United Automobile Worker

First $50,000 Check Given CIO to Aid Southern Organizing Drive

Announcement this week that the UAW organizing drive in the South is definitely on the way was issued by UAW Vice President R. J. Thomas, member of the organizing advisory committee of the campaign to bring the CIO to the Southern states.

He stated that regional offices have been opened in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and it is estimated that over 300 organizers will complete the staff in the one million dollar organization drive to enroll over one million members. Along with the pledge made by the United Automobile Workers of America of $100,000 towards the drive, added contributions include:

United Steelworkers of America ....... $200,000
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America 200,000
Textile Workers Union of America ......... 125,000
United Electrical Workers ........... 100,000
Congress of Industrial Organizations ...... 100,000
Numerous smaller CIO affiliates have contributed lesser amounts to bring the sum well over the million mark.

It is estimated that a potential million CIO members work and reside in the southern states, and strenuous organizing efforts will be undertaken to enroll them in the CIO's mass production industries.

A corps of organizers under the direction of Mr. Bittner and regional officials to be named by him, will work in cooperation with-but independent of-the CIO-affiliated international unions already established in the south. As locals are established and develop stature, they will be turned over to the international union of the CIO having jurisdiction in the particular industry.

Leaders of the CIO have emphasized on numbers of occasions that the organizing campaign has one goal, and one goal only: the organization of unorganized workers.