Unchivalrous Union

San Francisco's little corps of women welders, fresh out of trade school and champing for work, put unchivalrous Local 6 of the Boiler Makers, Iron Shipbuilders & Helpers Union (A.F. of L.) on the spot.

The local, under tough Business Agent Ed Rainbow, wants no women in its ranks. First it argued that shipyards were too hazardous for women. The companies promptly threw this argument down. Then Ed Rainbow protested that the shipyards had no ladies' rooms. Shipyard wags began quipping about "Rainbow Rooms.'' Last week 22 women bounced into the union hiring hall, yipping for work, determined not to take no for an answer. Ed Rainbow got rid of them this time by explaining that the union was holding a national referendum on admitting women members. But at week's end it looked as if he could not hold the fort much longer.

In view of the manpower shortage, everybody wanted the women to work except Local 6. Regional Director James V. Bryant of the War Manpower Commission threatened to refer the quarrel right to Washington. Even the Treasury Department lent the women a helping hand: it offered shipyards 300 complete sets of washroom plumbing (scrapped from a hotel turned into a Treasury office building) for bigger and better Rainbow Rooms.

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