The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-02

Machines have been silent here for
the past II days, when all the $50
workers quit work. The strikers de-
mand recognition of the Shoe and
Leather Workers Industrial Union
and 80 per cent average wage in
crease in all the departments of the
factory.
A Lone Cop
AS the pickets walk in pairs be-
fore the factory, a lone cop leans
against the building, first resting
on one flat foot, then on the other.
Inside the plant all is silent.
Two blocks away, IN the Brooklyn
Palace at 1870 Rockaway Ave-, the
rank and file strike committee is
meeting. The "Daily" reporters Gre
dentials from the union headquar-
tiers having been formally read
aloud, the strike committee adjourns
and invites him to question the
workers about the strike in the
Elco shop.
Eighteen are on the strike COM
mittee-elected by the rank and file
when the strike broke out, and each
morning at II o'clock they meet to
di5cuss the next steps in the fight.
GIVE been in the trade for 35
years, as CUTTER" gray haired
shoe worker volunteers. I'm an
Elk, a Democrat and Spanish
American war veteran. worked for
20 years in Lynn, Mass, and have
been through some big strikes there
1904 fhn Kr,IphfC
OF Labor, and later IN 1916"
Just before the war, this man
ee ned $40 for 44-hour week.
"Now," he says, II make S., IS, and
sometimes nothing"
tn ccbs-RelatveS
Two s.ockfitters, two girls in the
packing room and a couple of rela-
tives of the bosses constitute the en-
tire crew in the Elco plant, the
strikers declare. Although the firm
has been regularly advertising in
the New York American" careful
to omit mention of strike-workers
who resoond to the ad invariably
! turn back when they see the pickets
in 'front.' Of the plant.
T--'ha piece-work system prevails in
the Elco factory as in the scores of
other shoe plants now dead shut by
the scores Of strikes throughout
Greater New York. Although the
Elco workers make an expensive
brand of young girls shoes, our
wages are among the lowest" one
of the strikers declared.
The Elco shoe sells for $3.50 and
$3.50, but the wage rate is the same
and often lower than that prevail
in~ in factories manufacturing q
$3.50 shoe. The "evering shoes" ard
the "Fashionese" style sell for SIG
S18-s20, girl strikers told the Daily
Worker reporter.
"We couldn't even buy the cheap
err pair" they said. eff we wanted
to we'd have to work week and
sometimes two weeks to get it."
What's more, they explained, they
are expected to pay 81 more than
the rate paid by Saks, Lord and
Taylor, Altmap's and the other ritzy
firms on the Elco buyer list.
Toiling at feverish speed, the
workers in the fitting department
have earned S1S-S21, but other de-
partments earned far less-so-ne
getting as low as S4-S5.
"The bosses have practically cut
the life out of the cutters" one
worker said, commenting On the
successive wage sleshas during the
past three year.. Every time
there's new style, we get a new
cut. And in most cases the opera
ton is just as difficult as that for
the previous style.
Tho Slave Market
The method of hiring at the Elco
plant suggested combination OF
the police "line-up" and the third
decree. 4 striker described it with
bitterness:
"First YOU sit for hours in the
office until couple of foremen take
it into their heads to come and look
YOU over. They look at you as if they
were trying to identify you for a
crime. Then if you look OK. to them