The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-01-25
BY LEON NASSOF.
Worker Correspondent.l

w OAhNA
At a meeting of the Cleaners &
Dyers' Union, January ID, Vein
traub, the business manager, pro-
posed that a special meeting be
called to consider the reinstatement
of the expelled members of the Pro-
gressive Group of the Cleaners &
Dyers. Effrat, the big boss of the
clique, and the members of the
Executive Board attacked the pro-
posal and threatened to resign if the
progressives were taken in.
Following the meeting, which
voted for a special meeting, Vein
traub went around the shops and
agitated against his own proposal.
Several questions present them
selves. Is there split in the clique?
Did Weintraub, who blacklisted and
deprived the progressives of a liv-
ing, have a change of heart and did
he later get scared of his own pro-
posal, or is all this a maneuver of
the union officials? The members
present, though most of them con-
fidants of the clique, voted for a
special meeting. They evidently I'M
derstood the maneuver.
Clique Scared.
The fact is that the clique got it.
self in such fix that it does not
know how to get out of it. The
smuggling of left wingers cost the
union a lot of money, but now the
treasury is empty, and the special
tax to defend the sluggers was not
paid by half the membership accord
ing to their own admission. Since
they started the terrorism against
the left wing, union meetings are
attended only by a handful of mem
bers. Membership dropped, and
payment of dues dropped even more.
Members say that the bosses run
the union, and this is a fact. Last
year the union called a strike to
organize the bosses.
Company Control.
The agreement and supplement
tary agreement between the union
and the bosses made the union a
tool in the hands of the bosses. The
union could not organize workers in
independent shops. The bosses filled
the shops with cheap non-union
help; they cut wages and replaced
high paid men by low paid; they
laid off union men while they kept
the cheap non-union men. The union
allowed them to hire and fire at
will, and the union refused to or
ganize the non-union workers in the
shops, because the bosses would
have to pay them for union holidays
and perhaps a better wage. Each
boss did what he wanted in his shop.
A few paid time and half, some
time and quarter, and most only
straight time for overtime.
Lockout Seen.
This year the bosses are them
selves preparing a stoppage or a
lockout to strengthen their associa-
ton, and they know that the union
officials will follow them like sheep,
because to answer the lockout with
a strike the union officials would
have to organize all the workers in
the trade and to face the member
ship, which they dare not do. But
the left wing has warned the men,
bership against another sell out, and
has called on the workers to or
ganize and resist the attacks of the
bosses, and to sign the agreement
dictated by the bosses would only
confirm the warnings Of the left
wing.
The bosses of Westchester Coun-
ty circulated a petition among the
drivers calling for a meeting to con-
slider helping the bosses form a
closed market. They want to por-
ton out the retail stores among
themselves, and get the drivers not
to poach on the territory of one an
other. Last years attempt at Brin-
dellism, through the Allied Council
did not succeed, so they are trying