United Automobile Worker

Engel's Wage Figures Exposed as Distortions

R. J. Thomas, president of the UAW-CIO, declares that Congressman Albert J. Engel's (Rep. Mich.) recently publicized average hourly wage for war workers is a gross exaggeration. He quoted official government figures to prove his contention.

In a letter to the Congressman, Thomas said that $1.17 an hour is the average in money wages as compared with $1.35, the rate given by Engel as a result of his "survey" in 47 war plants.

Thomas further pointed out that wages have not kept pace with soaring living costs, and that the average auto worker is today receiving "about 46%" less per hour in terms of food, clothing and shelter, than he received in 1941.

For the decline in purchasing power of the dollar, Thomas blamed Engel and other Congressmen who have refused to support President Roosevelt's anti-inflation program.

"I regret very much that in your recent survey of wage conditions in some 47 war plants you failed to consult either responsible union representatives or official wage reports of the United States Government. Public relations officers of industrial corporations have not, in my experience, been reliable or unbiased sources of wage rate statistics," Thomas said.

"Your reliance upon such sources of information has put you in a position of publicizing wage rate figures which are both unreliable and distorted.

"Such actions will not advance your political career, however welcome they may be to certain short-sighted industrialists. They will instead make more difficult the complex problems which the people and the Government of the United States must solve in the interest of our nation's coming victory."