The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-11-07
ELECTION over!
WORKERS FACE
Big WAGE CUT
Textile TOiIers to Urge
A. F. of L. Action
Ry ART SHEDS

6y mn OlVtU IG0
Federated Fress star corrsspondent.l
NEW YORK CITY, Nov. O.
Aid to the United Textile Work.
ers in the wage cut crisis strik-
ing New England with the pass
ing of the election is one of the
most serious issues facing the
Fl Paso convention of the
American Federation of Labor.
The union will put its case be-
fore the general body of labor
and call for united backing in
what may prove to be a life and
death fight for organization in
this huge industry.
viii Lower Wage Standard.
Cotton and wooden manufacturers
have let it be known that the wage
standard would be lowered after cleo,
tion. The United Textile Workers
Union has announced that it will take,
up the challenge. 1t must have
abundance Of outside aid
The manufacturers are better or
ganized than they were in the 1922
struggle three big mergers have
been accomplished in the New Eng
land cotton industry alone And more
southern mills are owned by northern
capital than before, so the New Eng.
land boss is frequently able to shut
down his northern mills and fill or.
ders from the south until the north
ern workers will listen to wage cut
arguments.
Need Outside Aid.
In the great 1922 strike consider
BILE outside aid was furnished and the
United Textile Workers held the fort
for nine months in Manchester, New
Hampshire, and the Blackstone Val
ley in Rhode Island. In these same
fields the bosses have flung down
their challenge again. A company
union at Manchester has voted for
ten per cent wage cut for the $4,000
workers there. The local textile coun-
ell of the A. F. of L. is opposing the
cut but it must have money and or
ganizers from the outside to prepare
for the fight. A ten per cent cut has
already gone into effect in the Black.
stone Valley mills of the S89, 100000
Manyille-Jenckesf cotton corporation.
The United Textile Workers is con-
Quoting an organization campaign and
has issued word that the wages must
be restored, but here again the need
is outside assistance.
The difficulties facing any textile
union can be guessed when it is I'M
derstood that the workers are on less
than half time employment and that
the average wage, even at full time
is not more than $40 a week Presi-
dent Thomas F. Mcmahon, of the
United Textile Workers, put the aver
age as low as $18 in talking to the
Federated Press. Pauper wages in
good" times, Transformation in Pc
RODS Of Industrial depression, is the
rule in the textile industry. It's
workers are about as badly off as
those in the bituminous coal fields.
Plan Organization Drive.
A national organization drive, sus-
tanned turnout the winter, is the hope
OF the textile union. The drive must
be national, because the southern
workers, getting an average of eight
to ten cents an hour less than their
northern workers are being used by
the employers to defeat the others.
Latest reports from the Carolinas,
Georgia, Alabama and other southern
states show many mills working full
time. That is the case in few north.
ern mills. The United Textile Work.
ers' Union has scattering locals in
the South, but is not yet in the posi-
ton to lead big struggle there. Yet
organization of the South is i'm
perative for the preservation of the
union in the North.
Since the United Textile Workers
Union is the only textile labor move
ment affiliated with the American
liberation of Labor 1t is the only ono
which will get A. +. Of L. backing.
There are several other unions func-
tioning in the industry, two of which
were strong enough to be considerable
factors in the 1922 strike. This mul.
tiplicity of unions complexities the
situation.