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>UBLIC ‘ogram if : the UN and pro- ady with ‘idence of d its own mncil. In mbly was , entailing ative pro- ce of the 7s author's N, unless zed, must ablems as ‘Ss. his con- , by sepa- from the ‘lled most non-mili- sure to get sional de- ment read , that the »posals by R, Mass.) xation and -cks could talks with - and For. saldaris in : the New + Constan- ly a month tch to the ‘uded that > intention a program US would ty on loan it Daniell’s ot draw a nation to k army of 4d immedi- 1g @ future .© premier’s ghtist array tialists and to be seen : provinces. ea ee e Se ee eae. owen “ Fon. anidlasammnes ommmadainaandiéanditinataals cmtahas cutie tiie tet samnsiellocinintalindainataeal —~— nee ee re me Oe A as oe . .) eine. atnant tan bitaisasnn tee tiactanta til . inane * APRIL 14, 1949 ( ‘ @, “Recently ia Athens 560 persons were routed from bed by security police at night and whisked to Aegean Islands, Gestapo-style. @. "Greece is beginning to take on some aspects of a police state.” Phone Strike Labor A’ vHE six am. deadline jumped across the country Monday morn- ing, operators pulled the plugs from their boards, left company property and took: their places on the picket lines. The first nationwide telephone strike was under way. Long-distance lines went out immediately; dial systems were expected to deteriorate gradually as breakdowns remained unrepaired. Negotiations had continued up to the last minute in Washington. Secretary of Labor Lewis B. Schwellenbach took charge in the pre-dawn hours. But the zero hour came and went with no agree- ment in sight. Joseph A. Bierne, presi- dent of the National Federation of Tele- phone Workers, pledged some 342,000 workers to accept local collective bar- ining or nationwide arbitration of all issues. The AT&T let the strike begin without comment. But talks went on in Washington while Labor Department conciliators sought solutions throughout the country. The basic dispute between the NFTW and the AT&T centered on the issue of industrywide bargaining. The parent company, insisting that its regional oper- ating subsidiaries were subject to state regulation and local cost factors, argued that wages must also be governed by these factors. An AT&T vice-president, Cleo Frank Craig, was quietly present in Washington last week, but he never en- tered direct negotiations. He reiterated that each regional operating company had real autonomy in dealing with the 39 unions loosely confederated in the NETW—a claim at which the unions scoffed. The NFTW did not demand uniform wages but it insisted on centralized bar- gaining to bring wages in different areas into closer relationship. It pointed out that the operating companies’ activities bore the imprint of unified direction— similar local arbitration offers, similar \i Tomo TY lia {IRIS SAK UURRnee \ waeee seuss ings rose 15.2 percent. Over + period the cost of living was: percent; foud prices had rit! percent. : Hete is what the workers - # above are being paid, accordi « ' American Union of Telephor ers: installation man, averag starting wage $27, average ¢- $65; lineman, same average wage, average top wage $: : la, er (construction worker), $F cg lineman; switchboard operat” ¥F 4.-4 age wage $33; switchboard s| J}. average wage $10 to $50. : Hg men and women of tcle- phone were once the showpiece of US industry: in December, 1939, they got an average of $32.46 weekly compared to a national manufactur- ing average of $25.23. By December, 1916, theirs wage was up to $42.93, but the manufacturing average had risen to $16.86. Light and power workers were averaging $34.58; rail- way and bus workers, $55.26. Tele- phone workers’ position has deteri- prated even more seriously in terms uf purchasing power. From April, 1945, to January, 1947, their average earn- Mey