WATERFRONT STRIKES TIE UP SHIPPING; POLICE NURSE SCAPS; N. Y. VICTORY NEAR
Waterfront Strikes tie Up Shipping; Police Nurse Scaps; N. Y. Victory Near Willi |ni i-hahle goods "M (luck? in \in York ami mi the Gulf anil Pacific coast hi danger of rotting ami Willi ((11...
...The mayor of Seattle has sent a frantic call to Secretary of the Interior Ickes for Federal troops to help smash the strike on the coast and move the .'17 ships tied up in Klliot Hay...
...Newspaper despatches have reported all week that "mobs riot along waterfronts," which means that workers are determined not to let scabs take their jobs and livelihood away from them and won't permit the police, either, to serve as scab herders...
...The union is now firmly established in the yard of the New York Shipbuilding Company and can carry on the struggle for better conditions with increased vigor...
...Have forced employment office of University of Southern California to end cooperation with employers by supplying student strike breakers...
...In Pennsylvania especially is the drive being concentrated...
...The questions of piece-rates and other concessions to the union will be arbitrated by avboaid composed of one representative from each side and a third member chosen by the other two...
...Bronze placques were presented by an appreciative membership to llillman and to Dorothy Delianca...
...JAMES ONEAL, Editor, THE NEW LEADER, SAMUEL H. FRIEDMAN, Editor, Labor Section...
...And if the strike isn't settled soon, more men will he called out and more lines tied up, Joseph 1...
...Ferryboats in San Francisco Hay may also be tied up by striking crews...
...So far the answer of the Paeifit waterfront employers is that they will hire more scab- and shout ahead...
...shouldered out by special material...
...for labor representation on the silk code authority, for pick clocks on the looms, and for wage increases instead of cuts...
...really represents the stevedores being a foregone conclusion...
...By unanimous vote at their meeting in Camden, the .'i,200 members of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, Local No...
...unemployment insurance...
...On Monday, the union held n meeting of the shop chairmen and delegates, and of the joint executive hoard...
...Delegate after delegate lose and spoke of poverty ami unemployment, of code violation and employer chiseling, of speedup^ and 'falsification of necorib, of kickbarks, overtime amounting to many added hours and sweatshops competing with and outdistancing the union shops...
...As it was obviously impossible to operate the yards with scab labor, Bardo had to come'to tei ms with the union...
...Ryan, president of tlie ILA., threatens...
...The stories of "constructive improvement" hrought about by New Deals and Blue Birds came from Secretary of Labor Perkins, guest speaker, and previously wejie reflected in the address of Sidney Hillman, president of the Amalgamated and member of the National Labor Advisory Board, and in the speech of William Green, head of the American Federation of Labor, who flayed the industrialist opponents of the collective bargaining provisions of Article 7A...
...Hut through it all mounted also the swelling tale of the achievements of I he Amalgamated in organizing workers in new and old fields and gaining better conditions for great masses of clothing craftsmen...
...the unanimous character of all votes on important questions from the beginning to the end of the strike demonstrates this...
...No comment is made in the decision on the tactics of the ltjcal police...
...His intercession for the strikers resulted only in his being clubbed and gassed...
...Summing up the figures claimed for re-employment in all the apparel trades, Mrs...
...New Leader Hails Convention rpHE following telegram was sent by The New Leader to the ' opening session of Ihe convention of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America al the Hotel Seneca, Rochester, N. Y.: THE NEW LEADER, Socialist and Labor national weekly, greets the tenth biennial convention of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers...
...In appreciation of the local Socialist Party's services, the union membership at the meeting last Saturday voted (again unanimously) a substantial contribution to the North Philadelphia Branch, which had lent them the services of its organizer throughout the whole course of the struggle...
...HERMAN J. HAHN Rev...
...Our workers are sped up and then discharged," one midwest delegate declared, Others told of dual codes used by manufacturers to befuddle and cheat the workers...
...General demonstrations and protest and unionization meetings were held to rally the silk workers to condemn the stupid and heartless holiday system and to strengthen their own organizations...
...Hahn, Buffalo Socialist, Clubbed Defending Strikers BUFFALO.—With clubs swinging and lists flying at defenseless workers, policemen here followed up a tear gas and fire hose attack on pickets at the Curtiss Airplane Motor Co...
...Hut Kyan is sitting tight in New York, waiting for the ('lytic Mallory lines to how to the inevitable, the result of the plebescite to determine if the ILA...
...1, approved the strike settlement as recommended to them by acting president Jolrn Green and the negotiating committee...
...To this task the officials are now devoting their attention...
...Meanwhile the strike in California, Washington and Oregon is awaking the apprehension of shippers there...
...Hoard, was given a magnificent oil painting by his fellow-workers...
...The enthusiasm and the resentment came from the floor, where four hundred delegates from all sections of the men's clothing industry gathered and spoke their hearts out...
...in \in York ami mi the Gulf anil Pacific coast hi danger of rotting ami Willi ((11 n;11m 111- nf great losses ami pnii'iitial food shortages (•lining iii from as far as Alaska, tin loiig-horonion's strike eonlinues here and in other ports...
...Grievances will be handled hy union committeemen and the business agent...
...The shipyard strikers are victorious...
...Conditions since the general strike in August have amply proved the justice of the union's demand for the 110-hour week and two-loom system, officials point out, citing the second curtailment since the strike...
...a mass meeting and organizers' meeting Thursday...
...But the town is aroused, and the strikers, members of the Aeronautical Workers Union 18,28(i of the AFoL., are gaining renewed strength from the sentiment resulting from the police tactics...
...Five hun<11i-il coastwise strikers niel \\cdllcsday at the ollices of the International Longshoremen'.- A-.-ociatioii and \oted unanimously not to return to work until wages ami hour- were settled and settled right in New York, Galveston and Houston liy the <'|yd<-Malhu y lines...
...Only in regard to growth in union numbers and power was there anything like an accord, and the first woman cabinet member was compelled to admit that she was "seeing only the accomplishments of the NRA, while vou workers may see the defects...
...In Patermiii, the Associated Silk Workers, led hy Eli Keller, held a number of mass meetings addressed by local and New York speakers, including Socialist party members...
...Perkins added, hut the optimistic sentiment found no answer in the hearts of many of the delegates...
...in Kaston, in New York City and other silk centers, the campaign spread, and all day Thursday the executive committee of the AFofSW met to consider plans for strengthening this new country-wide union, which is an affiliate of the United Textile Workers...
...In Allentown, where Mrs...
...Usually those hurt in "riots" are the strikers...
...In Galveston one union man was killed...
...On the Monday before the settlement was agreed upon, a mass picket line of over two thousand men demonstrated conclusively to the boss the strength of the workers and their determination to maintain the hundred per cent character of their strike...
...Governors have appealed to the labor board, which in turn has pleaded with Ryan, to rush to the coast ''to prevent violence" and help settle the strikes...
...The office of the Student League for Industrial Democracy here, which wired all its sea coast chapters to cooperate to the fullest extent with the strikers, has received the following wire from Kathernic ('line, Pacific student representative of the LID...
...Perkins painted a glowing picture of recovery sharply at variance with much that was testified to by delegates...
...From the first day of the strike, March 27, the workers held their ranks without a single desertion...
...at the University of California: "LID active in longshoremen's strike...
...Many of our people have suffered more since the New Deal than before...
...A l. the same time other workers' organizations joined the striking longshoremen- tin Sailors I'njon, with .-.x to seven thousand men, affecting crews of all coastal and inteicoastal vessels, and the Masters, Mate- and Pilots ' I'nioii, Local tin, involving Gull and Atlantic ports...
...I feel the accomplishments outweigh the defects," Mrs...
...The national body wants the strikers to go back to work immediately, with basic wages to be determined by an arbitration board...
...and Abraham Miller, idol of the New York Joint...
...against company unions...
...Silk Workers Use Payless 'Holiday'jto Build Union vBy Samuel H. Friedman Housed by the callousness of employers in the silk industry who shut down their !)00 mills and shut out their thousands of employes on a joyless unpaid "holiday" in order to mop up the overproduction inherent in the inefficient boss system, silk workers responded magnificently during the past week to the call of the American Federation of Silk Workers to turn the "holiday" into an organization carnival...
...in Frisco three suffered head injuries from patrolmen's clubs...
...Many students among picketers...
...With practically every worker in the yard now signed up in the union, a closed shop is virtually assured...
...Communist attempts to discredit John Green and myself proved completely ineffective...
...The Camden strike was noteworthy not only for its perfect discipline, but also for its Socialist leadership...
...Hut the strikers claim reasonably enough, that the bosses wil get all the trouble they want...
...a broad silk membership meeting Friday and a meeting of jacquard organizers' committee Saturday, in addition to individual shop and committee conferences...
...May your sessions be full of hope and inspiration to organized and unorganized workers in garment and all other fields...
...Mo«t of the strikers in Galveston —out since May 1—have gone back to work at the Inter-Coastal GulfPacific Line and the West Indian docks under an agreement calling for 80 cents an hour, $1.20 for overtime and a 44-hour week...
...The Editor Comments The Editor Cogitates as usual, but does it in silence this week...
...Comrade Frances Hunter served efficiently as secretary...
...The New Leader goes to press too early to recount the whole story, which will have to wait a week...
...All set to move the goods hy scabs, the companies arc meeting with staunch resistance on the part of the stevedores, despite the fact that the lines arc using the police in every way to help smash the strike...
...ACWA Convention Hears of Victories and Violations Illy S|uiiill Stuff Ijirrrspomlrlll) ROCH ESTER.- Wild enthusiasm over the union's achievements in the past two years, coupled with deepening resentment at reports of widespread chiseling, violations and privation, vied with semi-official tales of NRA magic—at least on paper—at the record-breaking biennial convention of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in session here...
...For the scene of action was now a "riot," and so the police blotters will state...
...Also crowded out by lack of space and lateness of arrival arc, among others, a story from Comrade George RBuiekerood of Portland, Ore-, about the longshoremen's strike, and one from Emma Henry, state secretary-treasurer of the Socialist Party in Indiana, about Ihe splendidly fought strike being waged by the workers at the Real Silk Hosiery Mills in Indianapolis...
...a fine set of valuable books was bestowed upon General Secretary-Treasurer Sehlossberg...
...Camden Shipyard Workers Victorious After Blocking Construction for 7 Weeks By Philip H. Van Gelder PHILADELPHIA...
...Comrade If, H. Goldstein, attorney for the union, figured importantly, not only in negotiations but as adviser to the leaders in the conduct of the strike...
...Freight can't he moved in the Liu city hy truck or lighter, union truckmen and lighter captains refusing to handle any of it as long as the strike is on...
...He has lofs to say but hasn't got the room to say if...
...During the week of the holiday, silk workers joined in the parade Saturday with demands for a .'10-hour, 5-day week...
...Continual pressure on the Roosevelt adI ministration by strikers' committees in Washington finally bore fruit in a preemptory order from the Navy Department to Bardo to reopen his yards or suffer the loss of the half-completed cruiser Tuscaloosa...
...This renewal of militant organization work was the answer of the American Federation of Silk Workers to the virtual lockout by the employers, sanctioned by the National Silk Code Authority...
...a mass meeting, a hat band executive board meeting and an organizers' meeting Tuesday...
...Meanwhile word has come from Washington that the National Labor Board, after a hearing at which the union officials were absent, has ordered the strikers to return to work and submit their wage demands to arbitration...
...Seven weeks of struggle, featured by the complete and continuous tie-up of the yards of the New York Shipbuilding Co., won for the union formal recognition, reclassification of wages with increases of 10 to 20 per cent (average, ll.ii'i), all men to be taken back immediately, preference for union members in future rehiring, and arbitration on other disputed points...
...Norman Thomas and Leo Krzycki, chairman of the National Executive Committee of the party spoke to mass meetings during the course of the strike, as did numerous other comrades from Philadelphia and Camden...
...25 minimum a week...
...During the course of the strike, President Bardo of the company was steadily forced up in his offers to i\r',, 10'., l.'f'i, and finally M.O'r wage increases...
...But the official records won't show how a riot in which twenty workers were injured was incited by police brutality and disregard of the fundamental rights of workers...
...Most important of all, the Industrial Union of Marine and Snipbuilding Workers, with locals already established in Camden, Chester, Wilmington, and Lath, Maine, and with a widely publicized strike victory to its credit, is in a strategic position to go out and organize the rest of the shipbuilding industry on the Atlantic seaboard...
...A five-year old child crumpled, hurt by a bomb, but that didn't daunt the brave officers...
...The ruling charge's that the strike was called in violation of an arbitration pact and that the workers failed to agree to the suggestions of the regional labor board...
...Neither did the appearance of Reverend Herman Hahn, popular preacher and radio speaker on economic topics and Socialist leader who stepped forward right in the path of the police attack, and remonstrated with the officers for their tyranny and ruthless tactics toward the workers...
...Hut there must Ik1 space enough to picture the enthusiasm of "New York Day" at the convention, with bands and parades and hooplah and ballyhooing for New York and for Hollander, Catalanotti and Weinstein, the metropolis' candidates for the general executive board...
...Pinchol and Comrade Emil Rieve, hosiery workers' mitionaLpicsiilent, spoke...
...Although they failed to win then oliginal demands for a 2.V.i increase and a closed shop contract, the .strikers realize the mportance of the gains they have made by their seven weeks' fisiht...
...a jacquard and novelty membership meeting, a national jacquard conference, and ah open meeting of the broad silk executive board in which all workers were invited to participate and offer criticisms and suggestions on Wednesday...
...The New Leader and the entire Socialist movement stand ready as in the past to fight with you for clean, militant, classconscious unionism, alive to both industrial and political needs of working class...
...And side by side with this pride, and implicit, in the resolutions presented, was evident the consciousness of power and the mandate issued to all officials, from top to bottom, to go on to new fields, to win new victories for the clothing workers, and then for other workers...
Vol. 17 • May 1934 • No. 62
