and let it rot until hell freezes over." Once, Murray brought the house down with an impassioned belaboring of the companies: "I say to them 'Go to hell,' and I mean it . . ."

They had ringing cheers, too, for guest speakers from their ally, the Truman Administration, who tumbled over one another in their efforts to flatter the steelworkers. Vice President Alben Barkley gave them his congratulations for their "fairness" and "consideration." To the steel companies, the Veep gave the back of his hand. "It is un-American," he said, "for any group . . . to defy . . . the verdict of a Government agency . . ." (He meant steel's unwillingness to accept WSB recommendations, although they are not binding on disputants.) For the Veep it was quite a speech, but it was Secretary of Labor Maurice Tobin who won the fawning contest. After Phil Murray had pinned a convention badge on him, Tobin said: "I don't feel any obligation to be impartial . . . I have stood heart and soul and spirit behind the United Steelworkers. . ."

"An Insult." The convention's key business was a resolution on the steel dispute. "We cannot and will not," it said, "continue indefinitely to work in 1952 for 1950 wages, and working conditions . . ." But the resolution, still playing by the rules of Government seizure, set no deadline for strike action.

Just as the convention was ending, Murray read a telegram from Secretary of Commerce Charles Sawyer, Government boss of the steel mills. Sawyer said he had "information regarding sporadic damage . . . by reason of the lack of necessary standby arrangements to safeguard equipment" during the brief strike at April's end. Cried Murray: "An insult. . . [Sawyer] is no friend . . ."

What really irked the Steelworkers' boss was the fact that Sawyer had not raised wages and granted the union shop before the courts ordered working conditions frozen. Whoever's not with us, Murray was saying in effect, is against us.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.