Ghost from the Past

Everyone remembers the Montgomery Ward strike in 1944, when rock-ribbed Chairman Sewell Avery was carried out of his plant in the arms of G.I.s after the company was seized by the Government. Last week in Chicago, as an aftermath of that fight, Municipal Judge Joseph B. Hermes ordered the company to pay $250,000 in injunction damages to the C.I.O. United Mail Order, Warehouse & Retail Employees, plus $77,000 in lawyers' fees. It was the largest such award ever made.

The judgment stemmed from an injunction that the company sought in 1943 against the union's weekly paper, which was attacking Ward's labor policies. To get the injunction, the company had to post bond and promise to pay any damages to the union if the injunction was later thrown out of court. In 1948 it was, and the union brought suit for damages, alleging that Ward had wrecked the union. In ruling for the union, Judge Hermes held that the union had been seriously hurt as a result of the company's legal maneuvers. The union's membership at Ward's, once 4,000, is now zero.

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