The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-06-14
LEATHER union
Takers PLAN 4
new BETRAYAL
Strikes Only Answer
to Lockouts
by a Worker Correspondent

by a Worker Correspondent
The present situation in the
Pocketbook Workers Union offers
the best opportunity for the workers
of our trade to learn a practical les
son in trade union misleadership.
For the last 10 years the fancy
leathergoods trade has become
very significant factor in American
industry. Thru the application of
the various efficiency schemes, thru
the merciless exploitation of our
fellow workers, the manufacturers
have succeeded in raising production
many times.
Companies Get Richer, Workers
Poorer.
Compare the position held by such
firms as Morris White, Blum and
Mittenthal, Robbins and Prokereh,
Washington Leather Goods, ETC., ten
years ago with the position they
hold today and the vast progress is
Immediately visible. Only recently
have we witnessed the rapid growth
of the Chick Bag Co. and the Mexick
Co., each employing 200 and 800
workers respectively.
Side by side with accumulations of
wealth by the manufacturers, we
have noticed gradual depression in
the conditions of our workers.
Under the condition under which
we have been forced to earn our
daily bread, the old agreement even,
if it had been carried out a hundred
per cent, could no longer protect our
living standards. Therefore our
present demands for 30 hour week,
for unemployment insurance, for
one scale for all mechanics, etc.,
which have grown out of the vital
conditions governing our lives as
workers in the leather goods trade
must be won, in order to secure a
decent living for ourselves and our
families.
Misleaders Aid Leather Bosses.
In all these years the administra-
ton Of our union has done nothing
to improve the conditions of the
workers harnessed to the heavy bur-
dens of exploitation. The admins
tration has done nothing to check
the vicious speedup schemes thru
which the manufacturers have en-
shaved US; it has done nothing to re-
lieve the unemployment situation,
arising out of the introduction of
new kinds of machinery in the in
dustry.
Takers Lick Bosses Boots.
At this moment when thousands of
locked out workers are clamoring
for action, for a strike as an answer
to the bosses lockout, the misleader-
ship of our union is licking the
boots of the bosses and resorting to
arbitration schemes to bring about
settlement" Even a child can
see that the lockout which has made
thousands of families breadless, has
been heartily helped and endorsed
by our administration so as to pre-
pare the ground for such an arbi-
tration settlement which in plain
words means sellout of our in
terests.
Must Defeat the Sell-Out.
1t is not too late however to out
maneuver the schemes of the bosses
and the misleaders of our union.
Our cry for strike in answer to
the lockouts must be raised founder
and louder. We must voice our
determination to defeat any arbitra-
ton scheme. We must stand firm
by our demands. We must i'm
mediately call shop meetings to elect
capable shop committees, as our
first step in the mobilization. We
must rally around the progressive
left wing group, the only group that
has fought and is fighting for the
interests of the workers in the in
dustry.
LEATHER GOODS WORKER.