The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-12-03
in
the American
Labor Unions
BY WILLIAM 2. FOSTER

!
head of the Newspaper and Mail De-
liverers' Union in New York for "a
years. He is at the same time cir
culation manager for the three
Hearst New York papers and seven
magazines. He uses the union, which
is not affiliated to the A. F. of L.,
to get Hearst's publications circu-
lated at the lowest rate possible,
for which Hearst pays him $4,000
per year salary. He gathers graft
from the newsdealers and collects a
salary from the union. He owns
non-union news company in Newark
which employs 65 workers. His pro-
fit on the circulation of one paper
alone is estimated at $4,000 per
day. Naturally the workers inter
ests are lost sight of by Bannon.
He boasts that his union has had
only one strike in "a years.
Bannon is a power in sporting,
dope-selling and bootlegging circles
in New York. He has held the watch
for Jack Dempsey in his fights.
| When meetings of his union are held,
once every half dozen years, he ter
rorizes the workers with flocks of
his gunner cronies. These beat into
submission anyone who tries to rake
the union function in the interests
of the membership.
Recently Bannon made a pleasure
trip to Europe. He sailed on the
/ Berengaria, occupying the suite that
the Prince of Wales had used. He
took his private secretary with him.
When he returned he was given
banquet in the grand ballroom of
the Hotel Astor. Over 1000 were
present at $500 per plate, includ-
ing many big newspaper men, CAPT
talists, politicians, and underworld
characters. kilograms of felicita-
ton were received from scores of
business men. And such a creature
of the bosses is called "labor
leader"
Often these plain agents of the
newspapers stand at the head of
the printing trades unions. In
Omaha, for example, the dominant
local figure in the Typographical
Union is T. W. Mccullough, an edi-
tor of the Omaha Bee. This ultra
reactionary has also been long big
factor in the national A. F. of L.
machine.
The Metal Miners.
The bribery of the trade union
leaders and the consequent many
sided betrayal of the workers inter-
ests, takes place in every industry.
Just couple of more instances will
illustrate the general condition.
For many years the Butte Union
Of the Western Federation of Min
ers, later the I. U. of M. M. and S.
W., was the main prop of the Meyer
administration. The Butte union
was VIGOROUSLY company-controlled,
by methods which we shall see in a
later chapter. Desperate efforts of
the rank and file to cleanse it cul-
minated in spectacular union revolt
and split in 1914, which practically
killed the whole organization, ma
tionally as well as locally. An "open
shop" situation resulted in Butte.
The companies forced abominable
conditions on the miners. Efforts Of
the workers to reorganize proved
futile until June ,<1917, when the
terrible Spectator mine disaster
snuffed out 164 lives and plunged
Butte, into a bitter strike.
The strike was conducted by an
Independent union, but the strikers
were willing to join Meyers organi-
cation in body. Meyer insisted,
however, that they first give up their
strike and then affiliate as individ-
.uals. This proposal demoralized the
workers and contributed greatly to
breaking the strike. The leaders of
the other crafts, who were also in
volved, were no less hostile and
treacherous. Said VIM. F. Dunno at
the Portland, 1923, A. F. of L. con-
vention:
ain Butte we have had our share
of trouble with boss-fearing and
boss-loving international officers.
We witnessed, during the first great
strike of 1917. the spectacle of
international presidents, vice-presi-
dents, and organizers coming into a
district when the wage-earners were
engaged in life and death struggle
with the copper trust and going to
the sixth floor of the Hennessey
Bldg, the head offices of the Ana
cbnda Copper Co., for consultation
with the corporation heads before
they even reported to the strike
committees of their unions.
with one single exception, Taylor
of the Machinists' Union, every in
ternational officer (and there were
a dozen in Butte at the time) got
his orders from the offices of the
copper trust and became part Of the
machinery for breaking the strike
Rhys Williams Makes