The Daily Worker Newspaper, February 22, 1930, Page 4

% THROWN ON THE STREET AFTER 65 HOUR WEEK Workers Prepare for March 6 “(By a Worker Correspondent) DETROIT, Mich—Last week 40) péf cent of the men working in the! U.S. Rubber in Detroit were laid/ off. Those that remained are di- vided into two groups. Each group | works one week and is off the next. Which means that we will get one week’s pay in two weeks, and we will work nine hours—five nights & week. Slave 14 Hours a Night. While the company is now laying} off many men, and are making those remaining work less, we have had to work seven days a week for six full months. We used to work from 7 in the morning until 7 at night, five nights a week, and on Saturday and Sunday, we had to put in 14) hours per night. This means that} we had to work 85 hours per week. Now of course, with the cutting sf production, the few men that will | oe left in the plant will be speeded | ap even more while the others that have slaved all night will be thrown | nto the streets. The workers in she factories ate talking about Feb- suary 26, and many of them pledge to support this demonstration by coming and bringing their fellow- workers along. —U.S. RUBBER WORKER. | 1 er oe } WRITE about your conditions | for the. Daily Worker. Become a Worker Correspondent. WHEELING STEEL WAGES CUT HALF 5 Times As Much Work | —Less Men to Dolt | (By a Worker Correspondent) YORKVILLE, Ohio.—In the} Wheeling Steel Co. plant here I} was working as a tinner. In this department the tinners work on al hree-shift basis which is eight hours a shift, each turn. | There are 39 pots where the tin is fed into the pots to get a coat of metal. One man takes care of each pot, and for three shifts there are a total of 11 tinners. And the laborers there are 30 btggy boys for 24 hours, 12 mechan- ias,12 brand men and four sweep- » org. The tinners are paid on a pieze- | work basis, which is 10 cents a box, | 56 sheets in each box. The tinners are paid for the clean plate put out and not the wasters and menders. Each turn a tinner puts out 65 to | 35 ‘Wéxes and if the machine is fast | gq, he “tinner can make $8 to $12 a/ ‘urn, and they work five to six days | a week, | And today under the new pull feeders or automatic feeders, the companys puts in 12 of these ma-! chines. One man takes care of two machines, which is six men for each | turn, and for three turns there are 18 tinners for the 12 machines, for | 24 hours of work, comparing the force of tinners for 89 pots, in three shifts was 117 tinners, also the buggy boys there were 30, the com- pany got an électric shift track that is taken care of by one man for each turn, and the other 27 were laid off, and the same applied to the brand boys and the mechanics. Un- der this new patent the tinner puts out 350 to 400 boxes of tin, where before one man put out 65 to 85 boxes. And now they pay the tinners only $8 a day, where before they were making an average of from $9 to $10 a day for the work ‘hat they put out. This is the speed-up and the rotten conditions existing in the plants of the Wheeling Steel Co., that boost their profits into millions of dollars each year, while the poor workers are starving together with their families. | _And its time that the steel work: | efs are beginning to organize them- selves into a union, such as the T. U. U. L. The mniers of Powhattan and Moundsville are striking under she leadership of the National Mi- ners Union, which is affiliated to the T.U.U.L., they felt the wage cut end speed-up. So you steel workers cf Ohio its about time that you waken and organize yourselves into ® union, — A STEEL WORKER. ONE-MAN CAR. KILLS WORKER. SEATTLE, Wash., Feb. 21.—The cfe-man system of street car oper- etion here claimed a victim when Vieenzo Bianci, track worker, was <oruck by a trolley car in charge of * combination operator-conductor. “he operator testified before -the oroner that he was making change 1s the car rounded a curve and did ot see the lights of the workers on he track. A second worker is in the hospital, | TAK to your fellow worker in * «your shop about the Daily Worker. Sell him a copy every day for a week, Then ask him to @ regular subscriber. ' Lay-offs and fierce speed-up, slave wages, and long hours— these are described by worker correspondents from rubber and air- plane factories. Photo at left, workers in the Pratt-Whitney airplane Co. Loya . Goes With Slavery (By a Worker PHILADELPHIA.—lIn a little booklet entitled “Rules for Employes,” the Keystone Aircraft Corporation of Bristol, Pa. shows the workers all the bosses to be workers. “Any man who has a job has a page. Yes, a ance to be a slave to the Keystone lty Bunk C respondent) chance,” boldly printed on the front ireraft bosses. UNEMPLOYED IN GASTONIA WILL NEVER BE SCABS Bosses Brag, But the Joke’s on Them (By a Worker Correspondent) GASTONIA, N. C—Just a few lines from the Gastonia area. There are about 40 mills in a small area about Gastonia, and many more than this in the small area of Gaston | county. So by this you may. know that we have a great number cf tex- tile vorkers here that should be organized. | | The milfs are renning the worst | they ever ran. The posses don’t | know that by..doing this they are | helping us to organize. Unemployment is great around | here. The bosses brag as to how they will use the workers that are unemployed now to break a strike if one should occur. Isn't that a joke on them, though. They don’t Seem to realize that we are organ- | izing the unemployed as well as the | employed. The mills are most of | all on short time. Some are run- ning two days in daylight and none | at night. Some are running four days in daylight and none at night. me are running three days and nights, and some are completely | shut down. I see quite a few work- | ers, and,it is a sight to hear them | tell of the wages they are making. | ‘Women have told me they were mak- ing $8 for 55 hours. Now they only get 33 hours. are making now. I was a slave for | the mill bosses up until nine months | ago. I shook hands with the N. T. W. U. The boss found out I joined so he fired me, and since then I have been working for the N. T. W. U. —GASTONIA W .RKER. | at 12:25 p. m. Be ready to punch Lie Awake Nights—Swell Chance. | nights, stay awake in the daytime,” | further down on the same page in equally large letters. Well, the workers at the Keystone | | work so hard during the daytime | they couldn’t lie awake at nights because of sheer exhaustion. | Then on the other pages are rules | with the warning that ignorance of | a rule is not accepted as an excuse. | Also warnings about loyalty, will- ingness, cooperation, character, ex- perience and skill being necessities for advancement. “What advancement?” ask the workers, who know that before they are hired they are required to sign | away all rights to any ideas or ; patents for aircraft for the sum of | } $25.00. | The workers thinking of new} ideas get $25, the bosses, millions| of dollars in more profits. How to Punch a Time Clock. The working day is nine and a run on your way to the time clock,” | keep in your proper line,” and, “do not crowd or shove; when punching | the time clock remember it is a| delicate piece of mechanism and)| must be treated as such; don’t press the lever down too hard.” Then warning about tardiness. “Promptness in reporting for work | is expected at all times; to assist | you we have a warning signal sounded at 7:10 a. m. and another | these signals so that when the sec- way to your department.” let. “Pull has taken many a man half way, gets but the only power that | him to the top is push.” Push to organize for tyranny of the bosses. OAtLY WURKER, NEW YOR half hours. Much space is devoted | Co, in the booklet to the punching of| what the bosses are doing in this | the time clock. Some gems—“Don’t | shop and how they fool the workers. | The main reason. why they form- ed a factory council was, the wo: ers went on strike some time in| 1929 on account of a 20 percent Wotker” banded /$) wage cut and the tremendous speed- {Ub or | | stretchout system, after the strike | |for two weeks the A. F. of L, stuck} their darn nose and turned every-; }thing upsid down. TU 1930 OF DETROIT U.S. RUBBER PLAN RDAY, FEBRUARY 22 T In Rubber, Plane, Packing Plants--The Same Speed-Up plant, where the same rationalization exists as in the Keystone Air- craft, as described by a worker correspondent. in a U. S. Rubber plant. “To get results don’t lie awake | Worker co ers after intense speedup. work the joble "he unemployed rubber worker demonstrators on March 6. Center photo, slavery Thousands of U, S. Rubber workers have Key ston e Aiurcra tt |Jobless Rubber Waosners bh r Heard From ‘s S. Rubber work- . S. Rubber workers at ll be in the front ranks of US. RUBBER CO, SPIES IN COUNGIL Serap Older Workers; Working About Two) PayYouth,Women Less| (By a Worker Correspondent) DETROIT—I am mailing to you| jthe 1929-1930 constitution and by-| _ info |laws of the Factory Council of the| here. Tue mines are wo Detroit plant of the U. S. Rubber |two da I want the workers to know | Li what you may call the} SSIXMILE RUN "MINERS STARVE | | | Days A Week (By a Worker Correspondent) SIX-MILE RUN, Pa.—Just a few ‘lines to inform you of ‘conditions ing about s a week at 85 to $1.01 a ton, expenses are almost as high s rv time. There are no U.M.W.A. here any jmore, but a few N.M.U. and . 1- pathizers. Some Communists and W.ILR. members. I get The Daily me daily-vy a fellow worker. This has been a staunch union district in past years, but has heen on the decline for a few years. Con- ditions here are about as they have | been for about five years. I have not made $9 a week for The company decided to spy on|two years and have not even been | the workers of the U. S. Rubber Co. | | I am not_a member of the Com- | | capitalist papers. The belt system is the damndest | |system. And also they laid off old) Yes, the workers of the Keystone | workers and put women in their| Aircraft Corporation must use push.! places at $18.50 a week, working | 8 shorter |them from 7 to-oh, well, until the of some of Hoover's “prosperity” in Wonder what they | hours, better wages, against the | U. S. Rubber Co. feels like it. I wish the Communist party all} Join the Trade Union Unity Lea-| the success. gue, that is out to organize the|think I will become one of them.| aircraft workers in a fighting in-|I do hope that March 6 will be a| wages would not be cut, is shown | 3.40 and $3.60 a day for eight hours | dustrial union for all aircraft work-| successful day for the unemployed | by the example of the Oakland Mo-| and an hourly rate of 43.5 and 45 ers. Get in touch with it at 1124 | demonstrations. Spring Garden St., Philadelphia. | Just a slave from U. S. Rubber —WORKER. Co. a In the near future I italists lied at the Hoover able to collect all c” that yet. | live on two meals a >> of corn ond whistle blows at 7:15 a. m. and|munist Party but I do hope you| bread and will not be able to get at 12:30 p. m. you will be on the| will print this in your paper. jread the Daily Worker and it is| One truth at the end of the book-|quite a different paper from the that soon if I find no work. There have been many socialists here among the miners. I have Pe | been laid off. At right, packing to Fight Against house workers. The photo illus- | trates their risks (note dangerous choppers). The packing house shop paper reviewed today fights (By a Worker join it. I asked you about how I want to join right away and do my pay and decent houses to live in. I have been working at the Loray: Mills but they are on short time and have cut off most of. the workers, About ali they are letting work are members of that damn ¢ommiitee of one hundred, They are giving them work and housing and sights free, They cut me off without any notice and told me to get the hell out of their house. They have cui off about three or four hundred of us just like that, no notice or anything. I have a wife, 2 children and a mother te take care of and have no job. Don’t see much chance of get- ting one, Most of the mills in this county are on short time and they are cutting the pay of the workers because they know we have to work or starve, I think all the cotton mill bosses must have gotten together and de- cided to run shert time in order to cut pay and get us workers so down and out that we couldn’. strike or mess with unions. I know lots of workers who would go on strike in a minute if we were organized. I hope you all will get busy down here again and make a veal union, | The A. of L. won’t help us. |The N. T. W. U. and the Commun- ist Party are the only ones that will really try to get us workers more pay—LORAY HAND. been voting the socialist ticket for |20 years, but like other workers see jits no use and will vote the Com- munist ticket next tire. Thats what the majority of workers here are saying now. * * * Editor’s Note: Workers must | organize and fight under Com- | munist leadership, besides voting Communist. bi “Wages Won't Be Cu (By a Work DETROIT, Mi Correspondent) —I want to tell this city. Another instance how the big cap- Economic onferences when they said that |tor'Co., at Pontiac, Mich. Previous to last Monday em- ployees in this department received t?”—Ask the workers! | from $5 to $7 a day for eight hours’ | work. On February 3 the firm is- sued orders that wage slashes would have to be made. Those workers {who were getting $5 and $7 would |in the future be paid at the rate of cents, or $17 and $18 for a 40-hour week. Isn’t that a wonderful wage in our ‘prosperous” America. ‘Loray Mill Cutting Off Workers, Fires Them Without Notice for these workers. Correspondent) GASTONIA, N. C.—I wrote you last month telling you how I felt about the strike here last spring and what a damn fool I was not to could join the Communist Party. I part helping us workers to get more BLACK HUNDREDS GANTT STOP NAW. INGASTON CY Nor Can the Lies of Gassy Gazette (By a Worker Correspondent) GASTONIA; N. C.—I notice a paragraph in the Gassie Gazette, where labor had been trying to or- ganize for 30 years ‘and now have even worse conditions than they had 30. years ago. This may be so, but I want to let the prosperous guy (that wrote that paragraph) know that it won’t be that way much longer until he can say, they have what they want now. I want to let all boss-loving scabs know that they had better not listen to too much of this damn foolishness of the capi- talist class or they will be in the mud up to their necks one of these days. And I know that the bosses won’t pull them out. When the bosses get you down they push you still deeper instead of trying to pull you up. Organizational work is going |great here after all the terror the bosses and their black hundreds have spread in and around Gastonia. Who am I? I have been in the | mills of Gaston county for 10 years. |I sure know the dirty sneaking ways {of the petty bosses and higher-ups. | When I was fi I was running |twisters (in the Mountain View Mills) for $12 per week and begging | for a living. Now for Hoover’s prosperity. I |think there is more room for pros- |perity in the United States than ‘there is room for a peanut shell as a bateau in the middle of the Pacific |Ocean, We have everything but prosperity and I think we should |have some of that. Now come on fellow workers and let’s join the N.T.W.U. and get some prosperity here. —MILL WORKER. An Answer to the Lies of the Capitalist Press; Peasants Enthusiastic tor Collective Farms; the Grain Collecting This is the answer of one So- viet peasant to the lies being spread broadcast about “discontent of the peasants” in the U.S.S.R. This peasant is eager to hear from poor farmers and farm workers of the United States, Write to him. ._ * * Dear Comrades: I will tell you about our work at home in the village. Before the revolution our village was oppressed by the landowner yand by the kulaks, The landowner compelled the peasants to build a millstone which cost 50,000 rubles. The peasants by work and impov- erished by excessive taxes still accomplished this task. The priest played the leading role in the vil- lage. He established a church | school, and stuffed, the heads of the children with useless trash, such as religion. The poor peas- ants were all indebted to the ku- laks. But the revolution came and swept away with a proletarian hand the remnants of the past capitalistic system. Now the village is led by the local peasant soviet. We have an isba (hut) used as a reading room, where the peasants can get all kinds of information. Many groups work there, as for example, the group for abolition of illiteracy, the group of atheists, the young Workers’ theatre and many oth- ers, The youth is getting less re- | | ligious and visits the reading room. There we have wall news- Extreme left, the collection of grain in a Siberian village. The . grain is to be turned over for the realization of the 5 year plan of | farm is established. papers, “The New Village” and “The Atheist,” which reflect all our local life. The correspondents of these newspapers are the peas- ants themselves. We have established a co-opera- tive shop which supplies a thou- sand peasants’ families. Not long ago two of the collectives which belong to our country-soviet or- ganized collective farms. In one of the villages they have established a big cattle farm. The peasants enter the colicc- tive farms willingly. In the village, Florowskoe, a combined collective Instead of | the old kulaks’ water mill there is built a new mill and the flat re- fining factory. The peasants of our country- socialist construction. tive farm “Gigant.” Second photo, new grain elevator in collec- Third, a tracter and combine, of the most soviet organized a self-imposition of taxes for 50 per cent in 22 vil- lages. For this money we built a school and the house of medical assistance. In the village there are a Party and a Communist Youth nucleus and several other nuclei of voluun- tary associations as International Relief, Atheists and others. All consist of peasants. Now it is not like it was in former times when the priest | walked along the fields with a censer and a cross. An agricul- | turist shows to the peasants how to raise different kinds of plants. The peasants of the U.S.S.R. will | improve the harvest 35 per cent | in the course of the next few years. mp lern type, on collective farm “Gigant.” Extreme right, Usbek 7 In the villages of our country Soviet committees of peasants’ mutual help associations are or- ganized. After the grain collect- ing the peasants deposit there 15 kilos and in spring those who are in need get according to their necessity. In the villages we have Hed voluntary fire (brigades) com- panies. The peasants work there voluntary and gratis. Now we have a milk workmen's association which buy milk from the peasants and traysport it into the town to supply the workers. We intend to lead a campaign for the closing of the wine shop and the church. So, comrades, I have described to your our life, Please write an | the 5 year plar answer to my letter. I am inter- ested in your life and work. What have you achieved in your struggle against exploita- tion? How is it reflected in The voluntary associations? Does religion play an important part? Please write me about everything. I will be very glad to receive a letter from you. Keep in contact with us! Do not lose courage, comrades, the time of the proletarian revo- lution is near! With proletarian greetings, Peasants’ correspondent, N. G. PUSHCAREV, Village of Florowskoc. peasants bringing grain to Tashkent, to be turned over as a gift to ‘ NT “Daily Worker?” Have you some | WORKERS ARE LAID OFF METAL oe AMBOY LAY OFF BY THOUSANDS |Working But Few Days a Week (By « Worker Correspondent) PERTH AMBOY, N. J.—This city jis a city of workers of many na- | tionalities. There are 12,000 Polish; | 8,000 Ukrainians; 6,000 Hungarians; |4,000 Czechs and about 2,000 Por- tuguese and over 1,000 Spanish. There are also Italians, Mexicans. Severe unemployment reigns in this city at the present time. The conditions of the workers here get worse and worse every day. | A Picture of “Prosperity® Here’s a picture of our “prospe™ ity.” One of the biggest factories, Standard Cable Co., has reduced the number of its workers from 3,000 to 1,500. It is working from three to four days a week, smelting, roof- ing, American Copper Co. producing | different kinds of wire from cops per, which formerly employed 2,500 is employing now not over 1000. On account of the unemployment the foremen drive the workers worse than ever. They hire a worker one day, chase him out in a day or two and get somebody else in his place. Drinks—Graft for Foremen. Exploitation is terrible. In an- other factory in the same line em- ploying 2,600, the foremen shame- jlessly demand that the workers | treat them to drinks. To refuse means discharge. . Now, the brick factories. The plant closed its gates for two weeks we were told. Two weeks have passed but the plant did not re- open. Workers are walking in crowds along the streets and say we are compelled to die from hunger, in this “prosperous” country. © Nothing has been done yet for the organization of the unorganized, yet it is necessary to organize the unemployed and begin in an organ- ized manner the struggle for social insurance for the unemployed. The Communist Party in Perth Amboy should begin its work. | —Perth Amboy Metal Worker. | ee ! UNEMPLOYMENT ‘ IN VA, TIDEWATER Shipyards, Ford, Mills Lay Off Many (By a Worker Correspondent) NORFOLK, Va.—The unemploy- ment situation in the Tidewater Region of Virginia is becoming worse every day. There are at least exist in this state. Some examples. Of about 800 or- ganized longshoremen in Norfolk Jess than half are working but five days a week, and the rest are work- ing from two hours to three days a week. | Several thousands of shipbuilding workers were thrown out of work | from the Norfolk-Portsmouth Navy Yard, the Colonna Shipbuilding, Inc., the Norfolk Shipbuilding and Dry- dock, etc., in the last four months. In fact some of the smaller ship- pbuilding plants are practically at a standstill. Then the Ford plant of Norfolk, which normally employs about 1400 workers has been operating with but a couple of hundred of workers (many working only part time). The woodworking establishments are employing about one-third of their forces. The Parker Knit Hosiery Mills of Portsmouth have shut down com- pletely three months ago, throwing some 250 workers out (mostly girls). The workers of the Tidewater Region, both the unemployed and those working must get together and demonstrate on February 26 against unemployment. We have to form into unemployment councils led by the Trade Union Unity Lea- gue, to get work or wages. : —TIDEWATER WORKER. Refuse to Crawl *© Into Dangerous es ti a : Mississippi Mud (Bu a Worker Correspondent) NEW ORLEANS, La.—When lo- cal laborers were asked by the govs ernment to go into a river-hole, 150 feet deep into the treacherous mud of the Mississippi river, be- cause the sheet piling not being at all properly shored or braced, en- dangered their lives — they were fired. These men, asked to en- danger their very lives, were receiv- tne the meager wage of 40c per hour, and asked for 50c. These men who were fired when they refused to tisk their life for the greed of the capitalist’s govern- ment were addressed by a fellows worker who presented to them the fighting programme of action, and attended the TUUL meeting, many lining up in the revolutionary in- lustrial militant union—the TRADE UNION UNITY LEAGUE! —FELLOW WORKER. | 80,000 looking for jobs that don’t ,