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Labor History - 131: Facing up to Employers

August 11, 1975

Labor History - 131: Facing up to Employers

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Title
Labor History - 131: Facing up to Employers
Creator
Wright, Fred, 1907-1984
Contributor
Lerner, James, 1911-2003 (contributor)
University of Pittsburgh (depositor)
Contributor
Lerner, James, 1911-2003
Date
August 11, 1975
Identifier
ue13.3.1.131
Description
This cartoon depicts the attacks that the working class witnessed after World War II ended due to the high amount of layoffs and diminishing wages. Caption 1: The war which Hitler had begun in Europe in 1939 came to an end in May 1945 as the Red Army from the East and the allied forces of the United States and Great Britain from the West, crushing the Nazi armies between them, met at the Elbe River in Germany. Full attention was turned to defeating Japan, the remaining member of the German-Italian-Japanese axis which had begun the war in the name of defeating communism. Caption 2: With the major part of the war over, U.S. employers, bloated with wartime profiteering, launched their offensive against working people. Mass layoffs of those who had produced the war goods, chiseling on wages and conditions which had already suffered heavily during the war was commonplace. The war-induced price increases were pressing down on living standards. Working people were preparing to fight back. Caption 3: The leadership of the big three of the CIO, the UE, Steelworkers and Auto Workers, began considering ways of responding to the needs of their members. Separately in their own union conferences and together in a beginning of common action, these unions began planning for a united fight against the most powerful corporations in the country. UE News, Vol. XXXVII, Issue No. 16
Type
still image
Genre
comics (documents)
comic strips
layouts (printed matter)
Subject
War, Businesses
Source
Labor History Series (Series 13.3.1), Fred Wright Publication Plates (Subgroup 13.3), Fred Wright Papers (UE.13)
Collection
Fred Wright Cartoons
Contributor
University of Pittsburgh
Rights Information
In Copyright. This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
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