Point Pleasant Daily Register
Ordnance Men Return To Jobs Today
Difficulty Is Smoothed Out
Officials Of Company And Union Say Walkout Was Result Of Misunderstanding
August 4, 1942
Construction workers who staged a walk-out at the West Virginia Ordnance Works yesterday returned to their jobs this morning after the strike was labeled a "misunderstanding."
Led to believe that a wage rate increase was in the offing the men were said to have walked out without the sanction of their union officials. However, Lt. Raber, public relations director of the U. S. Army at the local plant, said that the workers' case will be appealed to the Labor Board - "through legal channels."
(The Building Trades unions are said to have closed a stabilization agreement with Sidney Hillman before construction began here, and in some high quarters the requested wage increase is branded as doubtful - regardless of an appeal.)
One of the aftermaths of the brief dispute yesterday came in the form of an announcement from William Edwards, Jr., of Huntington, associate of Van A. Bit[t]ner, and local field representative of the CIO, who said that reports to the effect that CIO men were involved in the strike were false - that the CIO has no organization at the TNT works.
Edwards further contended that the CIO has taken a stand opposed to all strikes for the duration of the war.