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j ,, l·./(c . 0-·· '-/ , .../, U.S. News & World Report WHAi DOES A CITY DO WHEN F~REM~N GO ON ·s1~~VE? ., l I I, I r Ii I weakened. So what happens now? Is The troubl e began last spring. At that Atlanta burning? time the only union represen tin g Atlanta Fire Chief C. H. Hildebrand, Jr., firem en was the International Association supplies the answe rs . Ily regrouping the of Fire Fighters, affiliated with the AFLmore than 250 firefighters who stayed CIO. This union has a no-strike clause on the job, Chief Hildebrand w:is able in its 'constitution·. The union asked the to get 19 of the city's 32 fire stations in city to reduce the firemen's workweek full operation within four days after the from 60 to 56 hours. strike began. City officials rejected that reques t on All available firem en were put on the ground that such a move would long shifts, and 89 policemen were . as-__ amount to a pay boost that would b e ilsigned to" the ffre· d epartiiierit....:.most of - legal at that time of year und er the city them to fill nonfirefighting charter. jobs. The Atlanta cha rter prohibits pay As a final step, the city raises after March 31 of each year, un ti! of Atlanta called into effect the beginning of th e next year. City ofa mutual-assistance pact with ficial s, however, promised to conside r · th e fire departments of sur- the shorter workweek at the end of the rounding munidpalities. year. Atlanta's fire chief says A change of unions. Dissid ent firethat this opens the "possihil- men then broke away from the AFL-CIO ity" of calling in 10 fire- union and organized an independent • fighting units "reasonably loca l called the Atlanta F ire Fighters quickly" in the event of a Union . Its constitu tion does not contain major fire, and an additional a no-strike clause. half dozen or more from In Jun e the independ ent union went more-distant points. on strike to en fo rce the firemen's deChief is confident. The mands . The strikin g firem en agreed to '. ::I 19 station s reopen ed in At- mediation without binding the mselves .i l ' ,. ~; lanta operate 27 firefighting to the findings and went back to work. units. Adding to these the 16 Th e mediator recommended an in crease additiona l units that might in firemen's wages or a reducti on in - " AtlnnLn Journal " Photo be called in for an extreme working hours. Fire communications desk-unmann ed emergency would bring AtCity offi cials accepted both su ggeslanta's fire d efenses back up tions-n ot just one-but said both wo uld to more than three q uarters have to wait until January 1, in keep ing of normal strength, Mr. Hildebrand esti- with the law. ATLANTA mates. That, he believes, should be The city's offer amounted to an 8.6 6 Two thirds of the tremen in this ma- enough to handle anythin g. per cent pay increase in cash, plus the jor Southern city wa lked off thei r jobs Fire insurance und erwriters appea r to equ iva lent of a 7.14 per cent raise in the on September 2 in a strike for immedi- agree. Jason Woodall, manager of the form of a shorter workweek-in all, a ate pay raises. They went out in viola- Southeastern Underwriters Association, total of 15.8 per cent. tiou .. of a C.eor,gis1.. _Stat~ _l aw, and they · says there are· no plans to boost AtlanUnder existing pay sca les, beg inning firemen get $403 a month. On January 1, stayed out· ·in defian ce of a court order ta's fire insuranc·e rates. to return to work. Mr. Woodall says the association "feels the starting rate is to rise to $438 a All of th e nearly 500 striking firemen that protection for ordinary homes is month . The top pay for privates is to go were suspended without pay. Mayor .. . reasonable." ·· ·· to $638 a mo nth on January 1, from the "Our concern," he adds, "lies in the present $563. Ivan All en, Jr. , refused to negotiate with the strikers. Instead, he ordered possibility of fires in the congested downSlill ,not enough. The ind ependent a , recrnitin g dri ve for new firemen to town areas." union again struck on Sep tember 2, de..611 -the vacant jobs. ..,,- · Mr. Woodall notes that the fire un- mantl ing th at the pay raises b e granted The suspended firemen were given 10 derwriters "prefer to give the city an immediately. d ays to show why they should not be opportunity to work this thing out." Within hours after the strike bepu\, fired . Whether or not there are to be increases Judge Luther Alverson of the F u lton Mayor Allen says that most of the strik- . in fire-insurance rates, he indicates, de- County Superior Court ordered the strikers will__be . fi red, Thus, a major. city is pends on ,how long it takes to get the ers back to work. Atlanta officials moved fast when 500 firemen struck. Strikers were suspended without pay. Shifts were lengthened for firemen who stayed on their jobs. Policemen helped man fire stations. And the city began hiring replacements for strikers. left with its defense against fires seriously fire depllt'tment back to normal. (contin ued on next news page) �,,, . --- ,, Labor Week 1 [ continued from page 86 j . . . Some fires started by Molotov cocktails . Wives of firem'an picketed city hall ... ~ ·0 ·. ·\,::--J ~ -:··.·~;0,:.; -', , r :..:r:~J ~ r.· ·-··' f .·,·.•:,r,1

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St:-i te law provides th:-i t "no prrson hold ing a position b y appointmen t or employment in the gove rnment of the State of Georgia or any agenc~·, au thority, b oard , commission or public institution thereof, shall p romote, encourage or participa te in any strike. " The Georgia State government grants charter.~ to cities, and this is inte111reted as making the ci ties political institutions of the State, and their employes subject to State law, Immedia tely a fter the ordei· was issued , F ire Chief I-Iildeh ra nd served notice that all firem en absent without authorization should rep ort at their uext regular shift or b e suspended. A few fir(!m en re turned. Mayor calls strike illegal. :\!ayor Allen refused to negotiate wi th the striker.~ on the ground that they were using illegal means in an effort to force the city to grant an illegal p ay raise, F iremen's wives began sporadic picketing of city hall and of the J op crati ng fire stations, F iremen kept their children out of school, on the ground that the schools were not safe because of inadeq uate fi re protection. T he hi ring of new men to replace the strikers went stead ilv ahead , llv Septemb er 8, the · city ha'd applications from 117 men. Of these, .51-:32 whites and HJ N egroes- had passed w ritten examina- . tions and were eligib le to be h ired if tJ.iey passed p hysical exam inations, · A h andful of the strikers sought _to go / back to work, saying they would like to forgct the who) ~ thing , Officials refused . to take them bacK. T he re p lacements must undergo rigorous training fo r three weeks be fore bein_g assigned to active d uty, F ire officials estim ate that it will take at leas t a year to rebuild the Atlan ta fire depart ment to fu ll strength. C ity officials and officials of the AFLCIO F ire F ighters U nio_n, meanwh!le, ~ . / , claim that it is the T eamsters Umon · that is really b ehind the fire department's troubles. T hey note that the striking fi remen have their headquarters in the Atlanta Teamsters Union hall. "This is a p ower g rab." O fficials note, too, that Tony Zivalich, a Teamsters organizer, sits in on all of the stnkers' strategy meetings, and that Robert L. Mitchell, attorney for the local Teamsters, is the striking fi remen's lawyer. "This is a power grab," snaps an official of the AFL-CIO F iremen's Union. "The reasons they give for striking don't make sense. T hey say th ey've got to h ave their pay raise right now instead of fou r months from now, when the ci ty has agreed to give it to them, And for tha t they are jeopard izing the safcty of this whole city. "They want to put the AFL-CIO ou t of business here and take over the whole fi re d ep artment. T hen the T eams ters will take them over and the T eamsters will run the fire department." Since the strike started, at least two fires have been started by Molotov cocktails. ·w hether these were thrown by strikers, rioters or others has not been established . . ~ A large warehouse and a sales office of a tire company were destroyed by one of the Molotov-cocktail fires . Damage was estimated at several hundred thousand dollars. Another Molotov cocktail was tossed onto the roof of a one-story home, b ut the blaze did little damage. False alarms have been numerous. t] r-- ~ 1 ••• •:"i l~ 6' A Pay Raise That · Averted a Struke l I ' \Vestern E lectric Compan y and the Commu nications \Vorkers of America have signed a three-yea r contract that : • Averts a strike that had been threatening for weeks against the man ufacturing arm of the American T elephone & Telegraph Company. • Provides pay raise.~ averaging 17)2 cents an hour for 23,000 installers of central-station equipment , retroactive to Jul y 28. The company estimated the increases at 5.5 to 6 per cent, or about 4 per cent on an annua l basis. • Permi ts reopening of the contract on wages after 18 months. • In creases fri nge benrfi ts by more than 1 p er cent over th ree years. Under the new contract, hou rl y wage rates fo r beginning in,q allers wi ll range from $1.87 to $2.03 an l10ur. Top rates will range from $3.70 to $4 an hour. T he union hopes the new con tract with 'vVestern Electric will set a pa ttern fo r other subsidiaries of AT&T in negotiations in coming months. The pay raise fo r \ Vcstcrn E lectric's workers was well above the Joh n.~on Administration's wage guideposts of 3. 2 per cent a yea r. But Joseph A. Beirne, presiden t of the union, contc11 dcd that the settlement was not inflationary. He said the guideposts "were never designed to be strait jackets." (Another Labor W eek article, p. 90) U. S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT, Sept. 19, 1966 U. S. N EWS & W O RLD REPORT, Sept. 19, 1966 a ab!, . pat beg wa1 his stat terr, "M1 ofi ally don "F1 unl WOI No1 pol: If ti icy Ace ( 1Y . LJ . U.. D..D M EMBERS �