Summit County Labor News

Ohio Labor Told UN Is Hope for World Peace

Union members must be willing to make the same sacrifices to build a better world that they made in building their own unions, delegates to a statewide labor conference were told in Columbus last week.

The delegates were also told that they should give vigorous support to the United Nations because the UN is the best hope for world peace.

The three-day conference in Columbus was sponsored by the Ohio Council and Ohio State Federation of Labor in cooperation with the American Labor Education Service.

The meeting also heard a ranking official of the State Department say that he favored the appointment of Labor officials as U. S. Ambassadors.

The conference was attended by 323 delegates from 156 local unions, councils and central bodies in 44 Ohio towns and cities.

The large turnout and spirited discussion of foreign policy issues by those attending was cited by John Rooney, Secretary-Treasurer of the Ohio CIO Council, as "indicative of the great interest of union members in foreign affairs."

Conference delegates heard talks from various foreign affairs authorities on such issues as colonialism and human rights, peacetime uses of atomic energy, technical assistance, disarmament and collective security and foreign trade. Consideration of such topics was continued in small discussion groups.

The conference had two purposes: To acquaint union members with current foreign policy problems so they in turn can hold similar conferences in their own communities and unions; and to emphasize that workers have a vital stake in world affairs and can help solve many of the problems facing the world today.

The plea to work as hard for a better world as workers did in forming their unions came from William Kemsley, director of the New York Orfice Of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).

Kemsley also strongly condemned the anti-union attitudes of such countries as Saudi Arabia, Liberia and Ethiopia. He blamed the countries' anti-unionism on pressures exerted by American companies doing business in those countries.

Clark Eichelberger, Executive Director of the American Association for the UN, said the UN was the best hope for peace and has made the difference between the uneasy peace we now have and World War III."

Conference -speakers praised the ICFTU and the International Labor Organization (ILO) as two of the most effective forces working for better living standards and world peace.

Kalmen Kaplansky, Director of International Relations for the Canadian Congress of Labor, described the ILO as "the UN plus" since the "UN represents only governments while the ILO represents governments and people."

Ralph Wright,, labor representative for the ILO's Washington office, said the ILO "seeks improved living standards and working conditions throughout the world" and is the only agency of the UN in which "American labor and management have a full voice and vote."

Support for appointment of Labor officials as U. S. Ambassadors came from Richard B. Finn, special assistant to Deputy Under Secretary of State Robert Murphy. Finn said he was "all for naming officials of the Trade Union Movement to represent America as ambassadors to foreign countries."

Finn said that "people from the Labor Movement who have served as labor attaches overseas have done an extremely effective job."