United Automobile Worker

UAW Asks U.S. to Re-Open Chrysler Wage Pact
UAW DEMANDS REOPENING OF CHRYSLER WAGES

In accordance with the policy adopted by the International executive board, Norman Matthews, director of the UAW-CIO Chrysler department, has notified the Chrysler Corporation that the union desires to reopen the matter of a general wage increase.

The notice was served August 20. Since the Chrysler contract provides that wage provisions may be reopened on 60 days' notice, negotiations may begin on October 21 or any date thereafter. The corporation has agreed to negotiate in compliance with the terms of the contract.

At the time the present Chrysler contract was signed, the union emphasized very strongly "the possibility of an upward spiral in the cost of living, particularly if Congress removed OPA controls," Matthews told the corporation in his letter of notification.

"The skyrocketing of prices and the increase in the cost of living has become a reality," he said. "Our increases in wages have been wiped out. The union did not fight merely to obtain more money in the latter part of 1945, but to achieve more purchasing power.

Our battle was not to take more money home, but to be able to buy more with the dollar.

"The drastic wage cuts which rising prices have imposed on the hourly rated and salaried employees in Chrysler, to whom a pledge of a stabilized economy was given and then broken, leave the Chrysler workers with no other choice than to serve 60 days' notice on the corporation of our desire to reopen the matter of a general wage increase."

Hold Your Cash Until We Smash INFLATION.