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Show Inside Labor Fact Finders Stir Loud Union Cheer By Victor Rlesel PITTSBURGH Snddenly we wsnted to tslk about something else. The soft-spoken priests, the shy rabbi, the zealous young reverend, the regions! steel leaders, Phil Murray's brsin-trusters, brsin-trusters, all of us sitting sround In a Greensburg hotel room 30 miles from here, had had enough of labor wars, wsgea snd worry. So Phil's s e c o n d-ln-commsnd, Dave McDonald, took up the slack with the story of s little boy in a cowboy suit. Some time sgo, it seems, McDonald Mc-Donald had rushed up from Colorado Colo-rado to a ateel union rally with his 8-year-old son. Before entraining en-training for the speech sssault-tng sssault-tng the steel corporations, Mc-Donsld Mc-Donsld had outfitted the lad in a television version of six-gun garb cowboy hat, chaps, holsters, hol-sters, guns snd bandana. When the McDonalds got to the platform, plat-form, Dave took the mike for a fiery attack on the companies. Suddenly he began losing control con-trol of his sudience. Instead of "belng-grinC they laughed. And"" before he realised what was hap- Knlng In back of him the little y rushed to the front of the platform, drew his plastic guns, and shouted st the audience: "The companies msy hsve a lot, but they'll never get my cowboy suit." McDonald's Followers Of course, we guffawed. For Just a few minutes esrlier we had heard McDonald deliver a rip-roaring speech In the rooftop roof-top hall to the first gathering of steel workers' regional leaders lead-ers to hear the president's factfinding fact-finding board report . McDonald didn't lose that audience. au-dience. They were his followers. follow-ers. They were these ITS representatives rep-resentatives of steel district IB a cross section of ail steel labor. The national union, SO miles away, la Just the total of little parts like this crowd. They're the men who strike or keep the plant rolling. They're really the men who make or break a union's strike. What were they Uke ? Know them and you know steel pivot of our current crisis. Expecting that they'd be grimly talking of wsr on America's Amer-ica's most bssic Industry, they had called on a local priest, rabbi and Presbyterian minister to tslk to them In that camp-chaired camp-chaired hall overlooking the railroad rail-road talk to them of religion and labor. laault Leaflets .. , Strewn about the little auditorium audi-torium wars the colored propaganda propa-ganda leaflets from the national office, searingly insulting the corporations: "People, like machines, wear out Junk? How long will industry in-dustry continue to throw faithful faith-ful workers on the Junk hesp? . . . Let's be ready . , , It's unity thst counts ,. , . Every single steelworker must be alerted and fully prepared to take part In the fight for the union's program," pro-gram," the throwaways screamed. And they were ready. Their regional leader, devout bow-tied Bill Hart had made certain. He wasn't depending only on spiritual spirit-ual guidance. To keep the subversives from exploiting the strike, Hsrt hsd hired an ex-F B I agent to spot, list snd fight them. To avoid breaking any law. Hart had a full-time attorney. To avoid pestering pes-tering the national office for data on Little Bteel, Hart had a full-time education and research re-search director, a former University Uni-versity of Duquesne professor. To win the faith of his people, he lives a simple, often mesger life the first tlms we met, he removed his wrist watch and said. "Riesel, this Is my only piece of jewelry; please note the back Inscription. It's a gift" Talking Policy Hart's men hsd gathered to talk policy. Dave McDonald and Murray Latimer, pensions expert ex-pert had driven out to Greensburg Greens-burg to bring word from ths nstional ateel union command. McDonald read the report digest to them, the first second-echelon leaders to hear It What did they cheer? They roared when McDonald reported that the board had ssid social Insurance must be part of "normal business costs." They whooped it up when he revealed thst pensions, when sdded to social security, would total $100 a month. They Indicated Indi-cated willingness to wsit until next March for these pensions. And they laughed when told it waa the Taft-Hartley law which guaranteed them bargaining on these pensions. Only barely did they hiss when It was announced that they would not get a wage Increase. They were willing to forego the possible $2 a week wage gain for pensions and life and health insurance for themselves and their klnfolk. Ceukl Ask lacrease And they cheered again when the report said that they could ask for wage Increases if the industry didn't cut prices. Later on. they milled about the roof "garden," saying they were glad of peace and their share of the loaf. The leaders pointed out that now the other CIO unions, In-' eluding the one at Ford, could fight for the things steel had won for all labor. |