The Big Boycott

In April 1954, some 2,800 United Auto Workerswalked out of the Kohler Co. in Wisconsin, demanding higher pay and union powers that are more or less Standard throughout industry. In the 28 months since then, the strike has degenerated into the nation's oldest, ugliest major labor dispute, bringing vandalism, bloodshed and violence to the pretty beer-and-bockwurst city of Sheboygan (TIME, April 18, 1955). Unable to budge Kohler from its adamant stand, the U.A.W. is now moving the biggest boycott in U.S. Jiistory against the company. All over the land the U.A.W. is preaching to other unions and pressuring plumbing contractors with the message: "Don't buy Kohler."

Last week twelve U.A.W. apostles took the word to 2,532 plumbers and pipe fitters attending a national convention in Kansas City. The U.A.W. argued that it is their fight too, gave delegates anti-Kohler Kits containing union propaganda, campaign buttons (Don't Buy Kohler), and lists of merchants and contractors who do buy Kohler. The biggest meeting of U.S. plumbers in history cheered a unanimous "aye" to a resolution urging federal agencies to "refrain from granting contracts to Kohler, or purchase of its products." Washington of course will ignore the plea, continue to buy from the lowest bidder. But the U.A.W. won the sympathy of the men who install plumbing.

From Kansas City, Kohler strike leaders are carrying their crusade to other meetings of the 18 million U.S. unionists. This week they move to labor conventions in Wisconsin, Ohio and Nevada. Said U.A.W. International Representative Donald Rand: "There won't be a trade meeting any place that does not get the Kohler story."

Cloak & Dagger. Clearly the boycott is hurting Kohler in some areas. As soon as the union hears from its agents inside the plant that Kohler has landed a large order, a U.A.W. stump man is sent to badger the prospective buyer. Last December Los Angeles' State Plumbing & Heating Co. ordered $100,000 worth of Kohler plumbing for an addition to the Los Angeles County General Hospital. Immediately, State's President E. J. Weinberger was solicited by the local plumbers' union to pressure Kohler to settle its differences. Fearful that his plumbers would slow down, Weinberger canceled the order.

What happens when a contractor persists in handling Kohler was shown a fortnight ago in Kenosha, Wis., a labor stronghold. Construction of St. Mark's Catholic parochial school there was held up for two days by pickets until the contractor, N. A. Thomas of Racine, trucked away 34 pieces of Kohler plumbing worth $3,500. In some areas even state and municipal governments have hopped on the boycott bandwagon. The Massachusetts Legislature and Boston's City Council condemned purchases from Kohler. So have the councils of Bridgeport, Waterbury, and Ansonia, Conn., and Lincoln Park, Mich.

Principles & Precedents. How hard the boycott really hits Kohler is uncertain, for the family-owned firm publishes no earnings report. The U.A.W. said that Kohler sales are down 37% since the boycott began last November.* Still, Kohler now claims to have 2,800 nonstrikers at work v. 3,300 before the strike, many of them on overtime. The company also says it sells everything it can make, earned more last year than in the strike's first year.

The Kohler stalemate has become more than just a strike. To both company and union it is a weary finish battle involving both principles and precedents. Through its 83-year history, Kohler, the nation's No. 2 plumbing manufacturer, has laid down its own labor policy. Crusty old (64) President Herbert V. Kohler refuses to give even a neutral body a voice in his labor dogma, has rebuffed mediation pleas from the White House and from Wisconsin's Governor Walter J. Kohler, his nephew. U.A.W., the nation's No. 1 union, would like to back out gracefully from the strike that has already cost it $8,250,000. Yet, if it admits defeat, it fears that some other management might be encouraged to get just as tough as Kohler.

Whatever happens, the boycott will leave both company and workers poorer, and a settlement will leave many unemployed (Kohler has taken on hundreds of new workers since the strike began). Admitted U.A.W.'s Donald Rand: "Even if we win, we will lose."

* To get that figure, the union regularly counts the number of nonstrikers entering the plant, totals what their production should be, then tabulates the number of boxcars and trucks that leave carrying Kohler plumbing fixtures and fit tings, precision controls, electric plants, heating equipment and air-cooled engines.

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