The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-01-19
ORGANIZAT ION
IN A MINE

L ton in the mines Of -. About
q year ago I was sent in by the 49,
district Of this territory. When I
got there, the conditions were pretty
bad in our organization. We could
not accomplish anything. was on
the section committee and we dis
cussed how we could get into the
mine and organize mine groups and
mine units. I proposal that one OF
our leaders should get a job in the
il1fne and begin work from the in
side. The section committee decided
that if anyone coul d get job in
the - mine we should go in there.
I took the chance and I got a
Job there. We started with the work
but could not make much progress.
SERIES OF WAGE CUTS
While I was working in the mine
some wage cuts took place. First
the cutters received a slash of five
cents. The next month they cut
the day men. especially the shock
fires, etc. A few weeks later they
gave a wage cut to the drivers.
They split the wage cuts because
if they would have given general
cut, the workers would have struck.
I took this up with two Party
members in the mine and proposed
that we should issue leaflets and
expose how the bosses were putting
over the cut. When the leaflets
were distributed inside the mine,
the miners started talking. 1t reach
ed the bosses and they began to
investigate who was responsible. At
the same time they were going to
cut the drivers IS cents a day. I
saw a couple of drivers and told
them that they should get together
and talk the matter over. II neces-
sary, told them, would come to
the stable. They said this would
expose me and they could handle it
alone. They called in all the driV-
ers and refused to accept the wage
cut. The result was that On the
day they were to be cut they put
up signs not to start work. We got
notice in the mine that the drivers
were staying out. told the workers
that if the drivers went out, we
should go out with them. This went
around like wildfire. We all got up
and the assistant boss stood RICH
there. He called the Superintend-
ent and said that he would have
to do something about it or the en-
tire mine would walk out. The sup
erintendent came and told the driV-
ers to go back to Work-that their
wages would not be cut. We popu-
larized this and the result was that
we got 16 union members and we
increased the Party unit to &.
ABOUT month later, they start
n ed another wage cut on the ma
chine men. The big boss came
around and told them that instead
of IS cents they would get 60 cents.
The machine men would not take
action on it. I tried to talk to a
couple of them but they said we
are only IL and if we would go out
we will not get the support of the
other workers. But we could not
convince them, and they accepted
the cut.
WAGE-CUT THROUGH
SPEED-UP
The bosses then went around to
the others and told them if they
want TO work in the mine, they
will have to load more clean coal,
The big boss said when you load
the car don't lay them on the long
side but on the wide side and this
meant that they have to put an
other ton of coal on the car. The
workers could not see that this was
q wage cut. We issued leaflets, but
it had very little effect on the min
erS. They laid off 100 men from
the mine. When they started to
lay off the men we spread the news
about a new wage cut. And the
wage cut did come-another ten
cents. When the machine men &C
cepted this cut, the day men re-
ceived a cut Of another Is to 10
per cent. We got busy with leaf
lets. But it did not help.
A FEW days later we had a general
II cut. When this happened we
issued leaflets ana called a meeting
last Sunday. When the company
found out that the National Min
ers Union had a meeting they said
the mine will not work until the
New Year. We visited the workers
and got them together on the basis
of this. They all voted to come out
on strike after the New Gear when
they returned to work.
EDITORIAL NOTE:--Through
persistent work it was possible to
develop definite actions right OH
the job in this mine, What is
particularly significant is the util-
Ization of a struggle among one
section of the worker to involve
other workers, and to defeat the
wage cut. But, at the same time,
the failure to create an organ'za-
ton which could mobilize all the
workers resulted in the workers
accepting other cuts without re-
sistance. The task is to use such
partial struggles among one Sec
ton of the workers to strengthen
our organizati0naI connections
with the miners as whole i'm the
mine and prepare for organized
action against arv attacks of the