Slap

Labor got a sharp slap across the face last week. Andrew Jackson Higgins, New Orleans' big, bluff shipbuilder, announced that he would close down his three plants, sell them to the highest bidder, and farm out his fat $40,000,000 peacetime contracts to other manufacturers. Reason: labor strife that never seemed to end.

"Then," said Andy Higgins menacingly, "I'm going to crusade. I'm going to crusade to see that men who want to work can get it without paying tribute to any one." Andy's plants were already shut -- by a strike. His labor troubles with 33 of A.F. of L.'s Metal Workers' Unions were twelve months old. They were complicated by jurisdictional trouble with C.I.O.'s Marine and Shipbuilding Workers' Union. Only a few hours before his shattering announcement, Andy Higgins had said he would sign a contract with whichever union won an NLRB election. (Insiders said C.I.O. would have won.) What had kept Andy from signing earlier with A.F. of L. was a clause providing that all returning servicemen must join the union.

During the war, because of his activity in behalf of Franklin Roosevelt's reelection, Andy Higgins had earned a public reputation as a businessman New Dealer. He had helped organize the "Businessmen for Roosevelt" in the 1944 campaign. But Andy Higgins had always been a rough & ready entrepreneur; he damned bureaucrats of all kinds--Government and labor.

Some New Orleanians were somewhat skeptical of Andy's move. They thought he might find some excuse to reopen later on. Andy sent a broadside to his sales force reminding them that while the Higgins company would be liquidated, Higgins himself was not.

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