The Daily Worker Newspaper, September 12, 1925, Page 13

_ able silk that was used Industrial Development of Soviet Russia By MORRIS BACKALL, (Countinued from last Saturday) How Labor Conditions Are Settled. Comrade Deich told me this story which throws light on the settlement of labor conditions in Soviet Russia factories. “In 1924 the Komvolni trust made 7,000,000 rubles profit The workers knew about it so they came to the chairman of the trust and com- plained why are they not compensated for, one girl worker said: “Hére, see the pile of work we did and and what are we getting for it,” so I took out a pencil and said, “All right, let’s figure for a minute that Iwill satisfy your demand and raise you all a ruble a day and build new houses. for you and improve your entire conditions, so what will be the result? making 7,000,000 rubles’ profit a year, we will lose and we will have to close the, factories, or make material higher so the peasants will have to pay more for their clothing, but this way we will buy for the 7,000,000 rubles new machinery and be in a position to manufacture cloth still cheaper and make life of Soviet Russia more com- fortable and thru that improve our own life and our own conditions.” “You know,” I said to them, “thai I am working as hard as you and ! have no personal interest in the prof- its, but I am a good Communist, am a devoted worker for the Sovie’ government, I have to my heart the interests of the entire country, to me Soviet Russia, the entire population of the country, comes first.” They were quiet, Deich told me, and “You know,” he said to me, “they went away satisfied. They held a meeting of their wage union and a day later they came to my office with a red necktie and told me that they had decided to make me an honorary member of their weaver’s union and when they put the necktie on my neck, I felt as if we would gaim the entire world for the cause of Communism, because. this act proved to me that the workers of Russia are able to buila a new world in spirit and in real ac- complishment,” and then he added, “This yéar we build new homes for the workers, we are trying to improve the conditions in the factories and we are raising the efficiency of the in- dustry at the cost of the machine of the method of production, not as much on the energy and life of the worker. We do not want Robots of our people, we want to create an In- dustrial life in which the worker should contre] its own destiny.” The Clothing Industry. HE most interesting industrial de- velopment took place in the cloth- ing industry. The industry represents all phases of clothing as, for instance, men’s and ladies’ garments, waists and shirts, hats and caps of both men and women and children. The Moskshevi Moscow Clothing Organization has 12 factories with 9,000 workers, with 15 making clothes, the syndicate should take over the distribution or the sell- ing of the clothes and it was so until 1925. The syndicate had 85 divisions all over Soviet Russia. The expenses of the syndicate were covered by the trusts and were taxed by the produc- on, The syndicate as well as the trust developed to a very great extent. The production of the clothing indus- try can well be illustrated in the fol- lowing manner: In 1922 a suit of clothes was made in 27 hours; in 1925, a suit of clothes was made in 12 hours and is still developing in this direction thru the establishment of di- vision of labor, but in its process to cut expenses, the trusts decided to give up the syndicate whcih cost them 20 per cent and make the product of the industry cheaper and better. Instead of| Since January ist, 1925, clothing went down 20 per cent; as a matter of truth, clothing today is nearly one- fourth what it was in 1922. A suit of clothes that cost in 1922, 100 rubles in Soviet Russia can be bought today for 25 rubles. The trusts themselves have stores which are selling their the commitee gets the entire material together, it places an order in the clothing trust for so much clothing for this year. Then issues an order to every worker that entitles him for so much. clothing that he can obtain in a store of the trust and pays it up weekly out of his wages. The clothing industry which extends credit to the workers of the entire country is therefore also in need of credit from the textile industry and is unable now to make the natural progress until the textile industry will fully develop: The Position of the Workers in Fac- tories and Shops in Soviet Russia. HEN we witness the power that the workers of Soviet Russia have in their shops and factories, we can understand what lies in the future for them, when the industrial life of Rus- sia will enable them to enjoy the fruits of their accomplishment, because now they are at the stage of building up, of sacrificing and of course, of a great deal of suffering. We cannot meas- ure the conditions of the workers of Soviet Russia with the same yard [oe | ee HEAD? | dat 4 ex WwW nN & @ clothing direct from the factory to the buyer. But the clothing industry of Soviet divisions in the different statés of| Russia is handicapped because it can- Soviet Russia. Every division has from..10 to 12 stores, They are doing 24,000,000 rubles business a ‘year. This trust started with the nattonal- ization of all the old.factories in 1921. As a matter of fact,.it is hard to de- termine what constituted these old not secure enuf material for its fac- tories. The textile industry is sup- posed to give the clothing industry material on credit, but the textile in- dustry finds it more convenient to sell its material retail for cash rather than to extend credit to the clothing indus- try. The remedy lies in the very de- velopment of the textile industry itself. When the textile industry will develop to such an extent that it will HEY! = BETTER CUT’EM OFF HEAD MAYBE GET’EM RID OF EXLA~ TELLITOLIALITY. stick of workers in a capitalist state. The industry of Soviet Russia and its commerce and policies are regu- lated by the Norokonvnutorg, peoples commissary of inner commerce whose function is to control the different in- dustries that its commercial apparatus should not spend more than necessary and that its production should not cost too much to the peasant and worker, but this does not mean that the Norokonynutorg can regulate prices on the costs of the workers’ wages. The workers in the factories are organized on the following basis: Every worker and clerk in the office, ag well as the difectors of the factory are belonging to one union. The factory itself is organized first in a Zafkom (factory committee). The Zafkom is elected by the workers in the form of a shop committee; second, in a R. K. K. (price and conflict com- mission); third, a committee of pro- culture); fifth, production committee. These ‘are all shop commissions, the Zafkom ig the same as a shop com- mittee. In the well organized shops of America, we have such committees. chairman and a secre- are paid officers, They col- the grievances of the workers try te settle it with the chair- man of the admnistration in as peace- ful a manner as possible, but if they cannot settle it peacefully, then they present the grievances to the commit- tee R. K. K, This committee consists of representatives of both of the Zaf- kom and the administration. Their grievances that could not be settled by the officers of the Zafkom are dis- cussed and settled, but if one side could not agree in this commission and it happens that the worker is fired from the job, he gets the right to ap- peal against the decision of the R, K. K., and if he wins, he gets paid for all the time that he was out of a job. If the administration appeals the worker gets paid for the time his ap- peal went on if the administration wins, The Zafkom is constituted of chair- men of all the factory committees, the committee of protection of work * : is constituted of workers of the fac- tory which has to watch over the sani- tary conditions of the factory and on the health conditions of the workers. In Soviet Russia, it means the fol- lowing: When a worker gets sick he goes to the committee of protection of work which sends him to the insur- ance fund which has a commission of physicians which are to be found in every factory of Soviet Russia, be- cause every factory of Soviet Russia has its health commission and if the ‘¥ worker is found really sick, the first thing they do is he stops from work * ; and gets full wages but if his health condition is such that he cannot live in the city, they send him to a sana- terium as long as the doctor finds it necessary on the cost of the insurance fund. Every summer every worker that is occupied in a factory in Soviet Rus- sia gets a month’s vacation. Some fac- tories are closed for a whole month in the summer afd the workers are get- ting paid in full. In some factories the workers change their vacation months. ° The first principle of the trade unions in Russia and the protection that he gets thru. his various.,com- mittees in the factory is first, the right to his job, and second work for a whole year and paid so, even when there is a shortage of work thru the fault of different conditions of industry. If the administration of a factory or a whole trust finds out that they haven’t enough work for everybody and they must close some of its de- - partments or the whole factory, they must inform the same in writifig to the trade union of its district, the local union informs of its decision to the state union but both the local and the state union cannot decide the fate of the factory. They can only recommend to the V. S. M. C. H. (higher Soviet of public industries) then this commissariat together with the trade unions agree on a certain decision, then it becomes law. Every worker gets paid for two weeks to seek another job. The administration of the factories is compelled to furnish so much ex- cuses why they want to shut the shop that in 99 cases out of a 100, it is nearly fmpossible to close a factory, but more profitable and convenient to improve it to make it go than to close it entirely. As a matter of fact, those factories that are closed are only closed tem- porarily until the industry réadjusts itself and establishes its methods of work and production, therefore, the unemployment of Russia is mostly a temporary unemployment until Rus- sia will reach a higher development of its prdouctive capacity, 3 Russia is deveIbping its industrial Ifie independent of the assistance of the great capitalistic countries of the world. Russia finds in the whole of Europe and America enemies among capitalists, but it is going on speedi- ly developing its life thru great guffer- ing, but also wonderful heroism of its workers that are building daily a new life for themselves and for the entire country, If you want to see the Com. munist movement grow—get a sub for the DAILY WORKER, ae od a i. Se a ie oan aati aati ead teseaanaye