The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-02-10
HiIlman Schemes To
Drive Rochester
TailOrS From Jobs.
$500 Offered from Fund
for Jobless to Get
Out of Industry
by Rochester Clothing WORKER

tby Rochester Clothing WORKER
ROCHESTER, N. Y.-Tailors of
Rochester, men and women, flocked
to Convention Hall last July to hear
Sidney Hillman, Amalgamated Cloth
ing Workers Union president, and
member of the National Advisory
Board Of the government. He told
about the benefits we were going TO
get from the MIRA. and how union
officials were working as hard as
Roosevelt is advertised TO be, and
seeing that we would get higher wages
and at least $1,000 more jobs in Ro-
chester alone. According to Hillmsn,
the welfare Bureau would be automat-
ieally eliminated because there's to
be no more unemployed
Six months later, how have these
promises nlaterialized? Take the fin
ishing section in Fashion Park, where
$50 workers in normal times earned
between $24 and sat a week. During
the year 1888, these workers averaged
from $3.50 TO $3.50 weekly, due to
lower rates and scarcity Of work
Instead Of the $4,000 new jobs, the
Hillman clique and the bosses are
trying 10 buy the workers ost Of
Jobs, They are asking rs TO get out
Of the industry, or at least out of
Rochester! Two hundred dollars Is
the price they offer for our only
means Of livelihood and our long
years Of union membership and high
dues payment. But who is to supply
this money? None other but the
clothing workers themselves.
For months our unemployment In
surance has been held up. Although
this insurance amounts to only a few
dollars, the workers always depended
on it to help catch up on their back
dues during the crisis (when they
were forced to pay $1.75 a month,
whether they worked or not.
SO this insurance" was never
meant to benefit us, but just to In
sure the office of its dues robbery.
This year, 80 per cent of the FASH
ion Park workers couldn't participate
In the elections because they were
behind in their dues. The unemploy-
ment fund was deliberately held up
Now this insurance is being offered
to whatever worker will sell his Job.
He Is to get 500 from the insurance
fund. The other 500 Is assessed on
the workers left In the section, who
must sign note to pay their per
centage, In the pocket makers sec
tion, for instance, four workers have
fallen for this sell-your job scheme,
SO that the other 10 workers will be
left bound to cheek-off from their
pay envelopes totalling $40O
But many workers are still so fooled
by this union job racket that they
use their last dollar Of credit to pay
up is or 20 months back dues in
order that their trade may not be
taken from them. Others are fired
regardless of their dues standing
simply because they are militant in
yeicing protest against slavery-like
Feldman, pocket maker for Is years,
and Martin Yovaiska, who demanded
time work, instead Of piece rates.
So President Hillnan's words of six
months ago have boiled down to a
starvation diet for tailorS. President
Hillman makes the workers suffer in
order to save capitalism its pains.
That's why he was appointed a menu
Der OF the National Labor Council
under the MIRA.
These gentlemen are doing the
bidding of the bosses as MIRA. ad-
nlinistrators wearing the union label
OF labor" We must Dust these
traitors from our ranks. We must
organize in the shops and prepare to
build a rank and file union TO win
better conditions and higher wages,
and to struggle for the Workers I'M
employment Insurance Bill--guarsn-
teeing insurance equal to average
wages, coming not from the workers
but from the big corporations and
their executive coinnlittee-the U. S.
government.