December 25, 1970
CHICAGO - Following the recent 18-hour national rail
strike, which was outlawed by a special act of Congress, an
emergency meeting on the right to strike was called by
leaders of eight locals of the United Transportation Union
in the Chicago area. The meeting, attended by 200 officers
and members of the UTU and other rail labor unions, set up
a "truth committee" to publicize the plight of railway
workers and win the support of unions and other sectors of
the American public for the right of railroad workers to
strike. The congressional strike ban expires March 1.
Robert Groah, UTU general chairman on the Belt Railway of Chicago, and one of the initiators of the meeting, declared: "We were on a legal strike and suddenly found Nixon and Congress coming after us and saying `You illegal people. You lawbreakers. Back to work.' While they were saying this, they were still trying to blot the ink dry on the law we were violating. I am sick and tired of complying with all of the laws in order to effect a change and then having the railroads say, `We are not going to bargain. Congress will take care of this.' And Congress does. We are going to have to get political."
A guest speaker was Wayne Kennedy, cochairman of the Chicago Joint Council of the American Federation of Government Employees. Said Kennedy, "My only suggestion is that not only must the railroad unions take militant strike action to secure justice for their membership, but that the American public should take the railroads away from the few corrupt multimillionaires who now own and run them for their own private interest; and they must turn management of this vital industry over to the real experts - the railroad workers themselves."
December 22, 1945
DETROIT, Dec. 10 - Detroit auto workers today staged the
largest picket line in the city's history in a display of
solidarity with the GM strikers. More than 10,000 men and
women representing CIO auto locals from all parts of the
city, joined with pickets from the closed-down GM plants.
For over an hour they circled the huge General Motors
Office Building, which occupies an entire city block.
The demonstration had been called by the December 4 regional conference of all CIO United Automobile Workers locals in the Detroit area.
It was an inspiring sight to see these men and women workers of all ages and all races marching shoulder to shoulder, five abreast, in closed ranks. Some were in working clothes, some in uniform. Still others bore the insignia of their local union flying squadrons.
Over the entrance to the International headquarters was a huge banner reading "We Fight Today For a Better Tomorrow." This fighting spirit was repeated in the picket signs, numbering more than a thousand, which were carried in the line of march... "GM PROPOSES LOW WAGES, LONG HOURS, HIGH PRICES, MASS UNEMPLOYMENT" read one sign. Other signs included "HITLER BURNED BOOKS - GM HIDES BOOKS."