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Meany did his historic stunt, Without there being any Manpower Commission, long before it existed, he corralled all the building trades workers in the North and took them down to the South, in buses, you remember, to build the War camps.

At any rate, they were willing to do more of that. If you had a problem, you know, you just telephoned to one of them, and said you needed so many plumbers or so many carpenters, and he could do it secretly. He could do it without making a big fuss, because those unions were pretty well organized, and they very nearly knew the name and address of every building trades worker in the United States--I mean, between them all, through their locals. Other unions could have done the same thing if necessary, if you needed extra skills. Because they really needed skilled people.

He also put through all kinds of agreements to permit dilution of labor. We weren't using that phrase. That's what the English called it, “dilution of labor.” We called it “upgrading.” You know, it's a polite American euphomism which was invented by Deets and Dooley, of the Western Electric Company. They're good personnel men, and it was a very bright idea of theirs. “Dilution of labor” made the building trades workers mad. They were against it. But “upgrading”--you couldn't object to that. It merely meant that