In the World of Labor Struggles
In the World of Labor Struggles The Socialist Party Stand on The Fur Workers' Controversy The following report was made to the City Central Committee of the , Socialist Party of Local New...
...A committee of the union then applied to the Labor Committee of the Socialist Party, and with its help, called a conference,, at the Governor Clinton Hotel to whleli conference a number of delegates appeared representing many organizations...
...After hearing many witnesses st numerous meetings, this committee believes that the situation in the fur industry may be summed up as follows: Early Dissension For some time prior to May 1932, there were several factions in the union struggling for control...
...The city capitalists have been very active in their exploitation and "yellow dog" tactics and have begun countermoves...
...The prime objective of this campaign, as stated in the resolution of the dress shop chairmen, is "to take advantage of the Interest aroused in trade union organisation by the national recovery legie* lation and to compel the mm union employers it...
...If the unions expect to get anywhere they will have to go out and organize, now that the law has given them the unqualified right to do so...
...Complying with the requirements of the National Recovery Act, the radio manufacturers are drafting a code for presentation at Washington...
...After describing the situation at great length, the committee appealed for the cooperation of the S. P. for the purpose of organizing the workers in the industry on the bona fide trade union basis, free from the political control of the Communist Party and for the purpose of reestablishing the union conditions that prevailed in the trade before the destructive Communist onslaught wrecked these conditions...
...UNIONS BEGIN DRIVES INDIANAPOLIS, Ind...
...In the dress industry a joint meeting of all the executive boards, following up by a shop chairmen's meeting July 13 at Bryant Hall, ordered a sweeping organization drive through the non-union sector of the dress trade In New York to culminate, if necessary, In a general strike in the near future...
...He will take office September 1. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.—Adam emit...
...Although the same was readily promised, doe to a number of circumstances, the support did not come...
...According to William Beedie, organizer of the National Federation of Radio Workers, evidence and a determined protest against employee coercion by the radio manufacturers will be forwarded directly to General Johnson...
...In ths New York cloak and suit industry the em peine reached with the employers during the preceding week, when negotiations for the renewal' of the collective agreement became deadlocked on the question of piece-work, took a sharp turn in the direction of conflict at a joint executive meeting of all the locals on July 11, in the Rand School Auditorium, which voted to empower the leaders of the Union to set strike machinery in motion in reply to the obdurate attitude of the cloak bosses...
...The new law, | it has been found,- will not hand them organized workers on a platter...
...Thereafter, with the help of the Labor Committee of the Socialist Party, another conference was called at the office of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union at No...
...More than 70 per cent of the nation's radio production comes from the Philadelphia and Camden district...
...Many of the old union men were discharged...
...There are about 30,000 on strike hi New York, 10,000 in Philadelphia, and between 5,000 and 6,000 in Boston, who walked out Thursday morning and whose strike was taken care of by Schlossberg himself...
...Victor Company...
...Graham Again Heads * Montana Labor The recent annual convention of the Montana State Federation of Labor re-elected James D. Graham as itjupresident...
...Without this assistance the organization campaign lagged...
...Many men were maimed, bruised and battered, and some were actually killed...
...QN June 7, 1933, a committee of the International Fur Workers' Union appeared at the regular meeting of the City Central Committee of Local New York of the Socialist Party and stated, among other items, that the I.F.W.U...
...As part of the union's drive against sweatshops orgsnization meetings have been held in Philadelphia and Boston...
...The Communists succeeded in getting control of the shops by offering to work for lower wages and longer hours and abolished many of the union conditions of hours and labor that were won by the I.F.W.U...
...Accordingly the American Federation of Radio Workers has opened headquarters for an intensive unionization drive on the radio plants in the Philadelphia and Camden vicinity...
...Building Com- pany "Union," It Charge PHILADELPHIA...
...Having been taken up with personal feuds the administration was unable to give the men the necessary protection in the shops...
...On Thursday, July 13, at a meeting of all shops chairmen In the cloak industry in Beethoven Hall, the action of the joint meeting was sustained, and the full resources of the cloak organization were ordered to be mobilized for the coming struggle...
...Ten new organizers were assigned by President David Dubinsky during the past week to cover this territory where hundreds of needle trades shops, many of them of the sweatshop variety, are located...
...In their places the Communists placed members of their party from other trades who worked under inferior conditions...
...While the dissension seems to have been >--• meaningless, it was so bitter that these was no way by which they could reconcile their own differences...
...The identities of these unions are being kept secret through fear of sabotage...
...CAMDEN LABOR WARS ON THE OPEN SHOP - CAMDEN, N. J.—Through the efforts of the Central Labor Union seven new A.F...
...and through ita executive committee selected Samuel Shore, an active and trusted man in the Labor Movement and closely affiliated with the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, as manager for the union and appealed for funds with some results...
...was engaged in an organization campaign in the industry, and that, as a result of Comrade Norman Thomas' visit to the fur market and his appearance at the headquarters of the Needle Trades Industrial Union, Fur Department, confusion in the minds of the fur workers as to the position of the Socialist Party in this situation followed...
...GENERAL STRIKE LOOMS IN CLOAK INDUSTRY P VENTS in the ladies' garment *"* workers' organisation during the past week have moved a step further toward a clash with the employer's associations...
...A tentative code relating to labor conditions has aroused bitter opposition from organized labor, who claim that the manufacturers are seeking to perpetuate a legalized sweated industry...
...the dress trade to subscribe to a labor code guaranteeing decent working conditions and livable earnings established through collective bargaining...
...In both these cities the union is demanding the 36-hour week...
...general secretary of the Amalgamated, with more expected out every day...
...The I.L.G.W.U., in addition to New York activity, is carrying on unprecedented organisation work in the metropolitan district which embraces Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania towns within New York's 100-mile zone...
...Also as a result of terrorism carried on against the manufacturers, many shops settled with the Communists In order to buy their peace and get the work done In this highly seasonal industry...
...B. Charney Vladeck, a member of the committee, was out of the city and did not sign the report...
...Hundreds of men were excluded because of their affiliation or sympathy with the Socialist Party...
...With plenty of money and hired men, the Communistr succeeded n creating an astounding condition of terror in the fur district...
...The union alleges that contrary to the spirit and interpretation of the National Recovery Act the radio manufacturers are coercing employees to join hastily-formed company unions for the purpose of presenting an "agreement" between the employers and employees relative to working hours and wages to General Johnson at the Washington hearing scheduled to be held Shortly...
...Amalgamated Workers Winning Big Gains AtKNERAL increase of wages to V* offset the losses of the past three years are being won by members of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers in their general strike, which is spreading to every part of the country...
...WAR ON SWEATSHOPS BY NECKWEAR UNION A SWEEPING investigation of sweatshop conditions in the men's neckwear industry has been demanded of Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins in a communication from Louis Fuchs, manager of the United Neckwear Makers' Union, on^behalf of 7,000 union workers of Greater New York...
...There is a spirit of optimism everywhere, that trade unionism is coming back...
...Holllnahead Automobile Co., and the V, hi tall Tat urn Glass Co...
...Shore called many conferences of delegates from other unions, called their attention to the conditions in the fur industry, and asked for" their continued assistance and cooperation...
...The chief aim of the unionization campaign Is higher wages and a shorter work-week, and every group of industrial workers in the city will be asked to turn their backs on the company unions...
...The Journeymen Barbers' ' Union Is redoubling its campaign efforts...
...Radio Mfrs...
...In this way they would at least be u Bed for the benefit of the public rather than for the purpose of creating dividends on watered stock...
...The most remarkable successes have been won in the shirt industry, in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey, designated by union men as the new sweatshop territory...
...These factions were guilty in the past of practices that the Socialist Party would not approve nor condone even if ii is admitted that they wert the result of Communist provocation...
...Organization of the workers is the first step in the union's campaign to gain increased wages and shortened hours...
...Every Communist organisation in the City of New York was recruited for this work, such as longshoremen, sailors, hired strongarm men, thugs and gangsters...
...3 West 16th Street...
...Knit Goods Workers Philadelphia.—A local of knit goods workers has been organized here by 600 workers In sweater, underwear and bathing suit factories who enrolled under the banner of the United Textile Workers •f America...
...Communist Terror At that time, the Communists decided upon a concentrated campaign to capture the fur industry...
...at a sacrifice of blood and life in its long struggle with the employers...
...Graham is also a iDflepSr of the National Executive djOBtee of the Socialist Party, i Thlivnventlon showed an unprecedented spirit of progressiveness, and unanimously endorsed resolutions that pledge the State Federation to a program of nationalization of all public utilities and banks...
...William F, Kelly, international vice-president of the U. T. W. and •rganixer of the Knit Goods Workon' Local, expects the anion's membership to grow to 2,000...
...In addition, the Communists spent vast sums of money for the police...
...Owing to the fact that the railroads have been unable to operate and pay a fair wage to employees without constant loans and grants from the government, Montana labor felt it only just that the railroads be taken from those who have mismanaged them and be turned over to the government that must finance them...
...The large plants involved in this organization campaign are the Campbell Soup Company, the R.C.A...
...of L. organizations in trades never organized before have been chartered...
...O'Neil in B. T. Office William C. O'Neil of Atlantic City, general organizer of the United Association of Journeymen Plumbers and Steamfitters, has been elected secretary-treasurer of ths Building Trades Department of the American Federation of Labor by the unanimous vote of the Department's executive council...
...The union official pointed out that non-union competition' from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut is rapidly undermining union conditions in New York and is driving decent manufacturers, seeking to maintain fair wage levels, out of business...
...The biggest shirt manufacturers, In the Reading and Hazelton districts of Pensylvania, have been brought into line and negotiations axe now under way for union agreements...
...In the World of Labor Struggles The Socialist Party Stand on The Fur Workers' Controversy The following report was made to the City Central Committee of the , Socialist Party of Local New York on Wednesday, July 5, by a special committee consisting of Jack Altman, Alexander Kahn, Simon Berlin and David Kaplan...
...2.50 for 7 Day Week CINCINNATI, O. — Astounding revelations regarding low wages paid waitresses here were made hi a report to the Central Labor Council by the Waitresses' Union...
...The wrangling among the factions destroyed the confidence ol the workers and made them easy prey for the Communists...
...It was impossible for a man who openly supported the International Fur Workers' Union, to appear on the streets in the fur district without being threatened or actually beaten up by gangsters...
...A number of crafts are hard at work organizing, following the lead of the United Mine Workers of America, which already has better than 100,000 new members on the rolls...
...180 minimum wage scales, recognition of the union, sanitary conditions and 86 cents a dozen piece prices, 80 cents for operating and 66 cents for slip stitching...
...This conference expressed confidence in the I.F.W.U...
...More than 50,000 are on strike, according to Joseph Schlossberg...
...There is a general feeling," •aid Schlossberg, "that this is our j opportunity...
...But the conference was not allowed to meet as the Communists invaded the hall with strong-a-m men, broke up the conference, and assaulted some of the delegates...
...The strikers demand heavy ini ereases of wages, and complete unionization...
...After a long discussion the report was approved by the City Central Committee by a vote of 61 to 16...
...A motion to elect a committee of the Socialist party to investigate and report on the entire matter was duly made and carried...
...There are union organizers at work in a number of smaller cities, who report the most 1 encouraging activity everywhere...
...There is no doubt that the destructive work of the Communists was made possible by the selAsh wrangling of the right wing factions...
...Organized labor in Indiana, as represented by their international unions, have concluded that they must be on their toes If they Intend to cash in on the new Industrial Recovery Act...
...The report stated that waitresses work 10 hours a day and sevea days a week for $2.50 and must furnish their own uniforms sn| pay far laundering them...
Vol. 16 • July 1933 • No. 3
