The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-01-12
By HARRY CANNES

NEW YORK.-Racketeering, like a
huge, Shiny monster, has wrapped its
tentacles around the whole structure
Of the A. F. OF L. The rank and file
are now hacking away more ener-
getically at this poisonous beast to
save their unions as fighting organ
izationS and to maintain and better
their conditions.
The real story of racketeering in
the A. F. Of L. has never been fully
told. 1t has come out only piece
meal, bit by bit. Many workers have
been murdered, slugged or manned
for fighting the racketeers and for
exposing the mammonth system Of
graft that begins at the officialdom
of the local unions and reaches way
up to the highest Offices of the Fed
Grafton bureaucracy.
Now the Daily Worker is going to
print comprehensive and detailed ex-
poses of racketeering, gangsterism
and graft in the trade unions.
We have great amount of evi-
dence, particularly dealing with graft
and racketeering in New York City.
The "Kick-b back" Racket
One Of the newest rackets invented
by the building contractors, in CO.
operation with many union officials
is the so-called "kick-back."
According to information coming
to the Dahl Worker, this vicious
form Of rac12Jeering that slices the
wages of the workers, had its origin
in Rockefeller Center.
Rockefeller Center is a gigantic
group OF buildings occupying three
large city blocks in New York City.
On 12-acre area about IL build
ingS shoot up towards the sky. A few
of the smaller units go up only six
stories But the larger masses of
steel, concrete, and maSor jut up
wards to 10 stories.
From Foundation TO Roof
Every inch OF these collassal build
ingS was built by workers who were
forced to pay graft to racketeers.
From the very foundations, until the
last coat of paint was put on the
walls, graft was wrung out OF union
members.
In some cases this graft ran up
to the huge sum of from Is to so
per cent of the total wages paid.
We shall give the details of this
graft, especially as 1t affected the
prasterers.
During the course Of the present
crisis, tibet bosses found it difficult to
slash the wages Of building trades
workers organized in trade unions by
the usual methods. Wage agree
ments we're in existence providing for
certain scales. In order to get around
these, union officials were bribed.
Contractors, knowing that unemploy-
ment had hit as high as rs per cent
Of the building trades workers, boldly
demanded that the workers pay back
Cor "kick-back'O from 20 to so per
cent of their wages to the contract
ors.
A MilliOn-Dollar Racket
In Rockefeller Center, the largest
construction jobs IN the country dur
ing the crisis, this type of bleeding
the workers became a million dollar
racket.
The facts of the back" racket
were known to the sanctimonious
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. He chose
to keep deadly silent about it. 1t
was quite agreeable to him-becausc
it cheapened the cost of the construc-
ton job-that workers were being
daily by the racketeers.
In this issue of the Daily Worker
we print in full a letter addressed to
Mr.. John D. Rockefeller Jr. Written
10 months ago, this letter apprises
the son of the mummified oil trust
king that graft is rampant at Rookie
Teller Center In tells him Of the
'kick-back" graft. Every dollar paid |