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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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and removed it, there was no further remaining reason for the union to stay out on strike, or no further reason to be afraid of a stoppage. Their irritation came about because the labor people wouldn't be pushed around. Even though their grievances had been removed, it took them a long time in some cases, days and sometimes as much as a week, to come back to work, even when there had only been a few days stoppage and the grievance wasn't a serious one at all.

When times are prosperous there are more stoppages of work for one reason or another than people realize. It's because the going is good. The union, and more likely the local people in the particular factory, see a chance to get more. If the boss is going to get some big orders, and is going to make plenty of money, they want to get their share. The waves were all right last month, but the boss hadn't gotten this big order from the government then. That's a traditional pattern- strikes occurring when ties were good - but most people don't realize it. There were so many strikes in the early New Deal because that was an organizing period. Many of these young men who came in didn't realize that strikes were high in prosperous times and they were always being greatly -disappointed. They were always damning the labor leaders because they didn't get them back to work sooner.

You kept having to say, “You have to give them time. You have to give them a day or two. When men have gone out





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