Some 500 Persons Picket Israel Bond Organization; Major Jewish Groups Represented

Local 1707 of the Community and Social Agency Employes Union, AFL-CIO, claimed today that more than 500 members participated in a demonstration outside the offices of the Israel Bond Organization between noon and 2 p.m. Today was the 17th day of the strike against the Bond Organization by its 500 employes across the country. A spokesman for Local 1707 said employes of Farband, which is not a member of the union, joined the picket line of workers of the Bond Organization and nine other major Jewish groups. The demonstrators chanted “2, 4, 6, 8, Bernstein won’t negotiate,” referring to Leo Bernstein, executive vice-president of Israel Bonds. A spokesman for him said picketing by unhappy employes was “perfectly normal” but he suggested that the figure of more than 500 demonstrators was exaggerated. Bernstein was personally criticized by Dick Morton, executive director of Local 1707, and Erik Strong, union spokesman.

Morton said Bernstein was engaged in a “calculated plan to cripple the union” and was “derelict in his duty to conduct a continuous and vigorous (fundraising) campaign.” He added: “As a former union official himself, Mr. Bernstein should know that his efforts to emasculate the union by demanding curtailment of the bargaining unit and impairment of the union shop will only strengthen the workers determination to defend their union.” Strong said: “Bernstein’s out to bust the union. He wants to negotiate people out of the bargaining unit, out of the union shop. He should be happy to let them have the best possible arrangement. He could have settled the whole thing 1-2-3. He could have given them (the workers) a handsome raise and still been in the chips.” The spokesman for Bernstein said: “The security of the union is not involved. There is and will be a union shop within the organization.” He said the union’s charges “mask its inordinately excessive money demands,” claiming that agreeing to those demands would cost Israel Bonds $7 1/2 million over the next two years.