IH speaks out against strikes in 19448 ad | columnists



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On August 4, 1948, the East Moline-International Harvester Company published a full page in the Daily Dispatch.

The ad claims that the 202 wild EF-CIO strikes over 18 months cost East Moline and the company charged over $ 2 million in wages.

The company charged these strikes with wildcats, and two general strikes were both contract violations. The company claimed that it was not anti-union and blamed the so-called radicals of FE (Farm Equipment Workers Union) locals.

The conflict that provoked a strike in August is incomprehensible. He ended up losing 2,700 workers

It all started when the company reclbadified 75 employees into the machine repair service. The union said that this resulted in a pay cut for these employees. The announcement IH claimed that the salary of the reclbadified employees had not changed.

The union filed a grievance to protest the reclbadification. The company reproduced in the newspaper the part of the contract it had with the union with respect to the reclbadification. He said, "The company must determine the ranking of an employee or group of employees."

The company also commented that she offered to have the company and the company. arbitrate the grievance. The union flatly refused.

The company claimed that the strike was aimed at people who did not exist. The union was protesting, said the company, about newly clbadified jobs that have not yet been filled. Thus, the strike concerned future jobseekers or transfers. Whatever the case may be, the company had already accepted the wage rates for these jobs as proved in their contract.

After the reclbadification of the company, 100 men went out in protest, causing the release of other people due to lack of work

"We made every effort to keep our employees on their jobs after the beginning of the strike, "writes the company.

Employees worked for several days, union leaders then tried to create a complete closure by forcing employees who did not participate in the reclbadification to leave their jobs

Withdraw the maintenance and other key employees from the factory to paralyze production activities as quickly as possible Some employees were forced to leave their jobs because of threats by union representatives.

On August 10, the work stoppage forced the company to send home 30% of the office workers. received letters from the company offering them support when they returned to work. Then 139 workers came forward and produced four combines and six corn growers in one day

On September 17, a picket line erupted into what became the "3rd Street Mbadacre" [19659004] the 3rd street gate at 7:20 and returned a total of 13 cars. However, some drivers wanted to cross.

Thus, "the police formed a cordon around the cars and moved them across the picket line by the sheer weight of the numbers," said The Dispatch

. every inch of movement that cars did. Many times, state police have thrown pickets to allow cars to enter. According to one newspaper, a policeman fired a blackjack from his hip pocket and another threw a union man into the weeds along the entrance to the factory

Katherine Hall, an international representative from FE, was accused of throwing

After five arrests, damage to automobiles and several injuries, the nine-week strike ended.

The strikers were promised to negotiate with the company. Arvid Sheets, president of the union, promised workers who would cross the picket lines that they would be expelled from the union and blacklisted.

On September 17, a picket line
came into what was called the "mbadacre".
3rd Street. "

Marlene Gantt is a retired Rock Island teacher living in Port Byron.

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