United Automobile Worker

New Charges Filed Against Ford Company

Since the conclusion of the La Follette committee investigations of the violations of rights guaranteed by the law of the land in the Ford Motor company, the company has violated the Wagner act with increasing fury. The violations are becoming more numerous with the passing of each day.

Last week the UAW filed a series of charges relative to these mounting abuses of the National Labor Relations act with the National Labor Relations board.

Scores of workers had irrefutable evidence of violations incorporated in their complaints which were presented to the board by Larry Davidow and his staff, legal counsel of the UAW.

ATTENTION, FORD WORKERS!

Despite the fact that numerous complaints have already been filed, do not hesitate to have your complaints included in this one charge. It is not too late, and the UAW wants as many workers as possible to come and fight legally for their rights guaranteed by American law.

The men discharged in violation of the Wagner act are entitled to back pay for the time lost, and all those so discharged SHOULD register their complaints, and not lose this opportunity.

On Oct. 26, the day the charges were filed with the NLRB, the International Union issued the following statement through Richard T. Frankensteen, director of the Ford drive:

The International Union, United Automobile Workers of America, has filed a complaint against the Ford Motor company with the National Labor Relations board, charging the company with violations of the Wagner act.

These alleged violations have become so numerous and so repeated that, if proven, it would seem that it has become almost a policy of the company to defy the law of the land, in particular the Wagner act, which was upheld in four momentous decisions of the Supreme court of the United States.

The union believes that if certain allegations are proven, the Ford Motor company will stand convicted of almost impertinent conduct toward the government of the United States. The allegations to which the union refers are those in which the Ford Motor company is charged with having taken immediate discriminatory action against various of its employees whose only misdemeanor was offering sworn testimony during the first NLRB hearings in response to the compulsion of subpoenas.

Further examination of the cases wherein the act has been violated discloses that there has been a marked increase in the number and severity of the alleged wrongs done to individuals in violation of the act since the end of the investigation of the company by the La Follette committee.

Whether there is any correlation between the exit of the La Follette investigators and the increase in these cases, the union is not prepared to state.

The union is instituting this action as another step in its policy of affording to its members the protection of the law of the land against the allegedly unrestrained and almost notorious power of the Ford Motor company. Any union man who feels himself discriminated against should not be afraid to come and have every effort of the union expended to see that he is afforded this protection.

Non-union men who have suffered by reason of the fact that they have been thought to be union men may also seek the intercession of the union in their behalf.

The union believes that the charges, if proven, would tend to indicate a studied procedure for the violation of the act and would also tend to show that intimidation has been developed to a point where it has become a fine art requiring skillful practitioners.