A Year's Vacation

As president of the biggest local of the A.F.L.'s International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Frank Darling has mixed leadership with showmanship. The showmanship display began in 1947 when a left-wing group among the 34,000 members of Local 1031 threatened to take over at union meetings because the attendance was so small. Darling met the challenge by importing topflight entertainers, e.g., Jimmy Durante. Eddie Cantor, Jack Carson, and Sophie Tucker, to perform at meetings, soon had the 3,500-seat auditorium filled to overflowing. The union now spends $10,000 a month on show's, which include its own chorus of union girls, "the 1031 Dancing Darlings." The leftists haven't had a chance since.

Last week Labor Leader Darling put on another good show. For the 158 employees of Chicago's Hedco Manufacturing Corp. (radios & phonographs), Darling negotiated a new contract with Hedco President Paul Davidson, giving union members a year off with pay after ten years with the company. Employees who want to work all or any part of the vacation year will get double wages. Darling sold the idea on grounds that it would 1) enable Hedco to get top workmen in labor-short Chicago and 2) cut down turnover. Furthermore, it will be eight years before any employee is eligible for the year's vacation. By week's end the company had 150 new job applicants.

In Hillside, N.J., General Brass and Machine Works, Inc. (aircraft parts) signed a contract with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers giving each of General Brass's 200 employees a day off on his birthday.

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