The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1925-10-24
BANK Clerks
union EXPELS
JOSEPH SHAF|R
Members in Fear of
Losing Jobs


At a meeting at which less than
half of the membership of the Bank
Clerks Union was present, Joseph
shafir, president Of the Bank Clerks
Union and 4 clerk at the Amalgamat-
ed Trust and Savings Bank, was ex-
PEELED from the union thru the activi-
ties Of the renegade Communist,
Duane Swift, now publicity director
and business eetter Of the AmaIga-
mated Trust and Savings Bank and
Nat Tulshin.
Held in AmaIgamated Bank.
This meeting which was called to
expel Shafr for introducing a reso-
luton for the recognition Of Siviet
Russia, world trade unity and against
class collaboration at the American
Federation of Labor convention at At
lantic City was held in the Amalga.
mated Trust and Savings Bank, in
stead of the Federation Building
Where the meetings are regularly
held, at 8 o'clock making it impossible
for any of those who work in other
institutions to attend. Members of
the union that had never attended a
meeting since they joined the union
were on hand instructed to cast their
vote against Shafr.
Many of the workers in the Anal
gamated Bank who were with Shafir
did not attend the meeting as rumors
few thick and fast that anyone vot-
ing with Shafr would find themselves
out of Job.
The chief signers of the complaint
against Shaflr were Duane Swift, Nat
Tulshin and jacobson. Two others
had signed the complaint one of them
being the telephone operator who
upon being questioned why she signed
the complaint answered: well, they
gave it to me, told me to sign it and
| did"
Didn't Know What He Signed.
The other signer did not know why
Shafir was to be thrown out of the
union and on the floor asked the
chairman of the meeting, Duane
Swift, what the resolutions were
about
The chairman of the meeting rar
things to suit himself. When ques
tion of violation of the American
Federation of Labor constitution
came up. an item that appeared in
one of the local yellow sheets was
read as conclusive evidence that
Shafir had violated the constitution
of the Bank Clerks Union and the
American Federation of Labor.
The charges calling for the expuls-
ion of Shafr were not given Shafir
before the meeting. at the meeting
nor after the meeting. When the
charges were read, the reader omit
ted the names of the compliments
and upon Shafir's insistence the
names were read very reluctantly.
Clerks Terrorized.
Duane Swift, who very willingly
gave an interview to so-called lib
eral working as a reporter for The
Daily News, refused to say a word to
the representative of The DAILY
WORKER. In attempting to inter
view the clerks in the bank, the
sterotyped answer was; See Duane
Swift or Nat Tulshin and they'll tell
you about it," When asked whether
they had any opinions of their own
or must have all their thinking done
for them by bank officials they would
glance hastily to the other side Of the
room where the heads of the different
departments sat and would then adj
nit that it it we're not for Shafir they
would still be working 60 hours per
week instead of The 80 hours they are
working now and getting over
time pay for extra work. Most of
them thot the punishment too severe,
but when asked why they did not vote
against the expulsion would shrug
their shoulders as much as to say
We've got to live, so what could we
do?"