Vultee Struck

C. I. 0. organizers, trying to set up unions in U. S. aircraft plants, have a prime selling point: aircraft workers get lower hourly wages (although they may earn more in the course of a year) than men at comparable jobs in automobile factories. During September, factory hands in the zooming aircraft industry averaged 73.8-c- an hour, automen 94.9-c-. Last week in one factory U. A. W. forced a showdown.

Out on strike walked the 3,000 production workers of Vultee Aircraft at Downey, Calif. Work on a whacking backlog of $84,000,000 (including orders for $50,000,000 worth of vitally needed Army training planes) was stopped. Left in the factory hangar were 17 completed BT-13 Army planes. On the assembly line were 20 more that would have been finished by week's end. To Downey rushed War Department, National Defense Commission and Labor Department officials to confer with C. I. O. men and Vultee officials about the union's basic demand: an increase in minimum wages from 50-c- to 75-c- an hour. Meanwhile, Army pilots from Moffett Field went through the picket line without interference to fly away the 17 completed planes. But the factory stood idle. One minor division of the defense program was stalled.

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