The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-04-28
By JACK MCCARTHY
(0rganizer. Furniture Workers
Industrial Union, Boston,

In Gardner, Mass, and the sur
rounding towns (Winchendon, Athol.
So. Royalston, Leominster) some
10000 workers are employed at the
furniture industry and allied trades.
For years these workers have re-
manned unorganized and were left
to the mercy of the bosses program
of wage cuts, speed-up, long hours,
etc.
During the summer and fall of
1888, after the blanket code had
been announced by the President
with its specified minimum of wages
for the various industries, the wages
of the furniture workers in these
Berkshire towns were so low that
they had to strike to enforce even
the minimum set by the blanket
code.
AS a result of this struggle on the
part of the workers, an independent
union Of furniture and allied trades
workers was organized. When Wash
ington got wind of this strike, Anna
Weinstock, federal conciliator and
notorious strike breaker, came down
to send workers back to work with
arbitration agreements. In this
strike-breaking activity Miss Vein
stock had the cooperation of the
officials of the independent union,
the majority of whom were active
members of the Socialist Party.
Miss Weinstock made beautiful
speeches to the forgotten man of
the Berkshires, about the glories of
the New Deal and the N. R. A. and
how terribly unpatriotic it would
be for them to interfere with the
Presidents program for recovery.
Norman Thomas, on his part, had
told the members of the Socialist
Party and other workers through
the columns of the New York Times
and the New Leader that the N. r.
A. was step towards Socialism. The
result was that some of these splen-
did proletarian fighters in the ranks
of the S. P. fell victims to Norman
Thomas and the official S. P. en-
dorsement of the N. R. A.
Immediately on the heels of this
betrayal, a vicious blacklist was
carried out byb the companies and
a smashing of unions in all towns
with the exception of Gardner.
In the o. w. Seibert shop, where
itself through the fall and winter
with an approximate membership
of 1000 The bosses in Gardner
found plenty of loopholes in the
furniture code to continue their
wage-cut and speed-up program.
In the o. w. Seibert shop where
some $50 workers are employed,
baby carriages are the main product.
This company, to avoid paying 81
cents an hour specified for furniture
workers in the North under the fur
niture code, classified baby carriages
as toys because the toy codes min
imum is 80 cents an hour. While
the workers were promised the $12
for 40-hour week under this code,
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The rate for piece work was so low
that it was impossible for them to
make the $12. This the company
used to speed-up the workers and
to fire those who did not come up
to the standard. Workers especially
in the spray department were ex-
posed to unsanitary conditions due
to the lack of a blower system.
For months the Gardner union
met regularly and discussed general
ly the conditions of the workers
in Gardner, its membership remain
ing about the same over period
of months. The leadership never
seriously undertook calling meetings
on shop basis with the workers on
the concrete problems in the shops.
1t was only after the militant ele-
ments in the union and on the EX-
ecutive Committee proposed that