YPSL, Strikers Join In G. E. Plant Picket

A handful of Harvard students in the Young People's Socialist League (YPSL) picketed yesterday morning at the General Electric Supply Company to prevent trucks from loading.

Steve P. Kelman '70, of YPSL's executive committee, joined with John Schwartz of the hiternational Union of Electrical Workers (IUE) in leading the seven pickets. They remained at the plant-located at 145 North Beacon St. in Brighton-from 7:15 a. m. until 9:30 a. m. as the IUE had requested.

Shortly after the picketers arrived a large semi-trailer pulled out in respect for the demonstration. The driver said he had completed stocking only 100 parcels of a 3000-piece load, Kelman said, adding that four panel trucks arrived atthe warehouse while the picketers were there and all but one turned away without loading.

Ignored

M. Peltier, materials manager for the G. E. warehouse, said that the pickets were ignored by the people working inside the plant. He attributed this to the fact that the warehouse workers were members of the Teamsters' Union. The management did not ignore the pickets, however. Shortly after they arrived, Kelman said, a neatly lettered sign bearing the inscription. "The employees in this company are not on strike," was placed just outside the entrance to the warehouse.

The basis of YPSL's action was the large strike which the IUE is holding against G. E. IUE charges that G. E. practice in negotiations of making a take-it-or-leave-it offer at the beginning of the negotiating process is acting in bad faith. The process has in fact been declared illegal by a decision of the National Labor Relations Board.

Demands of the strike center around higher wages, more safety inspections of the appliances being produced, and the request that doctors be available at all times on the plant floor to care for accident victims.

Kelman said that YPSL will be involved in future actions on behalf of the IUE in organizing consumer boycotts of G. E. products.