The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-30
UMWA Heads Fail
to End Coal Strike
Continued from PAGE ~

(CObCinueU from PaSe IL
A. A. officials, the hot mill men de-
cided to strike. The rest of the big
Weirton works and other National
Steel plants along the Ohio River
struck to man.
seething With Revolt
Every big steel town in the Pitts
burgh region is seething with revolt
At the giant Ahquippa works of
Jones 81 Laughlin, the biggest So
called independent" company in the
country, workers are fed up with the
company union tactics, and organ
izing in the Steel and Metal Workers
Industrial Union. The union is max
ing Roadway in the big Carnegie steel
plants.
In the third week Of their strike
for union recognition and wage in
creases of 90 per cent, the 1,10o Wal
worth Co. workers at Greensburg are
holding their ranks firm with morale
high. The Walworth outfit, one of
the biggest hardware pipe foundries
in the United States, in the second
week of the strike took a "vote" to
try to break the strikers morale. On
the first day of the vote, only hand
full of WalWorth strikers went to the
company cafeteria to vote. Walworth
thereupon extended the vote" for
three days and offered the strikers
mail ballots, The union boycotted
the fake vote. Desperately trying to
make a showing, the company dragged
in boys from the town who had never
done a days work anywhere, to vote
against the strike. Reports made to
the SM.WI.U. headquarters showed
that many of these boys were paid
from Is cents to So to vote.
A Greensburg politician and the
publisher of the Greensburg daily
dope sheet were the impartial
| judges" of this farce, and they SOL
EMMY announced that a majority of
/ the strikers had voted" to go back
to work. The announcement was
/ jeered by the strikers themselves in
a big mass meeting, and not man
or woman went back to work.
The company is desperately anxious
| to open its Greensburg plant. The en-
tire city is back of the strikers. The
Strikers are getting relief and are de-
ternined to hold out for their de-
mands for the seven-hour day, wage
increases and recognition of the
S.M.WIU.
Anbridge, on the Ohio river about
/ Is miles below Pittsburgh, is one
i Of the strongholds Of the U. S. Steel
Corp American Bridge is the prin-
cipal company, but Spang Chalfant,
H. H. Robertson, National Electric
and several smaller outfits also have
plants there. The S.MWI.U. has or
ganized locals in every mill in Am
bridge, and now has nearly 5000
members.
American Bridge tools organized
"Ambridge Local No. H. a company
union in disguise, and went to Har-
risburg, the state capital, to incorpor-
ate it like any private business rack
ct. They got about 600 bridge work
ers fooled into joining this company
union about month ago. Now the
fake union is melting away, as work.
ers see who's behind it. When the
business men and the steel COM
panies organized an NRA parade in
Ambridge, this fake union was the
only one in line, and only minority
of its members would parade, al
though the steel companies declared
part holiday for the occasion.
When the Steel and Metal Workers
Industrial Union held their parade,
more than 1000 steel workers of Am
bridge were in line.
The H. H. Robertson Company, a
metal firm, is trying to organize a
company union to head off the SIN.
VIII. But that fell through almost
before it got started, for the workers
the company selected to organize the
company ~tinion went to the S.M.W.
III. The S.M.WIU. Immediately or
ganized a real union.
Central Tube, another Anbridge
outfit, shut down recently for lack Of
orders, despite the new deal ballyhoo.
When the vice-president of the
S.NfWIU. local at Central Tube went
to the relief board, they told him
nothing doing" Other active union
lists were told the same thing. This
information was sent Miss Perkins at
the U. S. Department. of Labor, to
Gov Pinchot, and copies sent to the
relief board Soon after the relief
board notified the unionists they
could get relief.
At National Electric, girls who work
on the cloth covering for electric wir-
ing are getting 20 to 80 cents an hour
under NRA. They are working only
three days week. This is the So
called American standard of living for
Ambridge The girls are joining the
S.M.WIU. local at National Electric
and setting up their demands for a
living wage.
Nearly 300 workers attended the last
International Labor Defense meeting
in Ambridge, to protest against the
deportation terror The LID. local
was formed recently but already it Is
growing strong.
Throughout the steel regions Of
Western Pennsylvania and along the
Ohio in West Virginia the Steel and
Metal Workers Industrial Union is
busy organizing locals to fight the
slavery steel code. Everywhere the
workers are eager to form a strong,
militant union. The only handicap
now is the lack of enough organizers
to respond to appeals from workers.
The steel workers are on the march!