The daily worker., 1929-01-05
Furniture Workers Great
Need Is Industrial Union

7uuTlHg IHGlr DuSy SedSOuS as WOfh-
ers get straight time for this over
time, although few years ago all
f,ctories paid time-and-a-half for all
time over 9 hours.
The vast majority of the workers
in the industry are paid on the piece
work or "bonus systeiR I basis.
Through these systems, workers are
forced to toll like mad-men in order
to get wage high than the aver
age paid. But these high wages
don't last long. At the first oppor-
turity a slight alteration is made i'll
the piece-rate and this provides an
excuse for .":readjustine2.- the~piece-
rate to The point where the workers
/. get the cid low average svqge al
thoughsthey are stMl working at the
tsame mad rate ofspeed. Es
The Al. F. of L. H-77',S ~
These and many other problems
such as health dangers confront the
furniture workers and can and must
be solved in a collective manner.
Organization is necessary, but who
is going to organize US? The Ameri-
can Federation of Labor which has
given organizational jurisdiction
over the. furniture workers to the
lUnitedf Brotherhood of Carpenters
I and Joinerssof Anierica,3 has shown
by IT'S actions during the past. Is
wears that it does not care to or
ganize the furniture workers.
Secret Agreements.
The Hutchinson leadership in the
Carpenters Union actually has a
secret agreement with the manu-
facturers associations not to organ
izs the mill-workers. For glaring
evidence of this, read carefully the
;IEfull-asalgs adEertisen,spt pfsssthe Ma
bt:onal Au1abers Mantifactarers' AS
lsoeiation on pare 20 of The. October
f192S issue of'"The Carpenter" Off
cial organ of the U. B. c. J. A.
In January 1927, a furniture
workers organization drive was be-
ling pushed through by the militant
rank and file Of Local 1880, the
furniture workers local in Grand
Rapids Of the b, c.. j. A. Con-
siderable success was Sbeing made
with the employers Of the G., and R.
/. Showcase Co. which employs about
1000 workers, but as we had no full
time officials in the local we sent
\ to- the general office for an organ
Eizer. But did he address any union
I meetings or mass meetings of furni-
ture workers? No. He had a pri-
Yate conference with one or two re-
lactionarys officials in the union after
I, which he met secretly with the
management of the Showcase Co. No
report was ever made to the union
by him or the general office, and the
only way that we knew that he had
Ebeen here was the report of the
president that he had went eyer.to
see the management Of the company.
Call To Action.
Since then no pretense Of help has
been made by the general office, but
they have more than once threatened
to take the charter away from the
local union because of militant
speeches made by the members. "The
Furniture Worker" a militant little
monthly paper put out by the LOCAL
union, was starved out of existence
last spring by lack of funds dle TO
the heavy per capita tax drain by
the general office. s..s-...,
Members are dropping out of the
local faster than they can be re-
cruited. The membership, which
was once around 5000, has gradually
dropped down to about 1870 members.
Militant and progressive furniture
workers claim that if a general
strike breaks out in the furniture
industry, as will inevitably happen in
the near future, that Local 1880 will
be expelled, and all the forces of
the general office will be used to
Sc, otage and sell out the strike, as
/ A. F. of L. officials have done in
New Bedford and Paterson to the
textile workers, in Bayonne to the
oil workers, in Milltown to the rub
ber workers, and in many other
\ instances. ~
\ Militant Papers Killed. 49,; i,
Fellow Furniture sNorkerss sThe
areactionary Teader$hipSaf the Wilited
4lBrotherhoodof Carpenters and Join
ers of America will not not organize
us, but will try to betray us. We
must build local mass. conferences of
Iful nitrre workers; followed later on
by ,aANational Conference for the
formation of {. big National Furni-
ture Workers Union, which will have
q fighting program and leadership,
capable of organizing and rallying
the 100000 toiling furniture work
ers of this country in militant
fight against wage-cuts, piece-work,
speed-up systems, lengthening of
hours, health dangers and child la
bor, and to turn the offensive of the
bosses against the workers, into a
mighty offensive of the toiling furni.
ture workers against the greedy
| bosses.