The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-06-13
The 4 l., Company Union
"SMbb0rts" the 5-Day Week

by q Worker Correspondent
The Four Ell (The Loyal Legion
Of Loggers and Lumbermen') has
come out in support of the five-day
week with some sort of pay-adjust-
ment." This organization is the
company union which was foisted
on the workers in the northwest
lumber industry, during the war, by
the joint efforts of the lumber in
terests and the government for the
purpose of speeding up war produc-
ton and crushing the activities of
the militant workers in the industry.
The five-day week plan advocated
has all the earmarks of the Ford
"five-day week" scheme.
The lumber industry torn by in
tense competition within has, for
years, tried to control production,
create scarcity of lumber and thus
raise prices for ever greater profits.
While curtailment of output has
been adhered to, to a certain extent,
by the large scale lumber manufac-
turers, it has been difficult to regu-
late the competition of the smaller
concerns and the curtailment plan
has been unsuccessful.
Wage Cuts, Speedups.
The five-day week is an attempt
of the lumber interests to find "a
way out" by lowering the cost of
production through wage cuts and
speed up. Workers in the camps and
mills who can barely subsist on the
present wages for six days work
which the 1927 Census of Manufac-
lures estimates to be SLOTS for the
year, will now receive only five
days wages. The "pay-adjustment"
will probably mean that six days
work will have to be done in five
days for five days pay. The lumber
bosses under the guise of a "wel-
fare" scheme for the workers will
have speeded them up, reduced their
wages and achieved a plan of realiz-
ing more profits at the expense of
the workers.
Work Is Seasonal.
Work in the woods and saw mills
is extremely seasonal. In the north
west camps layoffs Of eight and ten
weeks are not uncommon and the
logger is fortunate to have work
for seven or eight months during
the year. Saw mill workers and the
single weavers are subject to more
frequent lay-offs although not al
ways of such long duration. The
proposed five-day week policy, which
will be four-day or three-day week
when found necessary by the lum-
Der bosses, as was the case in the
Ford automobile plants, will tend to
spread the lay-off and further re-
duce expense involved in mainten-
ance of machinery.
The Long Bell Lumber Co., a pow
erful group of interests operating
not only in the northwest but in
California and in the south as we'll
has already effected this plan by OPP
Grating its saw mill plants and log
ging camps four days a week
throughout the year. The workers,
who are all forced to live in Long
view, Washington, the. city owned
and developed by the company have
been subsisting on a starvation wage
averaging $14.4O a week and have
suffered severe hardships.
The Bosses Loud Speaker.
1t is significant that the lumber
interests are using the Four Ell as
the loud speaker for the five-day
week and further intensive exploit
tation of the lumber workers. This
has always been the role of the -Four
Ell. During the days of the war
hysteria when the lumber workers
were either strait jacketed into the
Four Ell or blacklisted, the Four Ell
spread the illusion among the work.
ers by insidious and high powered
propaganda that it was responsible
for the establishment of the eight
hour day, the improvement of sani-
tary conditions in the camps and
the increased wage scale.
These gains had actually been at
tanned as a result of the valiant
struggle of the militant lumber
workers, many of whom gave their
lives in the fight against the lumber
bosses, during the strikes which
spread over the West Coast from
1914-1918. The war which required
the maintenance Of a ready supply
Of lumber basic for the building of
airplanes, of ships, and other neces-
sites made it imperative for the
Four FL to support the measures de-