The workers who played the most active role in the recent strikes were sanitation workers; firemen; and the irrigation and electrical workers, who are organized in the Irrigation and Electrical Workers Union (UTIER).
The 1,100-member firemen's union was protesting outmoded equipment and low wages. For example, there were only four firetrucks with ladders in all of Puerto Rico. Starting wages for firemen are $385 a month.
The strikes by the firemen and UTIER ended in mid-July. In both cases the government granted concessions. Both radical and bourgeois journalists noted that Puerto Rico's labor movement is entering a new stage. Under [Luis] Muñoz Marín the labor bureaucracy had been incorporated into the government apparatus. In return it did not engage in any militant struggles that might endanger Muñoz Marín's scheme to industrialize Puerto Rico.
August 9, 1948
General Douglas MacArthur, American imperialism's brass-
hat ruler of Japan has imposed his own version of the Taft-
Hartley Slave Act on the public service workers, who have
spearheaded labor militancy in Japan. His innovation was not
only to prohibit strikes but to abolish collective
bargaining with the government.
MacArthur made the above "suggestions" in the form of a letter to Premier Hitoshi Ashida. The "suggestions" further abolish mediation and arbitration machinery under the central Labor Relations Board, ban slowdowns and other "subterfuges" and provide jail terms for one year plus 5,000 yen fines for violators. The Japanese cabinet decided that these "suggestions" "should not be interpreted merely as advice but as a directive overriding all law."
The Japanese labor movement which has made such splendid strides forward in the past few years is not taking these vicious decrees lying down. The Communications Workers Union, 400,000-strong, is openly defying MacArthur's strikebreaking and slave edicts by calling a strike for August 7.