The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-06-07
MELDON REPORTS
TO 7. u. u. |. ON
STEEL WORKERS
Prepare Convention to
Organize Union in
the Industry

NEW YORK.-At the last Nationa!
Executive Board meeting of the
Trade Union Unity League, a report
was made o n the situation in the
metal industry by John Mellon. Of
the Metal Workers Industrial League.
Meldon in reporting on the prepa-
rations for the coming convention to
build the Steel and Metal Workers
Industrial Union showed how the
steel workers are ready for organiza-
ton. Already the Metal Workers
League has close to 1000 good stand
ing members and is organized on
shop basis. The union at present has
"a shop groups "a of which are in
the steel mills and in the most i'm
portant steel mills of the country.
The groups in the most cases are
still small and cover only one or two
departments of given mill
The Metal Workers League has
been able to make progress largely
because it understood how to utilize
the unmployed and part time steel
workers for the penetration of the
shops, and because it developed in
number of cases CAcKeesport)
struggles Of the unemployed and en-
ployed steel workers for relief and
unemployment insurance.
Main IVeaknase
The main weakness of the work
in the steel industry has been the
inability to develop economic strug-
giles inside the mills around the
Sourning issues the major of which
is the fact that 9S per cent of the
employed" steel workers are part
time workers working from one to
three days per week. When we bear
in. mind that the steel workers in
many INSTANCES are compelled to
come to the mill day after day and
are not given any work then we
readily see the possibility of devel-
oping struggles from the smallest
demand for the posting of time sche-
dulles all the way down to the de-
mand for more days work--on the
issue of part time work alone. The
fact that in Mansfield, Ohio, the
workers did force an increase in the
days of employment shows the pos
sibility of such struggles.
New Wage Cuts.
! Meldon pointed out that already
a new wave of wage cuts are on the
go. In the McKeesport Tin already
a new wage cut was given. The weak
est phase of the preparation against
the wage cut in U. S. Steel is the
fact that no struggles have been de-
veloped since last october inside the
mills. Here again we see that we
have not yet learned to organize
other forms of struggle than mass
strikes. Our comrades when faced
with the impossibility of mass
strike in the steel industry last Oc-
tober did not succeed in developing
partial struggles thus not laying
firm basis for a mass struggle now
when the new wage cut is coming.
The Metal Workers League is TAX
ing steps to correct this. Part of
the preparations for the coming
convention in July is the develop
ment of such local struggles The i'm
minence of the war, the threatened
attack on the Soviet Union makes
the work in the steel industry of
first Importance Immediately in all
of our work. 1t is necessary for the
T.U.UL. organizations in the steel
centers to give all assistance to the
Metal Workers Industrial League to
develop the struggle of the steel
workers and the building of a mass
union among the steel and metal
workers.