Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 January 1937 — Page 6
PAID ADVERTISEMENT
The Following Statement Was Posted on the Bulletin Boards of All General Motos Dontestie Manufacturing Operations This Morning and is Reproduced Here for the Information ¢f All Concerned.
To All Employes a Of General Motors Corporation
In view of the fact that several of our mapufacturing plants
have been forced to close down, possibly necessitating similar clos-
ing on the part of others in the not distant future, and realizing
that this means a great deal to you and your families, as well as to the business, it seems only fair that I should tell you the circumstances that have brought this about in order that you may better understand and therefore judge more intelligently.
First, let me say that General Motors products were never in vreater demand than today. This good business insures plenty of
‘obs, with generous hours of em»loyment, for some time to come.
Wages are higher today, by far, than the corporation ever paid before. And, not only that, but the amount that each dollar buys is importantly greater than it was during the last period of good business, 1929. Again, important progress has been made in providing steadier work through the year; thus on these and every
other count General Motors workers are earning more than they
ever have in the entire history of General Motors, and as much, if not more, than the workers of any other business. No one can honestly say otherwise.
Yet under these conditions you are being forced out of your ‘obs by sit-down strikes, by widesoread intimidation, and by shortage of materials produced by similar tactics in many allied industries. Your employment and wages and the welfare of your families are being endangered by actions beyond your control and that of
your company. The same ruthless tactics are threatening the gen-
eral recovery of business, in which the automobile industry had the
| You are being told you had better join a union. You are being told that to bargain collectively you must be a member of a labor ~ organization. You are being told that the automotive industry is to be run as a closed shop. You are being told that if you do not join
it will be impossible for you to work in any automobile plant
when the union wins, unless you Day. In other words, you will be without a job, therefore you must sign up, pay dues or else.
I want to say to you most frankly, that this is positively not so. Do not be misled. Have no fear that any union or any labor dictator will dominate the plants of General Motors Corporation. No General Motors worker need join any organization to get a job or to keep a job.
General Motors grew up on the principle that a worker’s job
and his promotion depend on his own individual ability—not on the say-so of any labor union dictator. And on that. principle, General Motors stands and will continue to stand. Many of the
men who operate General Motors plants came up from a worker's.
bench. You know them. You see them on the job every day. They are the ones who design our products and vlan their manufacture. It is your work and their work, financed by our stockholders and sold to the public at large all over the world which makes jobs > wages possible—nothing more or less, and that will always e so.
Neither is it necessary for you to join any organization in order
~ to bargain collectively. General Motors is pledged to collective bargaining on the basis of absolute and uninfluenced freedom of
choice on the part of any worker to join any organization with- :
out coercion, restraint or intimidation. General Motors stated its “position most completely on this imvortant principle of emnloyer-
employe relationship in August, 1934. You were duly notified. Gen-' eral Motors practices that form of collective bargaining continu-
ously, as honestly and intelligently as it knows how.
>
I mention all this because efforts are being made, in various
~ ways, to make you as well as the public believe that General Motors
refuses to bargain collectively with its workers and exercises discrimination against men who elect to join one organization or’ another. Nothing co uld be farther from the truth.
But, after all, thi 3 is not the real issue that has brought about the situation that we face today. That real issue is perfectly clear, and here it i 1S:—
Will a labor org nization run the plants of General Motors Corporation or will tie management continue to do so? On this issue depends the qu :stion as to whether you have to have a union card to hold a job, or whether your job will depend in the future, as it has in the past, upon your own individual merit. In other words, will you pay 0 a private group of labor dictators for the privilege of working, or will you have the right to work as you may desire. Wages, ivorking conditions, honest collective bargaining, have little, if anything, to do with the underlying situation. They are simply a smoke screen to cover the real objective, **
Now, you are enfitled to know what General Motors position is. That is the real p:irpose of this message to you. Here it is:— 1. General Motors will not recognize any union as the sole bargai ing agency for its workers, to the exclusion of all others. General Motors will continue to recognize for tk e purpose of collective bargaining, the representatives of its workers, whether 1 union or nonunion.
2. Work in General Motors plant will continue to depend on the : bility and efficiency of the workers— not on. the me nbership or non-membership in any labor organization whatsoever. This means that you do not have to pay tribute to anyone for the right
to work.
3. General Motors will continue to pay the highest justifiable w izes in the future, as it has in the past, and just as it is doing at present. It believes in high wages." It is justly proud of its record in that respect. 4. General Motors standard work week will continue to be forty hours. Time and a halt will be paid for over-time. “
5. Seniority rights will be observed under the rules laid down by th: automobile labor board appointed by the President (f the United States in March, 1934. These rules are ‘ecognized as fair and just to all workers and permit 10 discrimination against any worker _ on account of a1y organization membership.
I tell you all this 110t only in your own interest, but in the filere est of your family and for the future progress and stability of the business, as well. Anc, let me add, that General Motors will continue to keep its plant; going just as long as its workers can safely work, and as long as ve are able to obtain the essential materials - from other plants on 'vhich we ate dependent in order to build our
various products. I re: lize what this situation means to you. It has * been brought about through no lack of effort on the part of the . management of Gener: | Motors Corporation to make the business a
good business, not onl for the workers and for the stockholders, but likewise a contribu ing factor to the vrosperity of the country,
and, after all, that me ans much to all of us. ;
Alfred P. Sloan Jr. President