The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-08-20
Police RENEW
BRUTALITY ON
MASS P|CKETS
nv
Union Accepts Bosses
Challenge for Vote
tspeeiaI q rhe DaiIy Worker1

promise Of neutrality" made by police
commissioners in previous conVersa-
tions with the leaders of the striking
members Of the International Ladies'
Garment Workers, the police viciously
attacked the strikers when they mobil-
lied In the garment district for mass
picketine, and arrested Al strikers,
some of whom were brutaIly handled.
Two Pickets clubbed.
This assault was aided by manufac-
turers' gangsters, and Louis Cohen, a
striker, after being beaten over the
head with blackjack by gangster
named Dominick Guisetti, was taken
to the hospital following the arrest of
Guisetti on a charge of felonious as
sault. The gangster claims to be a
special officer" hired by the bosses.
Another union picket, Frank Miretz,
was dubbed by policeman so severe
ly that he, too, is in the hospital.
OF the pickets arrested, twenty were
given suspended sentences, three fined
SIS each and the rest held in bonds of
$500 each on a charge of "congregat-
ing"
Aeoept Challenge.
A challenge from the Industrial
Council Of the Manufacturers Asso-
citation, to take a secret vote among
striking cloakmakers who work in in
dustrial council shops to see whether
they favor continuance of the strike
to obtain the union's demands, was ac-
cepted by Louis Hyman, chairman of
the General Strike Committee, with
the proviso that the industrial council
pledge itself to accede to these union
terms if the workers vote in favor
of continuing the strike.
The challenge and its acceptance
came right on the heels of confrma-
ton by the union that Chas. Schrank
& company, cloak manufacturers of
270 West 18th Street, expelled from
industrial council membership for ne
gotlation wleA the union. had settled
on union terms and was now working
with full quota of 80 employees.
t4yman Replies.
The industrial councils challenge,
charging that employees are on strike
against their own will and because
they are "terrorized" by their officials
was made in paid advertisements in
the Jewish press. Chairman Hyman
replied:
"The manufacturers are continuing
their tactics of picking out shops from
among those settled which are not
representative and holding them up as
typical of settled shops, though we
have settled with much larger shops.
Bosses Must Accept Vote.
There is nothing done to keep our
workers out on a strike against their
own will. We do not see the necessity
Of a referendum such as the industrial
council proposes, because our workers
have voted more than once at mass
meetings and in a referendum. Each
time, by almost a unanimous vote,
they favored a strike, if the union
terms could not be obtained by other
means.
"But If members of the Industrial
council doubt the result of those votes,
we are willing to initiate another
referendum, with the understanding
that should our members vote in favor
of continuing the strike, the industrial
council will be bound to sign agree
ments on the basis of our demands
the 40-hOur week, SO weeks a year as
a minimum, a ten per cent increase in
wages and limitation of jobbers.
"If they refuse this guarantee, why,
then, the vote will be a waste of
effort"
More Settlements.
The joint board of the cloakmakers'
unions announced yesterday settle
ments on full union terms with the
firms of Henry Rosenzweig, A. Port
folio, and II. Seidenberg. manufactur-
ers who supply members of the vii.
liamsberg Contractors Association
with work. These firms cater largely
to mail order houses.