The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-04-10

the capitalist press rs having tolu the
Waterbury's words are symbolic G
Anything to keep 'em from getting
militant" is the new slogan.
So we should not be surprised that
no effort is made, on the packers
part, to clean up the bootleg joints
and gambling dens which thrive off
the workers in every great packing
center, and in which loaf the stool
pigeons hired to keep watch over the
thoughts of the wage slaves. Is not
the slave safer shooting craps" or
swilling corn" than he would be If
meeting in his union hall to discuss
his conditions of life?
OF course, not all the slaves spcnd
their idle hours in such joints, so
these must be provided with some
equally effective stimulant. Bowling
leagues, moving pictures, club rooms
sermons, baseball, or what have you?
Pensions Too Costly.
The pensioners Of Morris and com.
pany have had the doubtful pleasure
Of losing their rights" as the result
of the recent Armour-Morris merger
If an old employee must be taken care
of, is it not cheaper to let him tend
door at half-psy?
The foremen and superintendents
of the old Morris company were quite
generally taken care of" thru either
their retention in the old plants or
their transfer to Armour plants. No
responsibility was recognized, how
ever, toward the pensioners.
Hold Of Skilled Workers Broken.
Altho skilled butchers are still
sought for to some extent, they no
| longer have the strategic hold on the
meat packing industry which they
once enjoyed.
Division of labor on the Ford sys-
tenn" as applied to the operations in
butchering and preparing meats, has
made it possible for the packer to
get by when necessary, with COM
paratively unskilled labor. This was
proved in the 1921-1922 strike when
green farmer boys were given knives
and placed on both killing and cut
ting floors. Teaching a single, special
lied operation is a different PROPOSE
ton from apprenticeship in the entire
science of butchering and preparing
beef or porker.
So in the strike, the packers push
ed the foremen and straw bosses into
the gangs along with the scabs, NIL
ing up on the less particular opera
tions with unskilled workers whom
they managed to get into the plants.
Skill" is, of course, valuable and
preferable, but the packer proved
that in an emergency he can get
along with very little of such.
The "Ford" System.
Meat butchering operations are
strikingly like those in use in the
Ford plants. The beef carcass, for
example, moves along on rails by mo
tive power from one worker to the
next, each performing his particular
operation. When the beef" leaves
the killing floor it is ready to ship
out as halves and quarters or to be
sent to the cutting floor where the
same specialization is in evidence.
This specialization, with its result
ing cost reduction, has sounded the
death knell of the little independent
packer. The last independent plant
at Omaha, of any size, was but re-
Gently sold over the auction block.
The small plant cannot employ the
specialized methods and machinery
of the big packer; neither can he
utilize the by-products as efficiently.
Consequently, the output of the "in-
dependents is becoming infnitesmal,
except from those which are really
owned or controlled by one or anoth.
er of the big Four"
NoTE:-Subsequent artieles
will deal with the Negro In the
meat packing industry, and other
problems of organization.
Readers of the T. U. {. L. page
who work in packing plants
should write Of conditions and or
ganizatlon possibilities.
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