The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-01-20
ALFRED. DECKER
AND COIN SHOP
NEEDS A STRIKE
But A. c. w. Officials
Aid Only the Boss
BY r. KATE,
worker Correspondent)

reduced continually in the recent per-
iod, but it seems that the workers in
our shop-Alfred Decker and Cohn
have suffered more than others.
Besides having to go thru wage
cuts, readjustments, ETC., we also have
an evil that is called efficiency"
or new system" which means that
whenever the management of the firm
feels like it, they change the system
of work in such a way as to cut our
earnings to a considerable extent.
Workers Wait-The Bosses Don't.
And according to our agreement,
we must do what our boss tells US
first, and then if we don't like it we
can complain to the union official, who
tells US, in 80 cases out of 100, that
because of this or that reason, he can
do nothing for us.
If it ever happens, as it did hap
pen in our shop, that the workers of
a particular section do revolt against
such conditions and stop from work
as an organized group, our union off,
Gals are right on the job to help the
boss break the revolt by sending
every worker they can get hold of to
take the place of those brothers that
have dared to protect their interests
in an organized form.
Discrimination!
If there is any militant worker in
the shop trying to agitate against
such conditions, there are many ways
to either break his fighting spirit or
get him out of the shop altogether.
At first, the examiner gets an or
der to watch that brothers work more
closely-and give him back work to
fix under any pretense. If they don't
succeed to break his spirit this way,
they start to give him complaints for
bad work.
Rubbing It InI
If a worker stitches few hundred
vests a day, or tapes a few hundred
coats day, the foreman can easily
find something wrong in one garment
so that he can have pretense to sus-
pend and discharge that worker.
Here is an example that happened
in the pants shop. A worker that has
worked for many years in that shop,
was several times shop chairman and
in general had an influence in that
shop, made minor damage on a pair
of pants, a thing that happens very
often with any operator handling hun
dreds of pants daily.
But since this worker happens to
be a rebel" the foreman took ad-
vantage of the opportunity and dis
charged the said brother. After a
weeks effort by the business agent to
place this brother back to work, he
nas succeeded to put him back to
work under probation" and here is
the lecture that the manager gave
that brother:
This Shop Needs a StrikeI
at is not a question of damage
or bad work, but rather the idea that
you are trying to impose your opinion
on other workers. You have a wife
and children, and If you want to
work you can have the job as long as
you want, but you will have to be-
come 100 per cent Americanized, mind
your own business and do your work,
and if | will find again that you will
mix into the affairs of other workers,
out you will go"
This is one Of the examples how
militants are terrorized. On the other
hand, if any one does not complain
when the foreman breaks the agree
ment continually, and in general is a
good boy" his work is always good
and he has no trouble whatsoever
Breaking Down Union Rules.
j For these reasons you will find the
foreman can even violate the elemen-
tary rights Of the workers, rights that
were won thru long years of hard
battle, and the workers will not even,
complain to the shop chairman for
fear of discrimination.
We also have a lunch room" that |
is supposed TO be run for the con.
venience Of the workers. But here |
again it is the same story as in many |
other shops. The food is Of the cheap |
est kind and the prices the same as |
in the best restaurants. Not only do |
they buy the cheapest kind of meat,
ETC., but they handle the food as if |
hogs would have to eat it.
Union Officials Don't Care.
happened, few months ago, ac- |
cidentally to go into the kitchen on |
Friday afternoon and found them
cooking soup for Monday, and never
ate soup in that lunch room since.
All the different foods left over
from previous days with plenty OF
flies mixed in between, made up the
contents Of that soup" and II we
complain to the shop chairman"
about prices and food in the lunch
room, the answer we get is that the
union has nothing to do with the |
lunch room, and so the workers must
go on paying good prices, eating rot,
and be satisfied.