The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-22
Misleaders in
the American
Labor Unions
BY WILLIAM 3. FOSTER.

District 2 in Pennsylvania, in an
election circular against Lewis,
some time ago, describes the disas-
trous betrayal:
"The Consolidated Coal Co. in
1922 had approximately 40 mines in
northern West Virginia, others in
Maryland, and seven or eight in
Somerset County, besides additional
mines in Kentucky. The company
agreed to sign up for West Virginia
only and the National Union accept
ed this proposal over the protests
of the Pennsylvania union miners.
The West Virginia men went back
to work under the policy of the Ma
tional Union. In Maryland and
Pennsylvania strikes for union rec
ognition continued but were of no
use. The company filed orders with
West Virginia coal and used its
West Virginia profits to ship strike
breakers into Maryland and Penn
sylvania Finally the Maryland
and Somerset strikes were lost.t
And then the Consolidated broke Il
with the union in West Virginia and
used Maryland and Somerset coal
to crush the strike that resulted.
The company is now 100 per cent
scab. Bethlehem Mines Corporation,
Hillman Coal and Coke, and other
big concerns were allowed to split
the workers and destroy the union
in the same way"
After the 1922 strike Lewis, be-
sides abandoning the Connellsville
miners, also split off the anthracite
from the bituminous miners, letting
each section deal with the employ
ers separately. Consequently dur
ing the anthracite strike of 1925,
the bituminous miners produced coal
while their anthracite brothers
struck Meanwhile, the bituminous
operators, openly repudiating the
Jacksonville agreement, reduced
wages and cut the union to pieces
in many districts. During the past
three years the union has lost 200,-S
900 members mostly in the bitumin-
Gus sections, and Lewis does moth
ing to- stem the tide of defeat. 1t
was indeed timely that the left wing
and progressive opposition, united
behind the candidacy of Brophy in
the 1926 union elections, fought
with the slogan of "Save the
Union" Under Lewis reactionary
administration the very existence of
the Miners Union, which is the
backbone of the whole American la
Dor movement, is most seriously
threatened.
AS write this lin 1927, N. b.
some 5000 bituminous miners are
locked out Due to the misleader-
ship of Lewis and his like, they find
themselves confronted with an ex-
tremely difficult situation. They
face gigantic stock piles of coal
workers haul freely to market) and
great districts like West Virginia,
; Kentucky, Alabama, ETC., producing
70 per cent of all bituminous coal,
are non-union and remain at work.
Lewis made no effort to organize
and strike these districts. The 1907
; 900 anthracite miners are also
working To make the situation
; worse, Lewis has inaugurated a pol
icy of signing separate state and in
-. dividual agreements. Only the
greatest solidarity and heroism by
the miners can win the strike. The
very life of their organization is at
stake, the U. M. w. A. is in the
most serious crisis of it's career.
On the Railroads.
: Like the miners, the railroad
workers have conducted long and
r bitter struggle to establish an or
ganization capable of defending and
= advancing their interests. And like
the miners also, among the greatest
f obstacles they have had to contend
with is the conservatism and dis
loyalty of their own leaders. To the
( activities of union misleaders, more
than to any other factor, is due the
deep crisis in which the railroad
unions now find themselves.
: The betrayal of the railroad
workers by their leaders is greatly
facilitated by the existing craft
| unionism. This system is the union
ism par excellence of the labor fax
ers. 1t is the policy of organizing
the different categories of workers
in many separate autonomous
unions and having each fight it's
: own battles regardless of the other
unions. From the beginning this
craft unionism has enabled the COM
panies, with the help of reaction
airy union leaders, to defeat the
whole body of railroad workers by
playing off one section of them
> against the others. A hundred rail
road strikers tell this deplorable
story. The great battle of the
American Railway Union, the V. B.
& @. strike, the l. Chairman line
, strike, the strike of the switchmen
in the northwest, the great nation
. al strike of the railroad shopmen;
' all record the same tragic policy
: of whole sections of the organized
|. railroad workers kept at work and
: thus made to help the companies
: break the strikes of those workers
actively striving to better their con-