The daily worker., 1934-09-04

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strike is really about.
The textile strikers demand g
minimum weekly wage of S13 fol-
a 3O-hour week, sl8 for semi
skilled workers, and rates rising tc
$50 for highly skilled workers.
What do they get now, these mil
hon textile workers, these mill
hands" of New England, Pennsyl-
vania, New Jersey, Alabama, and
the Carolinas?
Tho Roosevelt N. R. A. code sets
a minimum wage of S13 a week
for 4O-hour week in the North
and SO in the South.
But the brutal reality is this:
The average weekly wage for
The textile workers is SILT
week, including the most highly
skilled. Fer the vast majority,
the average is about So. The
report cf the vice president to
the United Textile Workers con-
vention admitted that average
weekly earnings in the industry
must have fallen to SO a week,
with many sections much below
that"
Beast of n. R. a. OHiciaIs
Roosevelt's N. r. A. officials
boasted of the 70 per cent increase
in textile wages, and the 20 pei
cent increase in textiles bevond the
average for all the rest of industry
But the 20 per cent increase
was an increase of Is cents an
hour, and the 20 per cent super
increase was six cents an hour!
For an average work day Of eight
hours this means an increase Of
not more than S1.20-if it is ever
paid at all.
In 1888 the average hourly rate
was is cents an hour. After the
vaunted N. R. A. code increase, the
hourly rates in textiles were still
so per cent below even the starva-
ton levels of the other nlanufactu-
ing industries.
But with part-time work and
ruthless wage-cutting, tens of thou
sands Of textile workers do not even
get $40 week. Speaking recently
Mrs. Pinchot, wife of the governor
of Pennsylvania, could not help but
admit that wages of SO, Sc, and
even S5 a week are prevalent in
textile mills in many parts of Penn
sylvania."
Against this situation compare
the following:
Government officials have just re-
ported that the food budget of an
average family of five requires at
least $3.50 a week just to main
tain minimum health requirements
In the Winter and Spring of next
year it will cost SIS to feed a family
of five, the A. A. A. officials admit
quite openly
Thus. even il the textile strikers
win all their wage demands, de-
nounced as Outrageous and uneco-
nonic" by the mill owners, they
will still be living at starvation
standards, at standards below the
minimum set officially by the U. S.
government as necessary for health
The present rates in the textile
mills mean permanent slow starva-
ton, undernourishment, disease
and incessant hunger.
But this is not the whole story
Together with the starvation wages
goes the unrelenting stretch-out
that wrecks the mill workers as re-
morselessly as a machine gun rains
death.
The strikers demand revision o.
all work loads on the basis of reason
and ordinary common sense" Thai
is to say, they are fighting for ar
end to the atrocious speedup which
makes labor in the mills a quicE
road to collapse and wreckage.
In 1880 a weaver tended II looms
for $19 a week.
Now under the blessing of tht
Roosevelt codes, he works like 6
maniac to tend 20 looms-at $13 &
week, maximum pay! A Sc per cent
increase in work load and a stimuli
tsneous 33 per cent wage cut!
In 1890 a weaver worked Is to q
narrow looms.
Today, he is being strained to the
point of collapse by required loac
of &c to 80 looms, almost 100 pei
cent increase in speed-up.
In 1880 an intermediate frame
tender ran three frames and took
a doff off every three hours ano
ten minutes. He got SIG a week.
Today, under the code. q full so
minutes has been cut off his work
time, and he must do the same
job in two hours and Is minutes
with a wage cut bringing his
weekly pay envelope down to S11
to S13 week.
Conditions Reviewed
Some more facts:
In recent years, men working the
mule spinners were getting as high
as $50 a week because of high skill
and union organization. In the last
two years, the introduction of new
machines permitted the employers
to substitute women workers for the
men, with simultaneous wage cuts
of SO per cent, the women getting
at the most SIS week for the same
work done by the men for $50 pre-
viously.
In an average mill town the fol-
lowing increases in food prices
took place in the last year as a
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