The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-12-20
union OFFICIALS
BOSS PARTNERS
IN DRIVING THE M
Calls Fellow Workers
to Fight Exploiters
(By a Worker Correspondent

hoAu NOlh ilIGdliL NOLhlIlS III q lllAllcy
steel or textile mill. There we
heard that conditions We're bad,
working hours long, ten or twelve
hours day; but that right in New
York, the center Of progressive la
Dor organizations, working condi-
tons should be as unbearable as |
found them, and hours as long as
twelve, fourteen, sixteen or even
eighteen on a stretch, then home
fer five or six hours sleep and re-
peat the same hours the next day
that would have sounded unbeliev-
able to me-if-if l had not come to
experience and witness that myself
Before this / worked in a grocery
store where hours were also long
and conditions bad, but nothing to
compare with the work I do at pres
cnt. Do not lynch me, comrades,
grocery clerks! l know what sla-
very you endure, l know what you
have to stand from grouchy custom
ers and petty, i!l-natured grocery
keepers, but if your job is slavery
then there is no word to describe
mine. The joke is on us, dry clean
crs, and we are worthy Of your
derision-if that could only shame
IFS into activity, if that would only
help to wake US from our lethargy.
I am working in one of the larg-
est shops in the trade, where depart
naturalization, speed-up and isola-
ton of departments is carried out
to considerable extent. That will
recount for the incompleteness of
my description. l do not come in
contact with all workers, and can
not tell the worst, perhaps, of the
conditions. This is a union shop,
controlled by right wing socialist
4nion gang who exploit The workers
for their own benefit, and whose
chiefs are now being tried for slug
ging workers who wanted better
conditions. This, perhaps, is the key
to the whole situation.
The work is highly seasonal, de-
pending upon the change of weather
and holidays. The spring season,
together with the Jewish holidays,
make three-month busy season in
city like New York. The fall
change Of clothing, together with
certain other Jewish holidays, make
another similar busy season. The
summer and the winter are the slow
months. In she busy season men
work until the fall sick from over
work, and as soon as it becomes
slow they are laid off or work just
a few hours each week. This is be-
eau the union never attempted to
control the working hours and con-
elitions in the shops. In spite of
the fact that I work in a union shop,
about half of the workers in the
place do not belong to the union;
some because the union refuses to
take in new members, especially
low paid workers, fearing their mill
fancy; others because they do not
see the necessity of supporting the
union job-holders to the extent of
6 three dollars a month, but these
workers would come in if the union
became rank and file union. The
union officials allow non-union men
to work with union men, because
hey get part of the difference that
the boss saves in paying these men
extremely low wages, in graft and
favors from the bosses. The nom
union workers, who are termed help
ers, actually work longer hours than
the union men, thus taking away
work from the members of the
union and shortening the seasons.
The so-called helpers, though some
If them work as long as five years
in the shop, receive wages as low
as eighteen and twenty dollars a
week, and they are not paid time
and a half for overtime Though
even the union men do not receive
the time and a half that the agree
nent calls for, but only time and a
quarter, and in many shops they
ere only pad STRAIGHT time). nor
ere they paid for the union holi-
Nays; therefore, it pays the bosses
to hire as many helpers as they can
nossibly use. Of course, this cuts
into the work of the union MEM
hers. and they all complain that
they cannot ask for raise because
of so many cheap workers, but the
nnion officials never raise a finger
(except to slug protesting workers.
ia solve any of the numerous prob
lsms tsat engulf the union and is
euite likely to swamp it entirely.
Little by little The union IS losing
control of the shops, but as long as
enough three dollar month dues
Hills are coming in TO pay the gang
cat salaries the officials can afford
ia wait a little longer.
But let us return to the working
bsurs in the shop. l said that IN the
saason we work until exhausted, but
even in the slow season some Oh
~ especially the helpers, work long
enough hours, and this is the only
,vnv such low paid workers, espe-
cinllv men with families to support
can make living and stay in the
trade for the benefit of the bosses
began working in the slow sum-
MOI. sea.nn. and | have kept rec