The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-08-29
Forward to the Detroit Auto
Youth Conference

work, gang and bonus system which is part of
the scheme to speed up the workers.
Hourly rates for young workers are as low
as IS cents an hour. AS matter of fact, young
girl workers in the auto shops of Lansing were
recently offered only 10 cents an hour. Even
in such heavy sections of the industry as the
foundries and steel mills of' Ford, we find
young workers employed at the most miser-
able conditions While the young workers do
the same work that the adults do, they
ceive lower wages and are Disseminated in
hundred and one different schemes. This meth
cd of having the young workers speed up,
produce just much and even more, and get
lower wages than the a lult workers, is one
of the best bosses schemes to divide the young
workers and the adults. In this way the bosses
use young workers as a means of cutting down
the living standards of the whole working
class.
Workers of 35 No Longer Employed
in Auto Industry.
As a result of this policy of the bosses of
using more youth labor, we find in many shops
whole youth departments. At Fords, four out
every ten workers are youths-and in many
departments piston, stockroom, assembly, etc.
we have mostly young workers. Now it is prac-
tically impossible for an adult worker 35 years
old and over to get job in the auto industry.
The auto industry is becoming and more
of youth industry. Meanwhile thousands and
tens of thousands of adult workers thrown
the scrap heap because they are now no
longer able to withstand the unbelievable speed
on the production lines
Not only have got more young workers
in the auto industry than before, but the
great humanitarian" Henry Ford, even hires
kids II, 10 and ID years old in his Ford Trade
Snhn ,rvho h. t,o,, - h.
in" at his Ford Rouge plant for wages SO per
cent of the adult workers. This vicious exploit
tation of child labor in his trade school and
plants, Ford has the CUTS to call part of the
child's education for success in life o."
Negroes Doubly Enslayed.
1t goes without saying, of course, that the
lot of young Negro workers is by far the
wors. The Negro workers as a whole are
doubly enslaved, while the Negro youth suffer
even more because Of their youth and lack of
organization and experience in the industry.
They are given the worst jobs, the lowest
wages, and are Disseminated against and in
suited in every possible way.
While the American Federation of Labor
ignores these inhuman working conditions of
the working youth in the auto industry, the
Trade Union Unity League is the only national
trade union organization that actively organ
ICES the working youth for militant fight
against the bosses on the basis of the class
struggle. The young workers are taken into
the T.U.U.L. and Auto Workers Union on an
equal basis with adult members, with full
power of vote and voice in the unions.
The Trade Union Unity League realizes that
without the organization of the working youth
the organization of the unorganized is impos-
sible. And now in this period when the bosses
are mady rushing headlong into another world
war, we must organize the auto war industry
in which the youth are becoming more and
more important factor. The bosses encourage
the building of the Citizens Military Training
Camps in militarzing the young workers and
preparing them for strike breakers and cannon
fodder in the next for the bosses profits.
Already in these same sections of the auto
industry where young workers are employed,
the auto magnates have contracts with the
U. S. War Department for the production of
war materials. and the work in some plants
has already started
Go be continued.)