The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 8, 1930, Page 5

DasLY WORKER, NEW YOKK, S. AUTOMOBILE WORKERS TELL OF HUGE UNEMPLOYMENT; LAY-OFFS BRIDGE CABLE STRINGERS STRIKE; KORD LAYS OFF RIGGS AND FISHER BODY, FORD PLANTS THROWING WORKERS ON STREETS IN EXTENSIVE LAY-OFFS nemployed, Demonstrate on Feb .26, Writes Jobless Worker to “Daily” ‘ : (By a Worker Correspondent) CLEVELAND—The other day at the Briggs Auto Body plant here e of the truckers was havling gas tanks over to the welders, when ‘ee of them fell off. These tanks are very dangerous when they fall d sometimes they explode. The bosses are too cheap to hire some | re workers to help around with these gas tanks. Ford assembly plant the ’ At the |bosses told the workers that they |were going to hire some men. In RADIO FORCES; SPEED UP MEN ning System, Long. Hours There ' ‘By a Worker Correspondent) HICAGO.—The Majestic Radio poration in Chicago employed at time over 15,000 workers in ir plants operating three shifts. until about October, the work- there thought that they were lly in on a very good thing, be- se they drew higher wages than) ar workers were getting. Almost ry morning at the employment dow there would be a line rang- from 500 to 2,000 workers. ‘arly in Nevember the plant was | & down almost completely, the | RAIL GO. SLAVES kers returned towards the end) December and January, they | Must Stand Together Against Bosses nd that things were changed. (By a Worker Correspondent) y fovnd that, for instance, in| cable knotting department they The railroads are also big labor exploiters in the coal industry to stand all day with their ds raised knotting eight sets of which they monopolize. Under the | U. S. Govt. ruling, common ca~ciers, a little while over three thousand workers came there to get “hired.” The bosses then picked four of the youngest and strongest men and told the rest to go home, but the workers did not do so as they ex- pected to get a job. The rotten bosses then called up police head- quarters, and had the riot squad break up the unemployed. One worker told me that he worked six- teen hours straight through and was only paid for six, off a lot of the workers they called back a month ago. The Hupmobile plant is almost at a standstill be- cause they have no orders to make automobiles. There is only one way out for the workers and that is to organize into strong industrial unions under the leadership o2 the Auto Workers’ Union. Also for the unemployed to organize under the Trade Union Unity League. And demonstrate Feb. 26. es instead of four sets, and re before if they worked hard, would make out ten or eleven "s a day, they were now per-! d to work only a half day and i2 about $1.25 or $1.50 for the e amount of work they used to refore. ts 4 e \ive., the ra‘lroads, are not allowed he workers in all the depart- i ; A t vhich y ts found ABA hey Wess spaddied ‘0 transport products in which they have un interest but the railroad Hee Homa cnthletaty ese, |osses, et over this by incorporat- ted, Tie slaw ead eure’ ie ing their coal companies under a dif- |ferent name e.g. the Lackaw a ment, when the men returned, | . prop ton ol * found that the rates had been | from 15¢ to 5¢ a thousand on the! under the name of Glen Alden Coal Co., the Erie R.R. under the name mati ,|of the Pittston Co. (newly o:gan- arn some semblance of a sige | arts the coal Taine ‘BE Rens ta " = . wt Set ont, ‘ Mee cae rate to 8c a thou | sylvania, West Virginia, and Ken- 1 other departments from three Wena is lea eh bite Van five additional operations have |~vcrngens and by Loree menger- o made Biel eanis Fate Cond minded head of the Delaware & re is Ab HORE LOCASS ARS wees. | Hudson and one of Hoover's close reedattaetiited fy lene. the co-operators (business council, pro- v Y : posed mergers, ete.) The trust 3 bosses claim they a hen also the penalty system. y cannot con@inue ; plant is located on the out- | ts of tke city, work begins at 7| 1. and ends at 5:30. In order to e on time many of the workers > to leave their homes as early 5:30 in the morning. Buyt the see to it that they come in time, for if they don’t this is t happens. If you come two utes late any morning during week, even Monday morning and working agreements after the 1925-26 strike. They warn that after August, 1930, they will lower the wage rate per ton, raise the limit of produc- tion per day, use laborw-saving ma- chinery on big veins and cut theit forces of men. Of course the rail- formed their agreements anyway bui they | The Fisher Body plant is laying | operating at a profit under the wage | /Went Out With Truck! road bosses have never lived vp tO | toy Thompson. a | | Altho unorganized, cable stringers on the Bridge between Manhattan and Foi a wage cut, writes a worker corre: dangers undergone by these workers, perched high above river and speeded up. new Hudson River rt Lee, New Jersey, struck againsi spondent. Photo at left illustrates Auto workers are being laid of unemployed. Speeded to the limit Ford slave. Photo at right, Ford in a mould on a conveyor, | wb 5 i ff by tens of thousands, and Ford has been among the auto bosses who have swelled the ranks of the and then laid off, is the lot of the worker at the belt, pouring metal CABLE STRINGERS ON HUDSON RIVER BRIDGE STRIKE They Have No Union, But Need One Bad iBy a Worker Correspondent) FORT LEE, N. J.—They didn’t | have no union, it is true, but the | cable stringers who struck last week jon the Ford Lee Bridge wouldn’t |} stand for no wage cut in their over- leaders | |time all the same. Half of the 300 stringers walked off the job when the John A. Roeb- ling Co., cable contractors on the Fort Lee Bridge being built over the Hudson from Manhattan to Jer- |sey cut the overtime. These men are so militant that the company got cops to guard the bridge on the New Jersey side. | The men put up some fights in this | strike, too. | The cable stringers are not in any union, because no attempt was ever made to organize them. The | A. F. of L. never gave a hang about | them. { | That shows that the men on the bridge jobs would fight like hell if they only had a fighting bunch be- hind them. The Trade Union Unity League which I heard so much about ought to come over to talk to these men. —CABLE STRINGER. PIER 26 DOCK HANGS MILITANT Strikers (By a Worker Correspondent) I work at Pier 6 North River on} the Old Dominion Line as a loader} We handle all goods and merchandise ou the dock, after | mean that they intend to exploit the workers even more terribly then at} present. | Besides all this the conditions of | railway employees will be worsened | as soon as Atterbury, Loree, the Van | Sweringens and their henchmer 2an. agree on their schemes and openly | trastify to lay off hundreds of thou- | sands of workers and more ‘hor-| cughly exploit the remaining vork-| crs under the system of trust “effi- ciency” The railroad workers and coal miners have no alternative brt to it 30 per cent is cut from the s the worker is entitled to for rest of the week, A worker re- ing 30¢ a hundred, for exemple,) ie comes two minutes late re-| ed only 25¢ a hundred for as iy hundreds as he makes for the of the week. [t certainly pays boss to have the plant situated out of town. he Majestic workers must organ- urder the trede Union Unity ~ue, They must start shop iittees. —RADIO WORKER. Write About Your Conditions The Daily Worker. Become a ker Correspondent. work and living. : ~R. R. WORKER. /age Cuts ‘or Montesano, Wash. umber Workers; Fight Looms By a Worker Correspondent) MONTESANO, Wash.—A short le ago the Schafer Bros. mills in itesano cut the wages of thei: loyees. The cut in the shingle was frcm 3 to 8¢ per thousand ‘ zegxers and 6 to &c per thou- for packers. Unskilled labor cut from 5e to 1.00 per day. ' «amps have gone on a 10 hour s with 8 hours pay. This is , worse than an ordinary wage as it inereases unemployment results in am even quicker king down ef the workers who already overworked. here are three mills in Monte- ers Unicn and the International ‘Shingle-\Weavers’ Union are cn the job and have some of the workers organized. The N. L. W. U. and the rank and file of the I. S. U. will work well together as there is no ani- mosity hetween them. it is to be hoped that the two will finally be- come one Union in the lumber in- dustry, thus strengthening the or- ganized power of the workers. Some of the workers in the shingle mill are still out as the wages are too small for these work- ers to live on, the rest while work- ing realize that they cannot exit on crganize into the Trade Union Unity | League for fight against the inc-éas- | ing worsening cf their conditions of | » in which cuts went into effect. mill owners did not cut all the s at the same time nor to the e extent. This was a tactic on part of the bosses to keep the kers from striking. So far no struggle has developed. altho workers in the shingle mill ch is partly organized walked The National Lumber Work. the wages they receive and are| hkely to revolt at any time. There is much discontent among these workers and conditions as they are cennot long be tolerated. A strug- gle is coming and the working class must he prepared to come tu the aid of these workers. the longshoremen unload it off the boats During the recent truckmen’s strike we also struck and went in| # bedy to the Drivers and Team-} sters Union local £07 A\F.L. The offic’ of that union absolutely | refused to organize us, told us to go back to work cr try the long-| shoreman’s union. I may say also| that the longshoremen on this pier | sre also unorganized. We went back | tc work at noon that same day, the | truckmen’s strike being settled in| the morning and found the drivers and helpers loading the trucks} themse!ves, \ It would take me too long to point | out the many grievances we have to put up with. I will just give one, we have to start 5 minutes ahead in the morning, 5 or 7 minutes after the whistle blo at noon, and sometimes 12 or minutes at night without pay. We know the orly! way we can change these deplor- able conditions is to organize into one militant industrial union, not on'y on Pier 26 but along the whoie water front. Ts —H. M. United Mine | Workers Local Defies Lewis, Donates to Defense A check of $500 was received at the International Labor Defense na- tional office in New York, from the Underwood Local No. 975 of the United Mine Workers of America. This local is in Jessup, Pa. “We may send some more money in the future,” J. V. Lepri, treasurer of the local wrote. The miners of the A. F. of L. are thus showing soli- darity with their striking comredes , in Southern Illinois, defying the or-/ ders of the arch-faker, President William Green, who has sent out) special orders against aiding the} workers in coal strikes, as formerly Lj These railway maintenance workers’ slavery is , and wages are low. Betrayed by the notorvious Brotherhood misleader Grable, they were forced to scab in the 1922 lroad strike. Grable brought iheir conditions down to rock-bottom, and the present Maintenance Brotherhood misledders are determined, for the rail bosse maintain that low level. this page. sake to Read the letter of -w maintenance man on He calls on railway workers te jom the TUUL. Cannery Workers in Washington Suffer Lay- Offs Olympia Canning Co., One of Largest, Closes Packing Six Weeks Earlier Bosses Encourage Unemployed to Keep Wait- ing for Non-Existant Jobs (By a Worker Correspondent) OLYMPIA, Wash—The Olympia Canning Company, second largest in the State of Washington, with a capacity of three quarters of a million, | cases of canned fruit a year, closed its annual packing fully six weeks | earlier than last year. | Shipping is almost at a standstill with only a part of the warehouse | , ep ®crews working and those only a part} le? the time | 4 event the workers froni fully of the Phila. Workers Send Clothing to Striking Miners in Ilinois ' the usness arged men k around ser The Philadelphia District of the Wor! International Relief has sent a shipment of 1,000 pounds of! clothing to the striking Illinois min- a je there are 1 tel! the fe at work 1 be easily taken ers. In a letter to reel: Sherer, } fecretary. of the W.ER, in Wost|t ora ng ate £0 Patiently. v Frankfort, Ill, June Croll of the| ti is plainly apparent that th Philadelphia section, writes: iuen willbe tae teenie “Your splendid fighting determination to battle against t combined forces of the parasi trinity of the bosses, the gov depend uy ment and the United Mine Workers | ing with a corresp: of America, is an inspiration to us| ment for the berry rai in our struggles in Philadelpbia.! locality whose only mi Your fight to organize the millions connery. of unorganized workers, black and white, young and old, men and wo-|of the trinity, the United Mine men, into a solid front against our| Workérs of America is our fight) common enemy, the bosses, is also|in Philadelphia against the Amer- our fight ‘in Philadelphia. Your! fight to expose the rottenest part | socialist party.” the seasen | coming canning sappoint- | in this is the —A, Unemployment Hits Deckers Hard Railway Maintenance Men Betrayed by Mis- | BR MAINTENANCE RAIL UNION WiIS- LEADERSFORBOSS Betrayed Men in 1922; Doing It Ever Since (By « Farmer Correspondent.) BUTTE, Mont. (By Mail).—The misleaders of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (railroad maintenance men) use all sorts of lies to persuade the mem- bers of the union to be willing slaves jof the railroad bosses, and thus maintain the fakers in fat-salaried offices: Never have they made a demand that the bosses give the maintenance men living and decent wage: ‘maintenance of way misleaders |make the union a union name, and masquerade as leaders, but they know that they dance at- tendance on the railroad bosses. | Take for instance the strike vote taken in 19 The maintenance of way men clearly were for the strike, but the vote was fixed by the fakers. , and there was no strike. Since then |conditions have gone down steady and wages cut often. Grabel was the chief faker then, He sueceeded in making our condi- {tions worse than ever. He com- pelled the maintenance men to scab on their fellow workers in 1922. The only way way men can swim ashore is through | the Trade Union Unity League, | —Railroad Maintenance Man. SOVIET SEAMAN SENDS GREETING “Go Into Mass Organ-| izations” | (Continued from Page Four) | by every manner of means against | the fatherland of the world working | class the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. ‘The prolet n duty of all w ors of the world is to heak the im-} i hands, which are | stretched to USSR, defend it and by | means of solidarity and moral sup- | port help build the first Socialist} State. } Comrade Scamen and workers of | A.! Go into the mass organ- | ms of the working class as} ommunist Party of U.S. A., I LD,} TUUL—fight capitalism, defend the | fighters of your own class! test -militantly, Fasci, the ei break down the war prepara- lions against USSR! We are convinced it will not be state, ican Federation of Labor and the tong when a Red World October jwere young girls, only a few mid- avises all oyer the world and will make the American Working Class) | the owner and roler of Great Soviet |@@Vve @ speech on the importance of United States of America. { Long live our brother American seamen—seamen of all the world) unite! Tong live the fighters for} the world revolution! We are always with you com- rades! The Revolution lives in the | heart of every owrker the cause of heart of every worker, the cause of every worker. Our cause is getting | stronger and stronger. We wel-! come the world Red October. Long live the world October! *| With Comradely Greetings, | W. BOGARSHES, NICE QUIET LYNCHING. The Winston-Salem, N. ©, Jour- » The | only in| we maintenance of } i WORKER, ~ unorganized. Store wages are pr! - | Being out of work I filled out ap- | Pro. | ment stores, Withrone & Swan, to organizationally | n and the terror of | working | BUT FIVE OUT OF TOTAL OF ONE THOUSAND STORMING GATES OF FORD PLANT IN CHESTER HIRED | Capitalist Press Aids Company in Hoaxing the Unemployed Workers (By «w Worker Correspondent) CHESTER, Pa—Only half the number of workers looking for jobs Monday at the Ford plant showed up on Tuesday. Of the more than 1000 men in line around the plant at Chester, the Ford Company magnani- mously hired five men, proving thereby that there is some consistency, even if only one-half of one per cent, in the highly advertised Hoover “Prosperity.” However, it is un-¢— — ae known how many men were fired. So the special Ford brand of 1930 PR “prosperity” is in reality as non cxistent us all other brands. The gigantic | and free pub- y given to Ford is now openly <posed for what it is: thousands of unemployed, all old men laid off, FORCES AGAINST old: wages. i And the new men will have to take not only the low wage but be compelled to produce 325 ca Agricultural Workers ead of 300 that the fired men pr S so 2 Qty] uced during the firs For Bigger Strike week, 350 the ears the second week, cars d weck, and an increase of ‘ears each week until the new men e making 500 cars a week instead 300 that the laid off men made. 2 newly hired men will be mak- jing for $5 per day 40 per cent addi. tional work. | No wonder Chester witnessed |“viots” (as the capitalists call it). The men who lost their jobs are highly incensed, and they are grow- jing militantly defiant. --FIRED FORD SLAVE. (By a Worker Correspondent) LOS ANGELES, Cal.—The strike rs in “Im- of the agrieulte wo perial Valley which short time ago, was betrayed by the “Mutual Aid Association” a Mevi- can reformist organization. It was starting te fray the nerves .of mem- of the ec of Governor keeping Mooney tock place a bers aneil | Young, who is sti and Bil | The governor’s council met here or. Tuesday Jan. 28 for the purpose of “bringing the government to the people.” BIG FORD BOSS pinci yor at the last municipal elec- { military and veteran’s n and now handling the governor’s % airs, spoke (Fires Kearney Toilerss| at the council table in favor of send- z) ing military forces of the state int Right and Left the valley in order to protect the in- PERE jterests of the horses of the pack- By a Worker Correspondent) 3 RN5Y, N. J—Mr. Hoffman inghouw: ete. The Filipino workers really took |who is now in the Ford Kearney 9 Jeading part in the stri ad a | plant came from Detroit cepted the leadership of the Trade This spread thru the Union e, and will be heard }noon yesterday. In the afternoon) from agein. A bigger and hette {all production was shut down, con- | stopped and the men sent’ ihe spring. lings i plant at Le planned strixe will take place veycr {home. ‘This happened between 1 The military forces of thi land 2 o'clock, are broke, according to the pres Today this Mr Hoffman who! ¢s the posses, and much efforts are once said “Henry Ford owns the now being made to collect Llood- factories and I run them” went into| jroney to finance the ser a rage. He hawled out a laborer two companies for the purp | for using clean rags instead of dirty | shooting down workers who dar-s jones. This is a fine pomt in Fords | to protest against starvation wages ‘economy. All rags are washed and | syd slave conditions. |used over and over again. Ford workers, organize into the Auto Workers’ Union, 93 Merce St.. Newark, N. J. End this slav- ose of —Rk. POOR BARRED FROM POLLS. (By a Worker Correspondent) BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (By Mail). —Because they have not paid their poll taxes, 7,500 workers and farm- in Birmingham and Jefferson unty will be disenfranchised at coming county and state elections. —A FORD KEARNEY Workers! This Is Your Paper. © Write for It. Distribute It | Among Your Fellow Workers! “Rah Rah” Stutf---$1 a Day | for Department Store Girls (By a Worker Correspondent) | piano. Old store force started sing- OAKLAND, Calif—Among badly | ing: exploited workers the department | store comes first. They are entirely ; “We all bid you welcome To our store today, For we know you will Help us on eur Dollar Day, lways with a smile.” Then as this died away we were ordered to sing to the tune of “Cali- fornia Bear,’ that “we will step with pep, sweat and ile to make a rec- ord Dollar Day.” After that we were told to go to a hall across the street, where we received our instructions which lasted until 5 p. m. with the exception of one-hour noon interval: In the morning we reported for work at 8:30, Doors opened at 9 a, m, and the crowds came in. What majority | tution wages. The gre of store workers get $9 to $16 wages weekly. In some stores, they are | entitled to a certain percentage of | sales. plications in many stores. I re- | ceived a call from one of the large | plications in many stores. I received | a call from one of the large depart- | work as an “extra” for their dollar day. On the card it said we must be jthere at § a. m. the dav before for | jinstruction. On getting there Ija scramble and bustle! The crowds, {found a great number, at least 500! especially the women were in for \“extras,” already gathered. All! “bargains.” Some kept pulling the goods, others stepped over each other; some cried “my child is lost,” for “I have dropped my bundle.” ;Then the screams of children. Such a boiling cauldron it seemed. The air was stifling. Not a moment did idle aged faces. Soon the manager came out and work. He told us what to do and what not to do, The most important is: No matter what happens or how |we have to ourselves- you feel—smile. The one that; Noon hour, cafeteria full. We gulp doesn’t smile is no good for this|our coffee and sandwich. which work. He spoke so much on the ques-|costs 25 cents, while standing on tion of smile that one felt like get-|our feet. Then we rush to work ting home ana putting ones lips injagain. The bell rings for crowé: a plaster cast overnight in order to!to get out, but by the time they freeze the smile on the lips. |leave it’s almost 6 p. m. One lanky looking girl, just at; We got to get our clothes. They that moment, veered and fell in a arg all mixed and strewn all about, faint. , Two men carried her out. I bs Niece were not enough hooks to started to wonder if this girl will| hang them on in the first place. be able to smile. | Girls swear and grarmble until they The meeting went on. He told us find their belongings. We ask each that work will not be easy. for we | other if they had time for free cof- jwill have to rush. He pointed out in| fee. None had any time for it. We jnal and Sentinel carries these head jlines in its issue of January 26: figures what each department and | receive our pay—a grand total of Unemployed dock workers on the East River, New York, waiting | for work. A few out of the hundreds here were selected, for a job | ~—LUMBER WORKER. he did in the Gastonia strike. lasting a few hours. Read the letter from a dock worker on this page. 4 | Posse | Manner.” . «»,/each girl was supposed to average $4.75 for two days we spent for ae ae sacar (G sales if we wished to be called | them, acdsiOhase Proceeds ta Ordanly Sees to work. i California minimum wage scale is 3 “Most important is dig, sweat and|$16 for women workers. We all smile.” When you get tired, there knew that this does not figure out will be free coffee in the cafeteria, | anywhere near it. Yet what can we Eat your lunch at our cafeteria. do? This has been a “Dollar Day” Thus he concluded his speech and /for us, too, some one started a jazz tune at the| Write About Your Conditions for The Daily Worker. Become a Worker Correspondent, &, —ANNE ALDEN. ytd sive y