The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-01-20
Workers for 80 Hours
But Without Cut
in Wages
By NAT KAPLAN

National Organizer N. I. w. u
About a million textile workers
were simultaneously given cut in
their weekly. earnings in December
This bitter pill was administered to
the workers by the N. r. A. code
authorities Ctle Roosevelt-manufac-
turers consortium) through their
order to cuutail production in the in
dustry by IS per cent in cotton, 40
per cent in hosiery, etc.
The curtailments cut the weekly
earnings Of the workers in various
ways ID By cutting weekly hours
from 40 to 80 with 10 hours pay cut
of. (2) Making each shift work
so hours one week and 20 hours the
next with half pay for latter week.
90 The majority Of the hosiery plants
adopted a 3 day week with only
days pay, etc.
The attack is being continued in
January. A curtailnent of Is per
cent for fine cotton goods and GER
tain types of rayons is already
ordered. The hints of the Daily
News Record (Dec. %, 1889 that the
30 hour week of two 40 hour shifts
is "hopeleSsly' excessive for the
wooden industry foreshadows a
similar attack this month against
the wooden workers. Furthermore
the code authorities have the power
to extend these curtailments beyond
the and 5 week periods originally
provided.
A New Bitter Deal
The blue eagle sqawked about a
living wage" and then proceeded to
lay a rotten egg labeled $13 weekly,
less curtailmentS. Roosevelt made it
possible for the textile baronS to
simultaneously order lower living
standard for the entire textile prole-
tariat with one stroke of the pen in
Washington. To that extent the tex
tile workers have new deal. But
the new deal is more bitter than the
old.
Roosevelt's N. r. A. established car
tells in the various branches of the
textile industry dominated by the big
gest manufacturers and finance capt.
talists to plan production" These
bloodsucking gentlemen got together,
pooled their grey matter and gave
birth to two types Of planning:
Firstly, they planned nationwide
attacks on the workers such as the
present curtailment. They accom-
panied this with increased stretch
out. increased speed Of the machines
and introduction of new labor saving
methods and machinery for the big
gest manufacturers. This "planful-
ness" is strangling the textile work
ers by cutting their weekly earnings,
by mass layoffs and a sharp increase
of unemployment in general and of
Structural" /. c. permanent unem-
ploynent in particular.
Secondly, they planned selling,
trade practices and processing taxes
fayoring the biggest manufacturers
Of that particular branch of the in
dustry who were doing the planning
This has intensified the competitive
struggle between the rayon and silk
cartels. 1t has sharpened the strug-
gle of the small manufacturers to
survive as exploiters of labor, etc. In
order words it has ably demonstrated
that organized and planned produc-
ton under capitalism is just as pos
sible as a trip through the strato-
sphere in a leaky row boat. It is
significant of the whole new deal
policy that the rayon industry, which
can be converted into a machine pro-
ducing direct war materials, has been
given greater preference by Roose-
velt than the silk industry in the