Hungry Enough?

Leon Clausen, president of J. I. Case Co. (farm machinery), is a rugged individualist. The Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Labor, the NLRB, the regional WLB and the Mayor of Racine had all failed to break down his stubbornness. But Clausen had his own views on how to settle the strike of 3,500 U.A.W. workers at his company's Racine (Wis.) plant. His solution, as reported by a committee of machinery-starved farmers: "When these men have been out long enough and their families get hungry enough, the strike will end."

Last week, after 14 months, the strikers' families were hungry enough. They accepted the 25-c--an-hour wage increase offered by the company five months ago, abandoned the fight to get a closed shop, compulsory checkoff, or maintenance of membership.

The nation's fourth* oldest strike had ended, with an estimated cost to workers of $11,744,000 in lost wages. Leon Clausen, who with federal tax refunds could show a neat $1.4 million profit for 1946 despite the strike, had given the union an unmerciful drubbing.

* The Labor Department lists three older strikes: California redwood workers (September 1945); textile workers at the Gaffney Mfg. Co., Gaffney, S. C. (September 1945); seven railroad unions at the Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroad (October 1945).

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