The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-11-20
The Pittsburg Terminal Coal Company Admits the
NMU Prevented Is P c. Wage Cut
By BURCK

policy of determined struggle against any wage
cut. 1t modified all of its forces and brought
them to the local union meetings of the U. M
w. A., prepared to fight the wage cut. AS re-
suit the special meeting of the U. M w. A. re-
suited in unanimous vote against the wage cut
Being unable to put the wage cut through at
open meetings the Pursglove-Fagan machine de-
cided to have a secret vote in front of the mines
The intention was to steal the vote - this is the
well known method of the U. M. w. A. buro-
Gratis. The high officials of the Pittsburgh Ter
minal Coal Company present at the time
the vote took place The N M. u again put up
a bitter fight through mass organization and ed
ucation The vote against the wage cut was so
unanimous that even Mr.. Pagan was forced to
admit that SO per cent of the miners voted
against it,
Attack on Tent Colony
The Pursglove- Pagan machine saw the black
listed miners in the tent colonies, together with
the N. M U. members in the mines playing
leading and decisive role against the wage cut.
Therefore they decided to weaken the N. M. U.
forces They wanted to move the blacklisted min
ers from the tent colonies into the company hous-
eS at an abandoned NINE This was supposed to
be done with the help of the Pittsburgh Housing
Association. The N. M. U. prevented this scheme
of the company. Instead of permitting the COM
pany to move the miners into still greater star
walton, the N. M. u. demanded unemployment of
all the blacklisted miners 1t also formulated de-
mands for immediate relief to be given by the
local government and company. Mass demon
STATIONS were organized in front of the Offices
and local governments with the employed and
unemployed miners and their families participat-
ing. Thus, this move of the company was de-
feated by the N. M. U.
Seeing the victories IF the NJ M. u. the Purs
glove-Fagan machine decided on another scheme.
Some of the mines of the Pittsburgh Terminal
Coal Company are shut down. They decided to
turn over one of these mines to the National
Miners Union so that the backlisted miners
may have job. The mine was to be operated
on cooperative basis" The N. M. u. was to
furnish the labor and the company was to fur
nish the supplies, management and markets.
The profit was to be divided so per cent to the
N. M. U. and 40 per cent to the company This
of course was rejected by the N. M U. as the
worst form of class collaboration Instead of
accepting this scheme of the Pursglove- Pagan
machine the N. M. u. is developing bigger mass
movement than ever before to force the Pitts
burgh Terminal Coal Company to re-employ all
of the blacklisted miners.
1t is clear from the foregoing that Mr.. Purs-
glove wanted to sound the N. M, U. leaders and
see whether there is any possibilities of winning
them in favor of his wage cutting policy. At the
end of the conference he stated with very sweet
voice: Gentlemen, you must understand the
present conditions in the coal industry. You
must cooperate with us and help us to stabilize
the industry so that we may give employment to
every miner
N. NJ. y. Position
We want to inform Mr. Pursglove and his as
scciates that the National Miners Union was not
organized to help the coal operators to carry out
their program of starvation. That the National
Miners Union was organized to fight against the
coal operators and for the interest of the miners
The ~ M. U. will remain loyal to this principle
and will fight not only against wage cutting and
speed-up, for higher wages shorter working day.
better working conditions etc, but will carry on
the struggle to appropriate the coal operators
and turn the coal mines te TIN miners who are
working IN them 'ss,'TnsV ~s@ ''sf :