The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-01-18
AFL Officials Graft
WhitewaSh Planned
byNRA, ReliefHeadS
Continued from Page u


railroaded to Jail for stealing bread
to keep themselves from starving,
this crooked bank official is out on
appeal.
Job for Crook.
Pending appeal, Mr.. Biddle pro-
vides him with Job on the G. w. A.
payroll.
Biddle said he regarded the con-
victed Mr. Charles as a man Of "high
responsibility"
With ideas of this kind, it can
easily be understood why Mr.. Biddle
helped A. F. of L. union officials
force workers to pay half Of their
wages to these racketeers on the Mel
lon G. W. A. job.
Last Sunday, Pittsburgh building
trads workers met to fight against
their A. F. Of L. grating and racke-
teering leaders. They gathered at
Waldemeer Hall, on Stanwix st., and
Indignantly told Of the racketeering.
They set up a rank and file organ
ization to fight for their rights, to
mobilize the workers against the
racketeers, to force down union dues,
to demand reinstatement Of unenl-
ployed union members.
Members Dropped.
Joseph Butler, plasterer, who at
tended the meeting, was one of the
speakers. He said that the average
union men in Pittsburgh dropped for
nom payment of dues, due to unem-
pIoyment, was in arrears about 500.
Besides he had to pay an additional
500 initiation fee for most Of the
unions. On top Of that he had to
pay fines. etc.
Butler estimated that there were
10000 building trades workers in
Pittsburgh who couldn't get Jobs on
C.W.A. work because the union Off
cials had dropped them from mem
bership. Before these workers could
slave away, erecting monument to
the Mellon family on C.W.A. money,
they had to sign away half Of their
pay to insure the huge salaries Of the
union bureaucrats.
Discrimination.
Another plasterer, Thomas Egan
said: Small groups that kept the
leaders in office, got all the work in
the city. But they had to pay a
large part of each days pay to sup
port the leaders. If they didn't they
didn't get the jobs"
Before they could even be con-
sidered for jobs on CW.A. projects,
some Of the building trades workers
had to make payments ranging from
$50 to $40.
Tile settlers had to pay back dues
at the rate Of 81 a day, il they got
work. Plasterers had to pay 50 day.
Some workers had to pay as high as
IS a day to union officials, Mr.. But
Ter said. In short, the union officials
got more than three quarters Of the
pay given men by the C.W.A.
Forced to Pay.
One worker told how quickly the
union Officials drop unemployed
workers. He said that 80 per cent OF
the building trades workers in Pitts
burgh were not in good standing, Be
fore they could get C.W.A. work, they
had to pay imitation" fees to the
union officials. Then they had to sign
a contract, binding them to turn over
half of their weekly pay. They had
to come to the office of the rack
eteers and shell out their pay. Other
wise, the eva Officials would be
notified, and they would be dropped
from the C.W.A. rolls.
"It is only matter of few dol
lars" said this speaker, IN dues that
makes the difference between union
man and non-union man today,
but many Of us who have spent our
lives at our trades are now classified
as non-union men and therefore are
not eligible to get work"
Sign Protest.
In Oakland, q section of Pitts
burgh, sixty taxpayers signed q pro-
test to the C.WA. officials declaring
that in their district, capitalist poll
ticians were transferred from city
jobs to the C.WA. and that starving
workers were not given Jobs.
A group Of unemployed workers in
Pittsburgh, likewise, signed a petit
ton OF protest and sent it on to
Washington.
Mr.. Biddle, state C.wA. director,
made it his business to see that a
number of Andrew Mellon political
supporters obtained jobs on the Mel
lon Cathedral Job.
| In New York, the Daily Worker
revealed that John D. Rockefeller
for more than one year knew that
millions of graft was being taken
from workers through the "kick-
back" racket.
1t has not been made clear yet
why the Mellon project in Pittsburgh
was one Of the first to get millions
Of dollars of C.WA. funds, to per-
petuate the name and glory of the
bitterest exploiter in Pennsylvania,
while workers in Pittsburgh live in
the vilest slums in the country.
Not only was Mellon receiving hun
dreds OF millions going out in war
expenditures by the Roosevelt gov
eminent, but his pet project was
going ahead on CW.A. money.
In other articles the Daily Worker
/ will publish an expose of racketeering
and grating among some of the
highest officials in the A. F. of L.,
especially some connected with the
N,R.A. and National Labor Board
administration.
AS the movement of the rank and
file against the racketeers grows, the
Roosevelt government, Hearst, Sen
ator Copeland, and others, attempt
to use the indignation of the workers
to rush through fascist laws against
the trade unions, to cripple the
fighting ability of the rank and file.
Besides exposing racketeering in