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Show The Threatened Telephone Strike After two postponements, Feb. 8 and 25, telephone workers are tentatively scheduled to go on strike, April 25. Probably neither side is sure why a strike should be called at all. The Communications Workers of America, CIO, is basing its demands for a 15c per hour blanket wage increase on a table in the report of the Steel Fact-Finding board, which indicates indi-cates that telephone workers, as a nation-wide group, have not fared as well as other workers during the past 10 years. As of now ramifications from this stand are the union's major justification for a new wage increase. in-crease. But the company claims, with considerable evidence, that its workers are now paid better wages than ever. From 1939-49 company wages have risen 157 per cent, while food prices have jumped only 67 per cent. Starting operators with the company in Roosevelt receive $32 per week, and four years later are getting $37. When an operator has advanced to a top rate, she gets $40 per week. Service Ser-vice assistants receive about 18 per cent more than operators. Plant craftsmen start off at $46 per week, and four years later are making $63.50. Top-rate Top-rate craftsmen have basic rates ranging from $70.75 to $71.75 per week. In all instances, workers are paid overtime for evening, night, Sunday, and holiday work. Pensions have been a big cause of labor unrest since the war. According to company figures, fig-ures, telephone workers are in a high pension bracket. For ex-1 ample, a telephone plant crafts-1 man, retiring at age 65 with service ser-vice and salary (average over the last ten years), gets a pension pen-sion of about $140 per month, including social security. A steel worker with the same salary and service retires at about $110 per month, while an automobile auto-mobile worker will receive about $100 per month. The company denies the claim of union leaders that real wages of telephone workers have declined de-clined since 1939. While the cost of living index pf the Bureau Bu-reau ef Labor Statistics has risen ris-en 68 per cent over 1939, the average av-erage wage of all represented employees of the company has increased more than 100 per cent since 1939. Since that time employees have had nine general wage increases, in-creases, boosting company expenses ex-penses each year an additional $24,500,000. The present 15c per hour demand, if granted, would cost an additional $6,330,000. Further wage increases will inevitably mean a considerable increage in telephone rates. The company believes that "wages that are too low would be unfair un-fair to employees; but . wages that are too high would be unfair un-fair to telephone rate payers." This company defense of present pres-ent wage levels, working conditions, con-ditions, and pension plans has not as yet been refuted by union evidence. Instead, so far, all the union insists upon is a flat 15c per hour wage increase, no questions asked. GWH |