The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-02-24
CLEVELAND CAP
MAKERS CARRY
ON union DRIVE
Attempt to Organize
Non-Union Shops

CLEVELAND, Feb. 22.-The unor-
ganized capmakers of Cleveland make
from S13 to SIS a week. They have
a 4S-hour week. the ordinary scale
for overtime and sometimes only half
pay. The shops are badly lighted and
often unsanitary and as in all non
union places, the workers are at the
mercy of the boss.
1t is no easy matter to reach these
workers in order to get them to join
the union. You can't speak to them
in the shop. They are afraid and the
boss is always on the lookout to pre-
vent the union members from reach
ing them. When they leave the shop
they make straight for their homes
and are so suspicious that they won't
give fellow worker the chance to
speak to them, as they already guess
that they are going to be asked to join
the union.
Fears to Join Union.
The first girl we approached was a
Polish girl living in a tumbledown,
out-of-the-way district-the only wage
Garner in a poverty stricken family.
Her first words were: "I'm entire
ly satisfied with my job"
But upon questioning her, we dis
covered the wellnigh destitute condi-
ton of the family and that she actual
ly did not know what a union was
for. We explained to her the advan-
tages of belonging to union.
But" she said, "the boss would
throw me out if he thot / would join
the union" She was afraid to ven
ture any opinion or to make any prom
Use. In her desire to hold the job,
all we could get from her was a hazy
promise that if all the other girls
should walk out, she would not scab
against them.
Will Stick BY His Glass.
The second case was that of a man
who had been working 10 years in the
same factory for $50. He believed
the union was good thing and was
willing to do his share. He had four
children, he said, and had to be care
full. He gave a definite promise that
if we could get the rest of his shop,
or the majority of his shop, he would
stick to his class.
Another case is one which we find
all too often in the America of petty
bourgeois theology. This girl met me
at the door of a pretty little house
which her parents had just built and
were trying to pay off.
"If you're from the union" she
said, 81 don't want to have anything
to do with you. don't want to know
anything about it. There's no use
of talking to me-" Then she tried to
close the door.
Not just word? ?" | said.
Nothing doing" she answered
"Good-by."
AS the temperature was below zero
and she lived in an out-of-the-way sort
of a place, l asked her if l might en-
ter to warm myself for minute. She
consented and l went inside and stood
near the heat register Little by little
edged in my conversation toward
the oO lAlelJ lAloAQC VI a lew lulI-
utes we were talking organization for
all it was worth. But the bourgeois
theology of this young girl was too
strong. All she wanted was her job,
which she had for the present and her
little home, which she also had for the
present.
She said, 'T'm not interfering with
the other girls, and don't want them
to interfere with me-"
Would Not Scab.
She reluctantly said, at parting, that
in case there should be an organiza-
ton in her shop she didn't think she'd
like to hold out against the others
in the event of strike. 1t was like
pulling teeth to get that much from
her.