On Principle

Last week John Lewis' trouble shooter, Philip Murray, assembled the top officers of C. I. O.'s automobile union for a seminar in Pittsburgh. Subject: order in the ranks. Object: to make the sometimes disorderly United Automobile Workers of America behave, lest the union's ill repute further besmirch the whole C. I. O.

Result was a letter to all U. A. W. locals from President Roland Jay Thomas and Secretary-Treasurer George F. Addes, proclaiming a set of "principles of responsibility." This noteworthy document was at once a confession of past sins and a command to the membership to sin no more by sit-downs, slowdowns, stay-ins, rash walkouts. It was also a promise that motor-makers with unionized plants can finish their booming 1940 season without a repetition of the rash, costly Chrysler shutdown (TIME, Dec. 4). Excerpts:

"The unauthorized strike must end completely. Once we accomplish that, the enemies of our union will no longer be able to make the charge that the U. A. W.C. I. O. is irresponsible. . . . Hasty strike votes, taken before the grievance machinery has been exhausted, may involve the local union in a course that may force it to strike, whether a strike is advisable or not. . . . There is no better way to wreck a local union than to permit small, irresponsible groups to shut down a plant employing thousands of workers. Where small groups threaten unauthorized action [i.e., sit-downs or slowdowns] ... it is the duty of the local union to support the temporary placing of workers on the job to avoid a general shutdown."

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