The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-27
Continued from Last Issue).
The Union.

ne international Ladies Garment
Workers Union is affiliated with the
American Federation Of Labor. It's
members are workers on women's
clothing-cloaks, suits, dresses, white
goods, embroidery, and 80 on. The
total membership in the United
States and Canada is about 10000. In
New York City, the industry is well
organized, there being about $4,000
members in the New York Joint
Board, of which about $4,000 are
members Of the four left Wing"
locals, now expelled
In every locality where there are
two or more local unions engaged in
various branches of the same trade, a
Joint Board is established under the
constitution of the union. The chief
functions of the Joint Board are to
attend to complaints of members
against employers, to supervise and
control the union shops, to organize
non-union shops, to conclude agree
ments with the employers, and to
work for the general welfare of the
members. The Joint Board has
right to fix the minimum dues and
assessments to be paid by the work.
ers to their locals, and the amount
that local shall pay toward the up
keep of the Joint Board
The New York Joint Board is COM
posed of thirteen locals. They are
organized on craft basis-cloak OPP
orators, cloak finishers, pressers, cut
tiers, dressmakers, button hole maxi
ers, each have separate local. The
demands of the trade cause the To-
Gals to vary greatly in size. There
are many more operators needed in
the industry than button hole MAX
ers, for instance. Consequently the
Operators Local has more than H.
coo members, while the button hole
makers Local GA has less than one
hundred.
The Joint Board and its compon-
ent locals carry on a tremendous
amount of activity in the interests
of the workers. Their yearly expen-
ditures in normal times amount to
nearly a million dollars, and in time
of strike, additional hundreds of
thousands Of dollars must be spent.
The strike of 1921, which lasted eight
weeks, cost the union $1.O46,531. The
stoppage of 1924, which lasted Of
ficially for two weeks, in which few
arrests were made and picketing was
unnecessary, cost half a million dol
lars. In the first twenty weeks of
strike, in 1926, for which official re-
ports were approved by the General
Strike Committee, S2,794,000 was
spent, half of which went for strike
benefit
Needle trades strikes in New York
City are necessarily costly because Of
the character of the industry. Mass
picketing against the thousands of
shops involved must be carried on.
The use of the injunction by the EN-
ployers causes hundreds of arrests.
Halls must be rented for the all-day
meetings of the workers. Strike bene-
fit must be paid. The union there
fore prepares for possible strikes by
collecting a ''war chest" of a million
dollars or more, with which to fight
for better wages and working con-
ditions for its members.
The government of the Interna-
tional Ladies' Garment Workers
Union, as set up by its curiously old
fashioned constitution, is briefly as
follows:
Local unions elect annually by di-
rect vote of the membership, a Presi-
dent, Vice-President, Financial-Rec-
ording Secretary, and members of
the Executive Board of the local.
The Joint Board is composed of
delegates elected from each member
local.
Formerly representation was equal,
the several little locals of less than
one hundred members sending as
many delegates to the New York
Joint Board as locals of 10000 MEM
bers. In the convention Of 1925, how
ever, the Left Wing demanded, and
succeeded in obtaining, a revision Of
the constitution, which allows repre-
.sentation more nearly proportional to
the size of the locals in the New York
Joint Board.
The manager of the Joint Board
was formerly elected by the Joint
BOARD itself. When the Joint Board
became predominantly Left Wing,
after the convention Of 1925, it re-
vised its constitution to- allow direct
election Of the manager. Louis Hy-
man, the present managers of the
Joint Board, is thus the first to hold
that position by vote OF the majority
Of all the members in New York.
The officers Of the international
President, General Secretary Treas
urer, and is Vice-Presidents, who
comprise the General Executive
Board, are elected at the biennial con-
vention.
The Rotten Borough" System.
The representation Of locals to the
convention, which elects the Interna-
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