The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-11-21
Rank and File Fighting
Attempts To Cut Wages
and Move Shops
By Shoe WORKER COrrespOndent

in New England, Is becoming more
and more alarming.
Most of the shops are shut down.
Thousands of shoe workers are on
the streets starving with their fami-
lies. For the last ten weeks the
shoe manufacturers have tried one
scheme after another to enforce
wage cuts. Although, up to date.
the bosses were unsuccessful in
putting over any wage cuts here,
they were successful in removing
many shops from Boston. Haverhill,
Lynn and Lowell to unorganized
towns in Maine and New Hampshire
without any great difficulty.
Last week the Brunswick Shoe
Co. of Boston moved its plant to
Lawrence, Mass. An effort was
made by the Boston officials of the
United Shoe and Leather Workers
Union and the rank and file mem
bers to prevent this shop from NOV
ing.
The union truck drivers were ap-
preached by our shoe workers right
at the shop where they started to
load the machinery for removal.
After they had been explained that
the shop was running away from
the union in order to look for
cheaper labor, the truck drivers
withdrew.
In spite of that, on the same
night the shop moved out to Law
renee. The Lawrence local of the
United" has established a picket
line around the shop and is not
supplying any of its members as
help to the shop. This shop en-
ployed about 300 workers, and has
been operating in Boston a good
many years.
Another shop in Boston, the
Scholnick Shoe Co., employing over
300 workers, has also shut down
this week after several attempts to
organize company union and put
over Is per cent wage cut failed
The owner of this shop is Mr.. Bra
verman, the chairman of the East
ern Shoe Manufacturers ASsocia-
ton, with whom our union has
signed the infamous "18 months
no wage increase agreement" last
August l.
This agreement was based on the
prices handed down by the State
Board of Arbitration as of Novem-
Der, 1888, and which in many in
stances carried wage reductions.
There was also provision in this
agreement which allows the union
to ask for an increase in wages in
January, 1885, IF and when the
U. S. Department of Labor will re-
port a material increase in the cost
of living
Despite these facts the bosses are
trying to take advantage of the
general unemployment situation,
and the particular slack in the shoe
industry, to put over more wage
cuts.
This situation is alarming because
the membership, more and more, is
losing whatever confidence they
may have had in the union leader
ship, local as we'll as general. Be
cause of pressure that was brought
to bear by the rank and file mem
bers and even by some of the local
officials, the Resident Committee of
the G.. E. B. at meeting of joint
councils in Lawrenc. on Sept. l, was
forced to take a stand against wage
reductions.
But, the general officials have not
carried out any part of the program
adopted at that meeting, which
called for strikes against wage cuts
for policy of following and strik-
ing the shops that move out. Mel
Their did the officials carry out any
of the actions embodied in a reso-
luton adopted at a mass meeting
in Boston on Sept. 26, which called
for thorough mobilization of the
shoe workers for struggle for i'm
mediate relief, for E. R. A. shoe pro-
jects, and for unemployment insur-
ance. On the contrary, the officials
in Boston have even discouraged
and to some extent sabotaged the
work of the unemployment commit
tee elected by the Stitcher's Loca,
under pressure of the Communists
and the rank and file.
While these officials are not max
ing the slightest attempt to mobil-
ize and prepare the shoe workers
for struggle, the General officials
under the leadership of General Or
ganizer Mackasey and the union
lawyers, Peter Walsh of Lynn and
the Socialist Bearack, are pinning
all their hopes on Washington and
the N. R. A. to solve the situation
for them in a peaceful way.
Despite these efforts on the part
of the officials and the reaction
aries in the United" unemployed
movements and the struggle for
unemployment insurance are being
developed in Haverhill and Boston
by the rank and file members, both
unemployed and employed.
A campaign by the rank and file
has been initiated and widely de-
veloped for the calling of a special
Emergency Convention of the
United" within the shortest pos
sible time. The main program for
this convention will be:
l. To adopt a militant program
of action of struggle to meet the
serious situation confronting the
union.
2. To prepare for a national
strike for shorter hours without
reduction in nov for O uniform