MISSES ANDERSON AND MENKEN VIVIFY "THE OLD MAID"
Tesoro Defends Shoe Union TO THE EDITOR, LABOR SECTION: In view of the fact that there ia no other labor paper of large circulation I can turn to, I ask you to print the following answer...
...We made one mistake, Labor should have put up its own candidate and defeated Governor Talmadge...
...They said that the majority do not want to go on strike, but do so only through fear of bodily injury...
...nor has there been as much advance in bettering the condition of the workers as in the case of the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union and the slipper local in its first year...
...Furthermore, the vote decided that the new board consist of one member from each shop, thuei giving all shops representation, whereas the removed board had three or four members from the same shop, depriving sheet 18 shops of representation...
...654, Boot and Shoe Workers' Union...
...Do not delay...
...Factory, Summit, N. J. (who were also workers in the Feiffer Shop, 41 East nth Street, New York City, before its removal), to go to the Summit factory...
...This is the opinion of the president of one of the local unions, and of great numbers of the rank and file...
...However, I have learned enough about it since to be convinced that the fight was brought on by the Communist union to intimidate workers who refused to go out on a hopeless strike and into the breadlines...
...As a matter of fact the board wss brought up on charges at a general local membership meeting by various members of the local for numerous stated and" specific acts injitrious to the union...
...Organiser...
...Never before hsve there been as many slipper shops signed up with a bonafide union...
...We still have that to do...
...The Boot and Shoe Workers' Union, with headquarters in Boston, Mass., and locals all over the country has stood the teat for 30 years,' since April 10th, 1805,1 its first affiliation with the A. F. I • en , M of L., while hundreds of ober unions have come and gone...
...However, I have taken no steps to organize the shop in the Boot snd Shqe Workers' Union...
...A few mills have moved out their machinery and are starting up elsewhere, but the unions are prepared to follow them...
...They explained that most of the members belonging to the Communist union are members not through choioe, but through intimidation, and fear to take any steps to free themselves...
...Shipping Clerk* Orpwe The union of shipping clerks in the women's garment industry is now obtaining a charter from the I A. F. of L. "We are gaining members rapidly," the union states in an appeal to co-workers...
...The year's record of progress of this local despite many obstacles speaks for itself...
...The conference, headed by John Edgerton, President of the Tennessee Manufacturers' Association, issued a statement that because the companies had been losing money, the wage' minimum must be reduced to nine and six dollars...
...We meet Monday night st union headquarters, Ladies' Garment Shipping Clerks' Unioa, Local 102, I.L.G.W.U., 131 W. 33rd Bt" HABEAS CORPUS SOUGHT FOR STRIKERS held in Chattanooga two weeks ago, only served to increase the determination of all workers, especially textile workers, in this region...
...I emphatically deny that I had any part either- directly or indirectly in the fight and further, I did not even have any knowledge of what was taking place until Ii heard about it...
...I One of the chief charges agsimt the slipper local and me is that we ourted the legally elected executive board in an illegal and arbitrary manner...
...Upon my arrival there, I found that members of the Communist union (who, although members', were discontented and disgusted with thst union and unwilling to strake), had been in a fight with the pickets and that some had been arrested...
...A Political Mistake The Rossville strike is the answer to this statement...
...Furthermore, in 'The Daily Worker' and in the Communist foreign press daily notices have been printed slandering our union, and particularly the slipper local...
...I Local No...
...They have found out that the battle is just begun...
...However, we are still away from 'oar goal of an industry which is 1009b organised...
...It was removed by the members by an overwhelming majority...
...One thing is certain, that the use of armed force by the manufacturers in open alliance with the Georgia state government, is not going to turn back the tide of unionism...
...They claim that they do not want any part of the Communist union, and that if our union refuses to represent them they are going to form a company union...
...Michale Tesoro, Gen...
...Discrimination against union workers is increasing as the companies try to freeze out the union, but the workers are not going to be eased out without a fight...
...Tesoro Defends Shoe Union TO THE EDITOR, LABOR SECTION: In view of the fact that there ia no other labor paper of large circulation I can turn to, I ask you to print the following answer to Communist press slanders against me: As organiser of the Boot and Shoe Workers' Union, Local 664 <A» g, at L), I waa asked by a committee of workers In the Feiffer Bros...
...Mske it your business to come down to the office end join now...
...A shop chairmen's meeting, scheduled for this week, will call a general membership meeting soon...
Vol. 18 • January 1935 • No. 63
