National Affairs: Loyalties

For telephone workers of Woodward, Okla., the phone strike ended the moment they could dig out from the debris of last fortnight’s tornado (TiME, April 21). While union officials ordered workers to ignore the emergency and stay on strike, 30 union operators rushed back to their jobs. Last week they made the strike’s end official, sent in their resignations with a blistering telegram: “Girls refuse to stop. Will work as long as needed. . . . Would be ashamed of a union which would put up pickets in a disaster like this.”