The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-11-02
N.R.A.- Gangster Tie
Charged by Potash
in Fur Code Hearing
Starvation w age in
Code Will Not Be Ac-
cepted, Says Potash
BY SEYMOUR wALDMAE
Washington BureaH)


A charge that the N.R.A. sis coun-
tenancing the smuggling of racket
eering representatives into the Of
ficial code-making and code-enforc-
ing bodies" was hurled in the faces
of N.R.A. officials today by Irving
Potash, New York District Secretary
Of the Needle Trades Workers In
dustrial Union.
The militant fur workers repre-
sentative flung out the accusation In
tempestuous hearing on a proposed
code for the fur dressing and fur
dyeing industry before MIRA. Deputy
Administrator Roscoe Conkling. The
big audience in the walnut-paneled
Commerce Department auditorium
was electrified.
Several months ago we wrote
Donald Richberg, MIRA. counsel"
asserted Potash, pointing out that
two of the associations with whom
NR.A. officials were going to con-
clude a code are racketeering or
CARNATIONS. Since then one Of them,
the Fur Factors, has disappeared,
~ JOu SCC J. uAAAt INV AlNCklkAhS pAACoC
charges. These are the facts"
From the time when ConkHn read
the name of Pietro Lucci, notorious
scab Of the Fur Joint Council, as
member of the Labor Advisory Board,
assigned to the fur industry, the lines
were clearly drawn between the
workers on the one hand, and @NR.A.
officials on the other.
who's Lucci?"
'Lucci, Lucci, who's Lucci? Boo,
boo," shouted the workers.
There will be no Interruptions OF
speakers. We're looking for facts,
not arguments" Conkling warned,
attempting to dismiss the delicate
subject.
The workers grinned knowingly.
The Washington Police Depart
ment Red Squad" headed by Horace
Lineburg, of the Crime Prevention
Bureau, and assisted by John Postil-
tits DERRY the Creek, the notorious
street demonstration slugger, and
William T. Murphy, provocateur, &C
corded the militant fur workers the
usual welcome-conStant surveillance
and threatening looks.
Refuting the claim of the A. F, Of
L. representative, Samuel Marcovich,
that he spoke for IS per cent of the
workers, Potash showed that his
needle trades organization repre-
scented IS per cent Of all the Or
gained fur dressers and dyers and
As per cent of all the fur dyers and
dressers in the United States.
Then, turning to Conkling Potash
declared: 81 tell you, Mr.. Chairman,
that the temper of the workers in
the fur industry Is far from one
which will accept the starvation wage
proposed in the CODE"
Code VIII Be Ignored
"If the proposed code is adopted
and is handed over to the present
code authority, consisting only of
employers, you can be assured that
the code will not be respected or
enforced by the workers. Both
unions in the industry must be rep
resented on an equal basis in the
code authority. If this code is ex-
ecuted, we will have war in the
industry"
Commenting on Marcovich's onmis-
sion of unemployment insurance
from his remarks, Potash stated: 1T
must be established that the industry
must be responsible for the workers
whose lives are more important than
mere space in a factory. A three
per cent unemployment insurance
fund should be provided for"
Demanding thirty-hour week in
stead of the one of IS proposed in
the code, with overtime not to ex-
coed two hours day and eight
hours a week, Potash stated that
"our survey shows that the average
number of work weeks in year
is only 15." The proposed code, he
continued will result in increasing
the great unemployment that exists
at the present time.
Oppose Discrimination
The program presented by Potash
allows no wage discrimination be-
tween male and female, young and
adult, or white and Negro. II ex-
poses the 65 cents an hour "Ilin-
imum" for skilled and unslSille6
provided for in the proposed code
and demands range OF wages from
81 an hour for second class floor
workers to $l221s an hour for knife
pullers, blenders and drummers.
Potash also demanded: "A code
authority board of the fur dressing
and fur dyeing industry shall be es-
tablished OH the basis of equal rep
resentation Of employers and organ
lied labor. The representatives of
organized labor shall be chaser DEM