The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-12-09
CHICAGO CLOAK
MAKERS WIN IN I
new AGREEMENT
Wage Increase and 40
Hour Week Granted
CONTINUED from page y

! A0SieiHhNd IOlb Ra6S -
the working force twice a year and
a free hand in putting on additional
apprentices.
None Of these things will be found
in the new agreement. The unem
ployment fund stays, the 4O-hour week
was recognized, the right OF the
bosses to reorganize their working
forces was refused. the union will con.
troll apprentices, and substantial wage
increases for all classes of workmen
are won. For the ensuing eighteen
months, the union men agreed to q
42-hour week. After that the agree.
ment calls for a 40-hour week.
The wage increases won affect all
branches of the trade and run from
$500 to $500 per week. Pressers, op
orators and cutters were raised $3.50
per week, button sewers and tailors,
$500 and finishers $500.
Ratification Meeting.
Harry Ellisberg, Of. the Chicago
( Cloak and Suit Makers Association,
led the twelve members present for
the employers and J. Levine, manager
of the Chicago joint board of the l.
L. g. w. headed a similar number of
delegates from the joint board and
| the various affiliated locals.
A mass meeting of the members OF
the union will be called by the joint
board this week or early next to rat
lily the agreement. There is no ques.
ton but that it constitutes q clear
victory for the union.
Members of the joint board at
tributed much OF their success to the
hard-fought FIVE months strike of the
New York cloakmakers for similar
demands. They declared that the
present progressive leadership of the
union by pursuing a vigorous policy
carried the negotiations where the
right wing leadership which was de.
feated in the last union elections.
would certainly have failed.
Progressive members of the union
remarked that in other cities of the
country, outside of New York and Chi.
cago, such as Boston, Cleveland and
Philadelphia where there is a right
wing leadership, the 40-hour week
was not won. It was only where the
progressives are in control of the
joint boards, Chicago and New York.
where the employers have been
forced to recognize this important
demand.
The achievement OF the present un.
ion leadership in the I. L. G. w.
union in extracting from the bosses
even more imposing conditions than
we're ever won before, solidiies their
leadership and acts as a 1T rein
upon the disruptive tactics Of the
right wing, progressives say.
A sample of the role played by the
Chicago right wingers in the recent
negotiations is given by progressive
members of the union. Meyer Perl.
stein, former vice-president of the
union, who carried on a campaign of
expulsion and intimidation against
the left wing when he was in Office
came from New York just prior to
the negotiations and was seen talk.
ing to two different cloakmaker
bosses. He was known to have had
conferences with B. Kirschbaum and
members OF the firm of Schanker and
Michel. Progressives charge that
Perlstein tried to persuade the bosses
not to recognize the new leadership
Of the union. Perlstein himself is out
of the union and in the real estate
business. but he is known to be still
in close touch with the right wing OF
the union.