The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-12
Major Class Battles
InpendinSteel;P arty
Faces Severe Tests
In Spite of Resolutions About ''Entrenching Our
selves IN Basic Industries, Party Appears
In Practice Scarcely to Have Reacted
BY PETE STURGEON

steel INDUSTRY VIII tIle AtSISof'CN
production. without corresponding
increase in employment. can only be
explained by the terrific speed-up
system that has been developed as
result Of the highly mechanical
improvements in this industry.
Overtime Work
The National Recovery act has
limited the hours of the steel work
eES to 40 hours, but wherever the
mills are very busy, the Company
(as at Sparrows Point forces them
to punch the cards out on time,
but makes the men come back TO
finish their work (often this in
cludes the men on day rate, who
are therefore made to work over
time without additional ray9
In other cases, where the men
are only given 10 hoFirs work a
week. out Of the code specified 40
hours, the company carefully
records that so and so owes the
company 30 hours work, so that in
the futsre when there would be
tremendous pickup las for IN
stance during a rush Of war orders
tie company would have the legal
right to have the men work perhaps
50 and SO hours a week to make up
for the past lost hoI, Actual
company records prove that in the
last year many cases as high as
300 snd 400 hours are listed on the
records of the workers as q result
Of mis- trick.
This is only one phase of the
N. R. A. in the mills. In addition
to this, imitation played havoc with
the workers real wages, giving them
slashing indirect wage reductions.
Today. as a result Of the complete
discrimination Of the Steel Indus
try CAS- in the Gary, Ind. American
Sheet and Tin Plate Co. where the
Four High NiBs have been in
troduced thousands of workers are
being fired out Of the mills
In Sparrows Point, Md. Plant of
the Bethlehem Steel Company, the
installation of the continuous Fur
naces, the 3 High. the Streine
Shears. all OF which have increased
production four to five times, have
thrown many workers out OF a job
and forced those remaining to ad-
lust themselves to the new speed
in production.
That the discrimination Of the
steel industry is part Of the plan
of the Government and the Steel
Trust to effectively mobilize this
al kao
derstood. The many strikes n the
recent period especially against
the N. r. A. codes) that have been
openly smashed by murder and
violence under government orders
It is important to nots the effect
of the present conditions of the
steel industry on the skill d work
ers. The fact is, that tne new
machinery is slowly but surely
eliminating them from their posi-
ton as the "aristocracy of labor"
and condemns them in some cases
to jobs on par with common
laborer.
The following example illustrates
this. A group Of workers who pre-
viously used to rate $40 to $50
day. but since the new machinery
are hardly able To average ST and
So, went to the General Manager
of the Sparrows Point Plant and
asked for an increase. The Man
ager told them he'd sooner get
the farmers of Va. who can do
the job as well" to dc their job
than to give them an increase.
What is the significance of this
fact to US? It means that the
skilled labor, whom the American
Federation of Labor had trained,
through their policy of craft unions,
to act as block against industrial
unionism, are today forced by their
new economic position to unite with
the rest of the workers.
Role of A. F. L.
The reduced wages of small fore
men have forced them into a
similar position Our approach to
these workers must therefore also
change. We must make efforts to
win them into our class struggle
unions, or at least to neutralize
them. All these facts must serve
to convince our comrades that the
steel workers are willing to fight
more than that, they WILL
fight whether we are a factor or
not.
Our task is to learn, through the
closest daily contact with these
workers to react to their moods, to
organize them rapidly into our in
dustrial unions, and be PREPARED
to lead them in organized actions
which only our unions can develop
along revolutionary and correct
lines.
The Resolution of the 18th
Plenum of the Communist Inter
national places most sharply and
clearly the role of the American
Federation of Labor and emphas-
ICES our tasks in dealing with this
openly Fascist controlled organiza-
ton. 1t is necessary to see, there
fore, what position the American
Federation of Labor takes in con-
nection with the new drive against
the living standards of the Steel
workers. While their open approval
and vigorous support of the N. r.
A. and all its slave codes is gener-
ally known, it is interesting to note
their maneuvers when confronted
with concrete situations of resent
ment against present conditions by
the workers.
For instance, the officials of the
Amalgamated Association of Iron,
Tin and Steel workers affiliated to
the American Federation of Labor,
proposed to solve the question of
introduction Of new machinery and
its consequent damaging effect on
the workers in the Gary, Ind. Plant,
by asking the Government to buy
llp and destroy the new machines.