The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-11-06
By JOHN SCHNIIES.

IN order to get proper conception of what
shop committee is, it is necessary to keep in
mind some OF the huge industries in which the
workers in the main are completely morgan
lied, such as auto, Steel textile, etc. In discuss
ing how to build it, we have in mind at the
same time the building up of open struggles
against the bosses
Therefore in dealing with this problem
shall approach it from the point of view that
in most cases we tackle huge industries where
the workers are unorganized. The purpose of
this outline therefore, is to serve as a general
guide for our movement and especially for our
organizers in the field. We also have in mind
that in the course of building UP shop co.nroit-
tees we must be prepared to skillfuly apply our
united front policy among the workers in The
industries.
Now what is shop committee? A genuine
shop committee is an organized body of workers
which is looked upon by at least a great num-
Der of workers as the leading organization of
all workers in one shop or one plant.
Therefore if shop committee is the basic
form of our shop organization it must in its
very nature represent all the grievances of all
groups of workers in particular shop and must
therefore be much more than merely commit
tee which is organized by group of workers or
by section of workers in one department in
shop or plant OF the industry.
If the above statement is correct then, shop
committee is a delegated body elected By the
workers of the shop in the various departments.
How To Do 1t.
Now how is this to be done? Let us take as
an example such huge industries as auto, steel,
textile. ETC., with many plants, each plant with
many departments. The number of workers en-
ployed in each department may amount to sew
eral hundred workers.
The workers have grievances against the boss,
based upon certain working conditions in the
department The forms of these grievances are
many-wage cuts, frightening of hours. in
creased speed-up, naturalization.
These grievances vary in the different depart
ments, and it is from this point of view that
we have to approach the building of our shop
organization. Our Metal Workers Industrial
League decides that we must begin to concen-
trate on one of the large plants of the Beth
lehem Steel Corporation. The immediate task
is to build up real shop connections. The COM
mittee must represent all the grievances. SO we
must have some form of organization represent
ing all the departments in the plant, which will
take up first the conditions of the workers in
these different departments and on the basis of
this develop and broaden out our general plan
for struggle of all workers in the shop. This
would mean the building up of department COM
mttees whose elected delegates should constitute
the shop committee or mill committee as 1T is
called in the textile industry or pier or dock
committee as it is called in the marine industry.
If we follow generally the above mentioned
outline then the question will be -asked--wnen
will we build the shop committee? That is, how
many of the above department committees must
we actually have before we can take the next
step in the building up of this delegated body
elected by the workers organized in these diff
ferent department committees. The answer to
this question does not merely lie in the number
of department committees organized, but in ad-
dition to this we must at all times have in con-
sideration our immediate aims and our perspec-
tive for struggle. We must coordinate the mill
fancy Of the department committees and give
general guidance and leadership to these already
organized department committees by connecting
them together through elected delegates to a
central body; this body would then be utilized
for broadening out our already existing shop Or
ganization building more and more department
committees). Therefore let us say that we have
two or three existing department committees.
The beginning of the shop committee would
then be started by electing delegates from the
existing two or three department committees.
This then, would give lis more of centralized
and broader shop leadership.
Now summing up these points:
1.--our nr*t tax is the building no Of de''a"+-