The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-02-01
EXPERIENCES IN A
NEEDLE TRADES SHOP

A4O4lA .G44C llCCAlG li1GuoLl IL 10 u
dreSSInaking shop under iurisdic-
ton of the International Ladies
Garment Workers Union. There
are 100 girls working and about as
men. Our shop nucleus has existed
for several years. We have nine
members there SO far.
want to touch mainly on three
points: the work Of the shop nu-
cleuS, the relation to the trade
union work, and our perspectives.
The work of the shop nucleus for
the last two years improved. Until
then there was time when our
shop nucleus worked well and then
personal squabbles developed. How
ever, we got over that period; we
haven't any more Of those personal
squabbles and for the last two or
three years we started to do real
work. For instance, we organized
an LID. branch in our shop. We
were unable to get these members
into the Party. They were not even
sympathetic to us. We organized a
shop LID. branch with rs mem
berS. I think it was the first LID.
branch on shop basis in New
York. Those who know the work
Of the LID. in our district know
that this branch does very good
work. We recruited three members
into the Party during the time the
branch has existed,
DURING the Election Campaign
~ we organized Vote-for- Foster
Club Out of this Vote for Foster
Club when the election campaign
was over, we called the members
of the club together and asked
them what they intended to do
next. We in the shop nucleus pro-
posed that the club as body enter
the LID. This was taken up In
the Execut' re OF the Club and they
called a meeting and decided to
enter the LID. We have shop
paper, but it doesn't come out reg
ularly. Not only that, it doesn't
show the role of the Party as well
as it should. 1t is our fault partly,
because We don't know how to write
up the material effectively. 1t is
also to a certain extent the fault
of the section that they do not help
edit the paper properly, especially
the last issue. The district sent
down comrade who took up the
question with us two times; we had
discussion and made q decision
that We should give out the bulletin
every month, and / think we will
carry this decision into life. We
decided to have a conrade take
care of the shop bulletin work, and
we should get somebody from the
Agit-prop to help in this work.
I'VE HAVE also decided at the end
w of every month to discuss these
articles and to invite the section
editor to come to our meeting and
discuss them with us, SO that We
will have direct guidance from the
section editor, and she will have
direct contact with us.
think we have much better
trade union group than a shop nu-
cleus. Our main work is in the op-
position. During the last year and
a half we had two strikes. Our
boss has two shops, and there are
two separate shop nuclei, one in
our shop of nine, and the other
six members, and through the shop
units working as a fraction we car
ried on work in the trade union.
We have a trade union opposition
group of about IS members of
which our comrades are in the
forefront.
We had two stoppages, one
against the check-off system. After
the strike the ALL. bureaucrats
decided to have the check-off sys-
tenn, whereby we come and renew
our books, or take out working
cards. The idea was to check up
on the militant workers and any
time one of these workers are
q week or so over in their pay
nents, they can kick them out. We
pointed this out at the shop meet
ing, and the comrades in the shop
decided that I should not collect
the working cards. will not go in
detail, but I did not collect the
cards. was expelled from the I'M
ion and taken off the job. And SO
we had a stoppage and was REIN
stated in the Job and into the
union. And the sGoppage on work
Ing cards resulted in the entire card
system being taken up, and there
Is no such question any more.
WE SUCCEEDED in stopping the
w reorganization schemes Of our
local. was on the negotiations
committee and the boss was ready
TO admit the question Of reorgarli@
zation-a 20 percent reorganization.
Our effostS stopped this.
I also want to say that our shop
nucleus Is not perfect. We have
lot to criticize ourselves for. The
fact that we did not recruit any
new members, except three, for the
last three years, is nothing to brag
about. I think that the suestion
of personal contact, that the COM
rades brought out here is very i'm
portant. We are recognized in the
shop, the workers know us, we al
ways have a Communist or a left
winger as the chair-lady. But
when 1t comes to consolidating our
influence and gaining C.P. members
we don't do it. This Is due primar-
lily to our failure to develop per-
sonal contacts. When we sit in
the sop we talk TO the workers as
much as possible, but our comrades
have the tendency when we go to
lunch, to gang up and be separate
from the workers. This has to be
overcome; we should mingle with