IN COLUMBIA, THE WORKERS UNION OF VALLE HAVE RECEIVED APPROXIMATELY $1,200 FROM THE SMALL PROJECTS PROGRAM FOR REPAIRS TO THEIR WORKERS' UNIVERSITY.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP73-00475R000100820003-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 17, 2014
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: July 25, 1967
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/01/17: CIA-RDP73-00475R000100820003-4
- 9372 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD ? HOUSE July 25, 1967'
' their flood-damaged homes. In Bolivia, the
? Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union of
? Oruro has received approval of an Impacts
? Projects loan to repair the union's mauso-
leum in the city's cemetery. Just think of
that one.
In Colombia, the Workers Union of Valle
" have received approximately $1,200 from the
Small Projects program for repairs to their
? Workers' University. An Ecuador Impacts
Projects grant was approved for the cam-
pesinos of Alaques to purchase materials
needed to construct two additional class-
? ? rooms for the town school. In Peru alone,
some $347,800 has been approved by the
? Peruvian Housing Bank under the provincial
program for the oil workers of Talara to
build 117 houses. An Impacts Projects loan
? of $1,760 was approved for the purchase of
cutting and perforating machines for the use
of a printing co-op run by the former mem-.
bers of the printers unions of Piura.
This gives you an idea of some of the
activity that is going on down there. This
has been only an outline of what we are
doing, but we are trying to help the workers
in these countries and to help the countries
themselves, because Latin America will never
come into the 20th century unless and until
the mass purchasing power of the people of
these countries is raised. The idea that you
.-? can build a successful society on the basis of
wages that are so low that people can't pur-
chase he things that you can make is, of
' course, of the last century. We hope to change
that.
There are still many problems In Latin
America, still too many military establish-
ments In Power, The wages are still WO low.
The gap between the very poor and the Very
rich indicate that we have a very long way to
go. However, we think that we have a pro-
gram that will bring progress in the long
run. We hope we are making a contribution
that will help the Latin American workers
over the long haul. We think we are on the
right track. I am rather proud of my part in
It.
We now have 76 acres down on the shores
of the Shenandoah River in Front Royal. We
have a very lovely old house there. We fixed
It up a little bit. We are going to enlarge it.
? and I am sure this is going to be a permanent
? institution and that eventually it will not
just be a seat of learning for our Latin
American friends, it will be a worker uni-
versity that will serve all the woofers, not
?
only of Latin America, but also bur own
- people here in the United States.
' QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
?. Question: Is AIFLD supported in whole or
in part by the CIA?
Meany: AIFLD Is supported in whole or in
part by AID, which is the Agency for Inter-
national Development, and not by one cent
from the CIA. It is supported in whole or in
part by American business and American
labor. And, so there will be no misunder-
? standing, it is supported by quite a large sum
of money by AID under a contract?and we
.... can show you a copy of the contract?signed
by myself as the president of the American
Institute and signed by the Agency for Inter-
national Development. I think that our share
- of AID funds for fiscal 1966 was $4 million. AFL-CIO?
So when you get that kind of money, why Meany: No comment. No comment.
do you have to run to the CIA? . Question: What is the AFL-CIO doing to
Question: Do you think it will be possible compel craft unions to accept meaningful
to expand the AIFLD program to Africa and numbers of Negro apprentices and journey-
Asia? men?
Mcany: Well, actually, we have already set Meany: I would say that from what I know
' up an African program?we call that the about the craft unions that they are ready
African-American Labor Center. It's set up to accept meaningful numbers of Negro ap-
in New York. We are financing it with AFL- ? prentices and journeymen, but the problem
CIO money and with some assistance from : here in, and I'm sure you can verify this by
AID. - going around the country and making a little
However, Africa presents an entirely Alf- . ?Inquiry, that we don't seem to get Negro ap-
ferent problem. There have been unions in .'prentIces. They seem to feel that there is
. Latin America for many, many years. Latin : some other way to get into the craft unions.
- America has had some trade -union expert- Now when I was a whole lot younger there
? ence. In Africa?and we have a Staff work-- was another way to get in the craft unions.
stkr
Declassified in Part- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @50-Yr 2014/01/17: CIA-RDP73-00475R000100820003-4
bag on this now?in these newly emerging
countries we find they don't have unions. In
fact, all you had in most of these colonial
countries were the white settlers and the
so-called native labor. We are working on this
and actually our work in Africa at the pres-
ent time is not so much to try to build
unions?we help there, we helped them by
what they need mostly?transportation?
Land Rovers, as they call the British answer
to the American Jeep. They need multi-
graphing machines and loudspeakers and
things like that. Most of our work in Africa,
up to the present time, is vocational train-
ing. We are running a sewing school in
Kenya; we have a chauffeurs school in Lagos
and this sort of thing. It will be some time
before we will get things in shape in Africa
where we could embark on a program similar
to the AIFLD program in Latin America. But,
I can say to you quite frankly, when that
time comes, I am quite hopeful that we will
set up an institute for Africa.
Question: Do you feel that* perhaps your
training program in Latin America is too
sophisticated for the average Latin American
labor movement worker? Is the training pro-
gram geared properly to the level of educa-
tion you are trying to reach?
Meany: We have found out that it is not
too sophisticated. We have found out that
the Latin Americans),re wonderful students
and, as I said before, /1 could not go into all
phases of this work. We make a survey as we
graduate young men. We make a survey to
see what happens to them?to see where they
go. Frankly, we lose a few. Very few. Very
few go back and find employment outside the
trade union movement, I would say 0 out of
10 boys that we have graduate Since 1062
from the school have gone to work for their
trade unions.
And I am sure Dick Ishmael can tell you
and vouch for this?that in the struggle for
free unions in Guyana, the struggle which'
was engaged in between Communist dom-
inated unions and free unions?we had eight
graduates from AIFLD who played a very,
very prominent part in the struggle.
I don't think our program is too sophisti-
cated. We find that most of the people that
they send up to us here have high school
educations so there is no problem there. We
had no trouble getting 15 trade unionists
with college educations that we sent to
Loyola for our special course in labor
economics.
So the answer to the question is that our
program is not too sophisticated.
? Question: Mr. Meany, do you feel that
? further strike turmoil in the United States
this year will put Congress in the mood for
some general labor law reform? In other
words, strengthening of the Taft-Hartley Act,
etc.?
Meany: I think Congress is already in that
mood. And, as far as I am concerned, we are
going to fight any labor control legislation
that is compulsory. And we are going to look
with a great deal of suspicion on any former
? friends who tell us that it is good for us.
? Question: Hoffa has been convicted. Is
there a plan afoot to bring the Teamsters
and their 11/z million members back into the
?
You just decided you wanted to work as a ;
plumber or do electrical work or something I
else, and you went and got yourself a Job sa
a helper or an apprentice. But that is no
longer possible. You cannot become an ap-
prentice at these trades unless you have a'
high school education. You can't possibly j
qualify for the trade unless you have a high
school education.
So what some of our Negro organized
groups fail to understand is that the only
way you can come into these trades and make
the grade is through apprenticeship train-
ing. You take someone who has been a handy ?
man and put him in my union, give hins
a full-fledged card and at the end of a
' couple of years he would be telling you that
he couldn't get any work and of course he
wouldn't get any work unless he was quali-
fied.
We have thousands of men at Cape Ken-
nedy in my union.
The electrical workers have thousands of
men, iron workers, sheet metal workers, and
the type of work that they do there bears
absolutely no relation to the Work that we
used to do in the building line. My union, '
the Plumbers International Union, has 700 ,
full-time instructors in this country-700 ,
full-time instructors for their apprentices.
They use Purdue University every summer
for a two-week course to upgrade their in- I
structors and they spend more money for ;
apprenticeship training than does the United i
States government?this one union. So the
way into apprentice training is with proper ;
qualified apprentices and the sooner the
Negro organizations and do-gooders under-
stand it, the better for all concerned. That is '
the only way they can come into these trades
and there is no shortcut.
Question: A related question, sir. The U.S..
Negro soldier has been outstanding in Viet-
nam. When these Negro soldiers return to the
States what plans stre you making to welcome
them into your craft unions if they do have
equal skills?
Meany: Any of them who have equal skills
will come right in. There will be no problem
there at all.
Question: Sir, would you give us your views
on Secretary Boyd's proposal to build U.S.
merchant ships in foreign yards?
Meany: Maybe we should get our Secretary
of Transportation from some foreign yard.
The answer to that Is obvious. U.S. merchant
ships?U.S. means United States merchant
ships. And if they are U.S. merchant ships, we
have plenty of people in the United States
ready, able and willing to build them. I'm
against building them in foreign yards.
Question: Sir, what do you predict for the
future of the National Farmers Union?
Meany: What do I predict for the future
of the National Farmers Union? I have no;
prediction.
Question: The Edward P. Morgan radio
program recently finished after 12 years on
the air at a cost of $1 million to your orga-
nization. What are the chances that this
type radio program might be discontinued
as an economy measure?
Meany: This program was not discontinued
as an economy measure. We were very happy
with the program and had no intention of
discontinuing. However, when Ed Morgan de-
cided to take the offer of a new venture in
educational television, financed I believe by
the Ford Foundation or one of the founda- ?
tions, it gave us an opportunity to study the
? Whole question of our public relations:
whether using radio or television or what
have you Was best and we decided that we
would let this period go. Now what I want
to point 'out is that we had this question
?under study last February. A committee of
the Council was appointed to study this
? question. We had no intimation at the time
? that Morgan was Considering any other offer,
was thinking of going any other place, so
? while we were in the process of stud it,