the poor, helpless, despised, downtrodden and
exploited* A priest who merely counsels his
flo&k to bear wrongs with patience and long®
suffering, as h© must, but keeps silent in
the presence of rank greed and injustice, is
like a watch dog that fails to bark or bits
in the presence of & robber* The Communists
coneleva all religion to be of that sort and
describe it as"opium of the people"; and
Christ describes it as salt that has lost its
taste* Such religion is worthy of the hatred
which Communists wrongly bear all religion;
or a? Christ put® it, it deserves to bo cast
out and trodden upon by meR0 If Mr* Atkinson
wants that type of religion, I regret it* I
will not choose it* But it is a sad comment^
ary on the intelligence and competence of
that labor leader who thinks he does not need
the help of true religion to better the lot
Of TBftKo
He then proceeds to point out “son© vary
obvious factors in the present situation*"
lo He incorrectly states that the CIO Cannery
Worker® were certified by NLRBo Correctly
stated he would have eaidi Local 46 IFAWA CIO
Cannery Workers were certified by NLRB* In
1950 L©c&146 IFAWA CIO Cannery Workers disaf
filiated from IFAWA and affiliated directly
with CIO taking their certified bargaining
right® with them<, In 1951 Local 46 CIO Can
nery Workers dioaffillatad from CIO and affil
iated with the Seafarers International Union*,
AFL and also took their bargaining rights with
them* Either Local 46 lost its bargaining
rights when it disaffiliated from IFAWA} and
then Local 46 CIO were not certified by NLRB}
or Local 46 did not lose its bargaining rights
when it disaffiliated from IFAWA and brought
them into CIO and out of CIO into the Seafar
ers® AFL® and they are the certified bargain
ing agents nowr, Mr0 Atkinson cannot have it
both ways* I repeat that the NLRB is the com*
pet eat authority to settle this question
2o The switch from the CIO to the Seafarers®
AJTLt was not a back door dealt, Only about half
the members of Local 46 voted last year be
cause of the curtailed operation and replace^
ments by non-resident strikebreakers* About
the same number of Local 46 members ratified
the resolution effecting the change in affil
iation* Ihis represented practically 100$ of
Local 46 members found in the Bay area at the
time* over half of whom were later sent home
for backing Downey0
3n Had the Cannery Workers accepted W* Atkin
son^ 12increase, they would still have had
to decide whether they would respect a legit
imate picket line* Had thev decided to do so,
they too would have had 12$$ of nothing for
their season0© pay. (kid they preferred to scab
they could have scabbed under Eowney too and
recloved 15^ plus a welfare fundo
4o Mro Atkinson shows here that ho neither
knows the history of Local 46 and the exploit®
ation the cannery workers suffered until
through Eownoy°£3 efforts they secured gradual
reliefj nor the issue of last year03 strike*
as far as the cannery workers s«rd concerned.
The issue ms their right to respect a legit®
lusts picket liado Local 46 is now suing ASI
for payment of last season0s guarantee to all
cannery workers* who after having been signed
up9 lost a season0s work for respecting a
legitimate picket line*
5o If the X2|% Increase which you recommended
for acceptance was in excess of the formula
which the Government of the UoS* had estab
lished and which both ths> AFX. and the CIO had
accepted as tho basis for stabilization during
the critical defense period* why didaH you
refuse it ao being out of lino? If you accept
something out of line why act go still further
in assorting the juat claims of the cannery
workersa® Downey did? The contracts were aub~
jest to wage stabilisation approval,,
60 The CIO 1® seldom called company dominated,
X agraSo But a union represented by an inccmp*
©tent is "something comparable to a company
union'9,, That was my charge,. Your latter to tho
Beacon, Atkinson* show® you to bo incompe*
ter*i and explains very clearly why tho ASX
would much rather deal with you than with
Downey* With you it can hava it® wayj with
Downey it cannot *
%r> Your inccmpotenc© is italicized and under'*
lined when you speak on the subject of Commurw
iem, an issue on which you fool qualified to
3peako You assert that in cleaning out Coramim«
ism, the CIO got no help from ?To Endalg Bow~
ney or ~ven Bristol Bay,-, Yet the record is
therefor all to read that under the Downey~
Endal leadership Local 46, which in 1949,
ao alleged by IIAVU, voted 700 - 8 to join
Marry Bridges0 HOT, and would have followed
IFAWA into it, was snatched from Communist
domination in the summer of 1950« Due to
their leadership Local 46 voted to disaffil*
iate from IFAWA and returned to CI0o Though
you yourself issued the charter in compliance
with Downey°s request in 1950, in 1952 you
can assert that you got no help from " Fr0
Endal, Downey, or even Bristol Bayo" •*
8o You further state that AFU has not been
Coramunist^dominatedo Apparently, you are totalff
Ignorant of all that has happened in the AFU
since 1950o How a group of Fhrty-linors took
over in headquarters in Seattle, and insisted
on merging AFU with ILWU, securing an ILWU
charter dated May 3, 1950, and were restrain*