if S ORGANIZED labor preparing to meet the postwar storm? ‘This *question is disturb- ing the thoughts of many trade unionists as it becomes increasingly apparent that big business is preparing an attack -upon labor much on the pattern of the open shop and age-cut- ting drive that followed the last " War. - It may be comforting to lis- ten’to pollyanish talk about la- bor’s “invincibility,” growth to . 14,000,000 members, contracts with the major companies and o£ laws on statute books to pro- tect labor’s rights. But the la- bor picture is hardly comfort- ing when viewed through an x-ray. . About half of those in unions took out cards since the war began. Another three million are in the armed services, with many already trickling back. A great portion of unionists are just card . carriers connected with their unions only through a statement they see on their envelopes showing the check- off on dues. : @ TRE typical case is a plant of perhaps five or ten thousand workers, all in the union, but only several hundred attending a union meeting on occasions. A membership meeting ordinarily attracts from 50 to 100. A meeting of shop stewards is _ often much larger. The major- ity of the workers, especially the newly organized, feel strange to the union. Many do not even know its full name and local number. The composition has changed greatly during the war. The percentage of women has in- creased to unprecedented levels. Housewives, office and profes- sional workers, social workers, school graduates donned over- alls and in some cases became a majority of very large plants. The closed Willow Run bomber plant, for example, had 52.6 percent women among its 40,- 000 workers. For the most part ‘they were people who were strange to the very idea of unions or strongly prejudiced against labor. Negroes came into unions in unprecedented numbers. Both the struggle for Negro job rights that has developed ‘dur- ing the war and manpower needs, opened employment op- portunities in many “lily- white” fields. They brought new strength as well as skepticism or fear of discrimination. Great numbers of the newly industrialized workers came from farm, rural and remote hill country communities. The war churned up these millions of people of different groups and localities together with old-time trade unionists. We have seen encouraging evi- dence of the way new workers readily became attracted to the labor movement and in thous- ands of cases developed to lead- ership. But it is also a fact that large numbers have not yet be- come assimilated even in the most elementary sense. _Perhaps most serious of all weaknesses is the fact that much of our new trade union membership and some of the newer unions have hardly gone through strike experience. Their entire union life, until how and for days to come until Japan’s defeat, is under the no- strike pledge. They still have to be galvanized in the spirit of working -class solidarity and struggle. aes Labor’s foes are well aware of this weakness. This is why they constantly try to sharpen PACIFIC ADVOCATE—PAGE 106 = hat | Future For U.S. Labor? antagonism between Negro and white, men and women, civilian and veteran, and to play upon other such differences. All the weaknesses among the working class have offered a fertile field “to anti-Semitic and anti-Negro fifth column groups, Coughlin- ites, Trotzkyites, Norman Thomas’ and other brands of socialists, John L. Lewis’ raid- ers, “independent” outfits, etc., etc. All of them play a part in the business of hindering the consolidation of labor’s great, newly acquired strength. THE Main causes that retard the consolidation of our new union forces are not the weak- nesses among them, but the hangovers of outworn forms and policies in union life. Many of the old unions still conduct their affairs much as they did when they were small groups of craftsmen 50 or more ‘years ago. Younger unions are less retarded by the past, but they are either strongly influ- enced by the older unions’ or they move too slowly towards more advanced, modern forms. Some of the more obvious Hangovers, especially in the AFL-are well known. Unions still bar Negroes constitution- ally. Others, more “generous” form Jimcrow auxiliaries for them and stil] others practice an unwritten law of Negro ex- clusion. There are still unions that even. keep women out. One not- able case is that of the Broth- erhooé .of. Railroad Trainmen. But exclusion of women is more in the category of the un- written law. Even in some CIO unions sentiments are heard of “getting rid’? of the women first as cutbacks take effect. At any rate, many unions both in the CIO and AFL are cold to women. They make no. effort to keep them in the industry and even less effort to attract them to union work. ssesanereretens RES Sones ss = "he