The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1924-11-13
INAUGURATION
CRYING need in
TEXTILE INDUSTRY
Workers Divided While
Bosses Soak Them
Rv ERR sHIELps.

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NEW YORK.-Six rival unions are
dividing the forces of the textile
workers who wish to resist the wage
reductions scheduled to come now
that Coolidge and Dawes are safely
elected. This lack of labor solidarity
is generally regarded as the greatest
asset of the open shop cotton and
wooden manufacturers in New Eng
land and the southern states.
The great majority of the textile
workers are outside any union. The
division of the remainder into com
peting organizations makes common
resistance enormously difficult.
Competing Unions.
If New England is again the scene
of big textile strikes this winter a
situation may develop similar to the
great 1922 strikes when the United
Textile Workers led the fight at Man
chester, N. H., the Blackstone valley
in Rhode Island and some smaller To-
calities; with the Amalgamated Tex
tile Workers prominent in the Paw
tuxet valley Of Rhode Island and the
One Big Union and the United Textile
Workers at Lawrence.
There were divisions of effort with
some mutual determinations among
the striking unions and one of the
largest unions, the American Fedora
ton of Textile Operatives, which con-
trolled at Fall River and New Bedford
stayed on the job with mills working
overtime, tho furnishing some imam
cial assistance to the struck localities.
The Leading Union.
The United Textile Workers is the
leading union in the field in numbers
and in support it can get from the
American Federation of Labor. 1t is
the only union with a membership in
the southern states, tho it's strength is
very limited there.
Second in membership strength is
the American Federation Of Textile
Operatives. This union has few
thousand members in Fall River and
New Bedford. 1t has some strength
in Salem, Mass and An some smaller
towns in Massachusetts and Connecti-
cut. 1t is a very conservative organ
ization but has taken a step towards
unity by forming loose link with
several independent local unions in
New England and Philadelphia and
sits with them in annual conventions.
The Amalgamated Textile Workers
union has an active local in the Paw.
tuxet valley. Rhode Island and a scat
tering of members outside. 1t start
ed out with a bang during the 1919
Lawrence strike. Later it lost its
hold in Lawrence to the One Big I'm.
ion. Should big textile strike come
this winter it expects to take the lead
ership in its Pawtuxet valley field
again.
The One Big Union is not maintain
ing an Office in Lawrence at present
tho some members remain. The In
dustrial Workers of the World, who
led the successful Lawrence strike of
1912 and some dramatic battles in 9TH
er textile towns 10 and IL years ago,
are also lacking in New England or
ganization today, their activity being
limited to occasional meetings. An
other independent industrial union,
the Amalgamated Textile Workers
Council, claims 1900 members in
Rhode Island and Massachusetts and
conducted a small strike in Middle
boro, Mass, this fall.
1t is safe to say that IN no other
industry is unionized labor so divided
as in the field Of cotton and wool.
On the other hand the manufacturers
are consolidating, both north and
south.
Belgian Miners 18th Week of Strike.