The People's Voice

HALF MOON STRIKE CONTINUES AS STOLTZE CO. ANTI-UNION IN RECORD IS FURTHER EXPOSED BY L. S. W.

Efforts to Terminate Strike Stalemated as Company Officials Flatly Refuse Any Kind of Offer Comparable to Agreements Now in Effect in Other Major Montana Lumber Mills; Government Conciliator Will Endeavor to Iron Out Differences; Good Case in Appeal for Unemployment Compensation.

Since May 28 the plant of the Stoltze Lumber Co. at Half Moon near Columbia Falls, Mont., has been strike-bound following the secret ballot decision April 25 of more than 90 percent of the members of Lumber and Sawmill Workers Local 2797 to strike if months of efforts to bargain with the company would not be culminated with the signing of a working agreement such as is in effect in other major Montana lumber mills.

It is generally felt that the company made little or no serious effort to bargain with the union in good faith since the union, under the national labor relations act, was established as the legal collective bargaining agent for the employees in 1938. Ample evidence to indicate this was very creditably presented by the union, without the assistance of legal counsel, at a hearing in Kalispell, July 3 and 7, when Trial Examiner James Stewart heard the appeal for recognition of employees' rights to unemployment compensation based on the contention that the company had violated several labor laws. Unemployment Compensation Commission members Louis DeNayer and George Sheppard observed but took no part in the hearing.

Don Jordan and Gordon Luscher presented the case for Local 2797 while M. R. Halrath, C. H. Brooks and J. C. Hendricksen, company officials, and Hans Walchli, Kalispell attorney, represented the Stoltze company's case.

In a further effort to reach an agreement the union committee spent five hours with company officials yesterday and will meet again Friday following consideration of a company proposal by the union membership at a meeting Thursday night. Labor Conciliator Wheeler, representing the U. S. Conciliation Service of the Department of Labor has arrived in Kalispell on instructions from the Washington office, to assist in negotiations.

Reliable information from Minnesota, where the Stoltze Company has other interests, is definite in identifying the reputation of the company as militantly anti-union, so the membership of Local 2797 feels that they have much sympathetic support from many sources outside of Montana. Concrete evidence of this support has kept a steady flow of money coming into the strike fund to aid the families of jobless union members. There is no doubt but what this support will continue and, as one striker put it, "We'll strike 'til hell freezes over 'cause we only ask what other Montana lumber workers already have. Our demands are reasonable and fair and we have used the best of democratic procedure in all our dealings with the company. We have plenty of help and do not propose to back down. The public is invited to investigate every angle of our case and satisfy themselves that all we want is a practical application of justice on the job such as is being accepted by thousands of employers throughout the country."

Treasure State Labor Journal.