New-York tribune., 1919-01-15
Dress and Waist
Makers in Combine
TO Resist Workers
tormCorporaiion to Finance
v eaAcr Manufacturers
Through Period of Enac-
liviiy if Strike Is Called

"A plan for making powerful every
l'hN III the cham Of dress and waist
manufacturers, who arc ready to resist
TO tho utmost what they regard as the
unfair demands OF their employees
through their own branch of the Inter
national Ladies' Garment Workers
Union, has been worked out. On the
eve Of threatened strike affecting
more than $4,000 workers the D. and W.
Merchandise Sales Corporation, with a
nominal capitalization Of $100, 600, has
been launched an order to extend
financial aid to the weakest producers
IN the industry who might otherwise
md 1T impossible to face suspension
OF activity such as might socn come in
the industry"
Bruno l.. Stern, Of tho Aero Waist
Company, tho president of the new cor
poratlon. told The Tribune yesterday
'hat the entire resources of the dress
ana waist manufacturers of the city
stood behind the new mutual benefit
corporation. "jn case it becomes neces-
Sary, as seems certain,' he said. "to
test the strength of the contcndine par-
'ies IN this labor dispute, the new cor
poratlon will give financial assistance
TO manufacturers who, because of a
neaVy accumulation of merchandise or
1of other reasons. are unable to hold
out. Inc money will be extended in the
torn of loans, and millions of dollars
Will be Forthcoming if necessary"
The new corporation is said to be
representative of the entire producing
side of the industry, which is more
loosely associated in the Dress and
aist Manufacturers Association Max
j. Shapiro is treasurer of the new or
gganlzatlon, and besides himself and Mr.
Stern the directors include Harry B.
Rosen, of Rosen Brothers; Samuel
Bernstein, of the B. N. C. Waist Com
pany, and Morris Weiss. of Gross g.
Weiss, president Of the Manufacturers
Association.
Besides placing the financial re-
sources OF all the manufacturers at
Ihe I disposal of each producing unit,
Mr.. Stern has declared that the new
/ "ou!u PioDdDly eventually
De used as selling agency. The full
technique of this aspect of the cor
he said. '''f' '0N'
The first move in the threatened
strike of the $4,000 workers in the
needle trades of New York was made
by mcmber of the Manufacturers
Assoclation yesterday
The firm Of Son & Ash, 105 Madison
Avenue, locked out $50 girls employed
there because, it was asserted, they
were going to take part in the threat
ened walkout next week. Alfred G.
Son, a member of the firm, is vice.
president of the Waist and Dress
Manufacturers' Association.
The union, it was announced by Ben
Jamln Schlessinger, its president, has
completed all preparations for the
strike, butt has informed the manu-
facturers that the union always will
be ready to make prompt settlement.
Units of the workers will vote on the
question OF strike on Thursday and
+ frlday, and mass meeting of the en-
tire organized group will be held Sat
urday night. The manufacturers viii
meet at the Oak Room at the Hotel
tonight to discuss the stu
ation
The protocol which kept the industry
in peace for six years expired on De-
cember 81 last inasmuch as the en-
rloyers declined to accept the new de-
mands of the workers, who asked for
forty-four-hour week, IS per cent
wage increase and permission to have
union representatives visit individual
shops once q month In opposing these
demands as ruinous 10 the industry.
the employers point out that Samue!
Gompers, president Of the American
Federation of Labor, recently called the
organization to which their workers
belong an instrument of the Bolshevik
element in American labor