The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-05-12
A. F. OF L. Sold Out Wright Aero
plane Strike

mass pcketing, stopping the rest of the depart
ments the organization of a relief and grievance
committee, the selection of publicity committee,
ETC. were the officials forced to enlarge the strike
committee to IA and elect a relief and publicity
committee. This was done by the pressure Of
the strikers
The mihtancy of the workers was excellent.
They we're ready to stop any rat from going
into the plant, but the officials of the A. F. of
L. prevented this and so scabs entered. Hun
these schemes of the A. F. of L. takers and pro-
posed a mass, rank and file strike committee,
dreds of scabs began to pour into Paterson from
various cities. When Connolly was asked by re-
porters about his opinion in regards to the en-
trance of strikebreakers he declared: Il prom
ised that only peaceful persuasion upon the
strkebreakers will prevail" The third week of
the, strike, $50 scabs were in the plant.
Government
The government played its strikebreaNng role
along with the A. F. of L. 1t placed order
on Jan a. 1881 for the amount of s44675 as
part of the S1,42O,OOO program to equip the new
army air corps. Another order was placed jan
uary D. for 118 engines, at cost of $855,574.
This shattered the illusion fostered by the fascist
A. F. Of L. misleader that the government will
not use products made by scabs.
During the months of the strike, the A. F.
l.,
publications, For this reason, many members Of
the A. F. of L. came from all parts of the coun-
try to Scab.
During the entire strike period, no attempt
was made to prevent scabs from going into the
plant. AS a result scabs shortly filled the places
of the strikers. Many strikers grew disappointed
and returned to work because of the treacher-
Gus role of the A. F, of L. Only $50 remained
out
Five dollars was collected from each striker
for initiation into the A. F. of L. union But
when some of the starving families applied to
the A. F. of L. officials in charge for help they
were refused on the ground that they must be
months in the union before they could receive
relief This discouraged the workers even more.
Evicted Strikers Families.
Many strikers families we're evicted because
they could not pay rent. Although the Workers
International Relief offered to help the strikers
the strikebreaking strike committee forced the
workers to deny the aid of the w. I. r. The
A F. of L. officials were plainly trying to Starve
the workers out in order to break the strike
Their Strikebreakng work was successful The
A. F. of l.. succeeded in killing the spirit and
mihtancy of the workers in their fight against
the bonus and incentive system. The A. F. of
L. proved again that it is a faithful servant of
the bosses, They did this by not conducting
mass picketing, no check up on the work of
the strikers, by not organizing any relief, by not
trying to prevent scabs from going to work, by
issuing false promises of mediation by govern
ment and city officials, also tools of the bosses
The A. F. of L. took advantage of the discour-
agement it spread and called off the strike at
the same time blaming the workers for the
losing of the strike! After months of planned
and careful strikebreaking activity the A. F. of
L. was finally able to sell out the strike
At the close of the strike, E. H. Donnigan, of
the department of labor, stated: g." At con-
ference with Guy w. Vaughn, president of the
firm, he promised that the workers could be
employed at the plant by the usual method of
application at the employment office" What an
achievement for the A. F. of L. That is what
the A F. of L. always tries to achieve for the
workers; complete subsection of the workers to
the bosses by preventing and killing strikes
BEST of Feelings"
The fascist general organizer of the I A. M.
j. j. Connolly said: "You fellows can return
with the best of feelings under the circum-
stances, hoping that the strike will have the re-
suit of lettering the conditions of the workers
not only in the Wright but also in other shops
in the community
This is the way that the A. F. of L. takers sold
the strike of the Wright workers The Wright
workers have learned costly lesson: that the
American Federation of Labor is a strikebreak-
ing and strike-selling agency. This should not
prevent the Wright workers from organizing
themselves. The Metal Workers Industrial
League offers the type of organization neces-
sary to carry on determined struggles against
the bonus and incentive system and against
wage cuts, etc. The Wright workers are urged
to show their willingness to organize into mill
tant organizations, such as the NJ T. w L
For the hour day week. Against wage cuts
and speed-up For unemployment insurance.
Against A. F. L. fascist strike breakers For the