The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-08-06
|Knitgoods
w Orkers on
Strike Eve
General Strike Coming
Rapidly to a Head in
Greater New York
BY LOUIS COOPER

In the kniGgoodS trade develop
ments are expected to come soon
to a head, the pending general
strike being now a matter OF DAYS.
This has been a year of rich ex-
periences to the knitgoods work
erS. Exactly one year ago two A.
F. of L. locals, the International
and U. T. w, made a sudden dis
coyery OF the exiStance of knitgoods
workers and decided to get next to
them. This discovery they made as
result of tip given to them by
the knitgoods manufacturers about
this new fertile field where they
could do excellent union racketeer-
ing business.
The position of the knitgoods
boss one year ago was not a very
promising one. The Knitgoods
Workers Industrial Union which
has been active In the field for the
past four years was making rapid
progress, stopping wage cuts, i'm
proving conditions, unionizing shops
and generally driving home the
idea of union into the heads of
thousands of knitgoods workers.
The knitgoods bosses, who are
traditional open shoppers, found
themselves faced with widespread
revolt of their workers, thousands
Of whom responded to the call of
the Industrial Union to a general
strike.
Bosses Apply for Help
In despair the knitgoods manu-
facturers applied for help to their
allies the U. T. w. and the Inter
national, who unhesitatingly rushed
to their rescue. They could not
however save the situation for the
bosses entirely, for in spite of their
strike breaking activities of Settl-
ing for longer working week and
under worse conditions, the Indus
trial Union came out from last
years strike victorious, constituting
to the present day a major factor
in the industry.
The damage done by these agents
to the knitgoods workers is great
in its extent. Even the officially
agreed upon 371a hour week was
not observed in their shops; they
have permitted overtime and
brought up the working week to 48
hours; wage cuts took place in their
shops with the knowledge and con-
sent Of their officials, and dis
charges have assumed a wholesale
nature.
Because of the division they
brought into the ranks of the work
ers, the bosses treasured themselves
again and once more raised their
heads. After succeeding to split
and weaken the ranks of the work
ers it was easy for them to impose
hunger code with such provisions
as 48 hour week and the $40 to
$14 wage minimum Having ac-
complished this they earnestly set
themselves to enforce the code.
The "all powerful" International
did not do thing to protest against
this code and to prevent this from
going into effect. They were then
too much involved in a prolonged
scrap with the agents OF the U. T.
w. clique finding it dif1cult to
settle accounts with each other. For
months the jurisdictional squabble
was the dominant issue in these
two A. F. Of L. locals, all basic
problems of conditions being put in
the background, until the disgust
of their members forced them to
patch up the temporary under
standing
This peace making understand
ing, too, carries the stamp of one
big betrayal While outwardly es-
tablishing a knitgoods Joint Coun-
Gil, the shops are actually broken
up into two and more conflicting
groups, the knitters being placed
under the rule of the U. T. W..
gang, operators and finishers under
the International, and other crafts
being placed still elsewhere. The
real consequences OF these arrange