The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-09-16
BY JOSEPH Jack & CHARLES
KRUMBEIN,


A N outstanding achievement of the
"A left wing leadership in the Fur
riers' Union in New York was the or
ganization campaign carried on among
the Greek workers engaged in the in
dustry here. Immediately after taking
control Of the union, the left wing Of
fcials, with the support Of the rank
and file, launched a drive to organize
the bloc of Greeks who, unorganized,
constituted a menace to the organized
workers. The result was that after
very short strike, they organized
about 1000 or 1,1OO workers and won
almost all the, Greeks in the fur In
dustry. 9 81
The left wing leadership in the l. L.
G. w. U. also carried on an organiza-
ton campaign thru which some 1000
new members twere added to the
union.
THE organization campaigns in both
L these unions were carried on in a
manner very different from that which
had been used by the reactionary
bureaucracy in the past. The left
wing leadership drew the membership
of the unions into the campaign, and
rank and flers, organizing on the Job,
were to large extent responsible fer
the success OF the drives.
Organizing Textile Workers In PassaIc.
THE organization methods employed
4 in Passaic we're very different
from those used in the organized
needle trades. In Passaic there was
no organization, not even the sem
blance of a union. The objective con-
ditions, however, were ripe for organ
ization and struggle. A number of
militant workers employed there pro-
ceeded to organize councils In the tex.
tile mills. These councils were later
organized on mass basis--in one in
stance involving eight or nine hun
bred members. They began to propa-
gate demands for the Improvement of
the workers conditions, with the re-
suit that strikes took place.
TIME procedure followed was this:
L One strike was called-in the
Botany mills, and then these workers
were used to picket other mills, with
the result that within a few days mill
after mill came out. The first day
forty or fifty would come out, the sec
ond day half o., the entire mill would
follow suit; by the third day all the
workers in the mill would be out.
TVsA
then formed, consisting of representa-
tives of the various councils. In this
way thousands of workers were or
ganized in completely unorganized
textile city.
In the Building Trades.
THE building trades are more or
4 less we'll organized; that is, inso-
far as new work or buildings is con,
cerned. There are number of crafts
however, that have no organization.
One of them is the plumbers help
ers. The policy followed by the mill
tant workers, there was to organize
clubs of plumbers helpers. A mass
meeting was called and a committee
elected to go to the plumbers union
and demand that the helpers be or
ganized. AS a result of the propa-
ganda and agitation carried on by the
helpers the plumbers have been forced
to take some action. They called a
meeting of the helpers and the pros
poets are that steps will soon be taken
to organize them into the union.
A MOTHER unorganized craft in the
"A building trades is that of the
hardware settlers. The hardware set
tiers come under the Jurisdiction of
the carpenters. But while they work
with carpenters they work piece work,
are driven at top speed, and receive
less wages for longer hours than do
the carpenters, who are organized, on
the same job. These hardware settlers
have organized themselves into a club
and demanded better conditions.
When these demands were turned
down they went out on strike. The
policy being followed by the militants
among them is to prevail upon the
carpenters union to take them into
the organization, and methods are be.
ing employed similar to those used BY
he plumbers helpers.
A FURTHER organizational step
was undertaken in the case OF the
mill men-inside carpenters, glaciers,
etc.-who went out on strike for bet
ter conditions. ~
Organizing Clubs.
THIS policy of organizlng clubs as a
means of exerting pressure on the
existing trade unions to take in I'M
organized workers was followed also
in the case of strike of mill men
inside carpenters, glaciers, etc. There
are four international unions existing
to which these mill men are eligible.
Had the strikers depended only on the
internationals tolcarry on their strug.
gle, or had they gone into the different
unions individually, the result would