The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-01-25
PACKINGTOWN IN
CHICAGO is NOW
Being 'FORDIzED'
"Speed-up" Is Getting
Under Workers Skins
BY THURBER LEWIS.
Especial to The Daily Worker)

Especial TO The Daily Worker)
CHICAGO, ILL.,. Jan. 2i.-Chicago's
world famous PackingtOwn is being
''Fordizod" by the Big FOur-Swift,
Wilson, Cudahy. Armour. The ramb-
ling yards and packing houses Of the
South Side where 10000 men and
women drive, slaughter and slice mill
lions Of cattle, hogs and sheep yearly
is being turned into a Laboratory"
for experts in speed-up and time-cut-
ting.
The complete abandon with which
these Taylor men" are cutting
wages and packing more work into
fewer minutes to cut down overhead
is getting under the skins of the
packinghouse workers. There are
still thousands Of men in the yards
who remember that the whole district
was once organized 1000
No Union Now.
Save the company union there
isn't a shadow of an organization
left. The men are at the entire
mercy Of the bosses. The bosses are
driving them harder every week.
/ The butchers, drovers and Iaborers
are showing open signs Of resent
ment according to workers on the
killing floors.
As an example, there is the Omaha
Packing Co., a Swift subsidiary en-
I ploying eight hundred men. In the
past seven days 90 Of these have
been let out. The same killing SEIZED
ule is being maintained, however,
i and more are soon to be let go with
out reducing production.
4 Experts to 500 Workers.
In this little plant Of 500 men ana
women (women, mostly Negroes,
clean and pack guts) four experts
have been at work for several
months. 1t is the same story that
is being told in all big production
units thruout the country: work
sixty minutes Of every hour, "bonus-
es" given for back-breaking co-or-
dinatlon and don't dare miss stroke.
Loses Hand.
A Negro was working on a gut
machine "a grappler for stripping
CUTS out of the carcass). he was
speeded up. His hand slipped. The
flesh was torn off his entire hand,
leaving a white skeleton, bare and
chastity. A stockyards' worker who
saw the tragedy told me Of il. A
Polish worker was sent on the ma
chine ten minutes later. He told the
floor forman that he thot he should
have at least zoe an hour considering
the hazard. The foreman told him
that plenty of men could be gotten
for less. The Polish worker was
discharged.
Such is the toll that "FordizatiOn'
takes in the stockyards,
Cheated of Pension.
One Of the best hog cleavers and
splitters in the Swift plant with %
years Of continuous service whose
sure and steady hand has, of late
years, become less trustworthy from
the ravages Of rheumatism contract
ed from the wet and bloody floors,
was due for his pension in two more
years.
The new System" came in. His
/ splitting machine was speeded up to
an inhuman rate. He couldn't keep
up. He was discharged by the kill
ing foreman at the suggestion of an
expert. He loses his pension Of soma
seventy a month.
Once Well Organized.
! In the period from the close Of the
war until the winter Of 1922, these
things may not have happened. The
! butcher workmen were organized
then. They were not locked an
hours pay for minutes hardness
in those days. They were making a
wage it was possible to live on. They
had shop stewards to thresh out
complaints with the foremen.
$4,000 Struck.
On Dec. 5, 1921, in the dead of
winter, $4,000 stockyards workers
marched out on strike. It was dur
ing the open shop drive when the
big employers decided to wipe out
unionism in all large industry. They
put up brave fight but in the end
they were beaten. Instead Of the
raise that they struck for, they got
vicious wage-cut and went back
piecemeal the known leaders being
blacklisted.
Since then, wages have gone fur
Their down, they are still being cut.
The fake company union came In
surance schemes were introduced
House organs were issued-and now
the System"
Low Wages.