The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-01-23
Fnther CouqhLin and Scab Labor

Father COughIiH and Scdb Labor
Question: Is it true that Father Coughlin put
up his church building with scab-abor7 What Is
his attitude to organized labor7
IRISH WORKERS
Answer Father Coughln put up his church
buildings with non-union labor whom he paid forty
per cent below the union scale. He also has his
printing done in non-union shop, and his Of
flee workers get less than a living wage.
For this scabbery he has been denounced at
successive conventions of the American Federation
Of Labor by Detroit delegates. In 1888 the Inter-
national Typographical Union introduced a resolu-
ton at the A. F. Of L. convention attacking Cough
lin for being unfair to organized labor 1t said that
he persisted in securing the publishing Of his
weekly radio talk and other printed matter in non
union printing Offices" The resolution added This
manifest hostility to organized labor and union
wages manifested by the Rev. Coughlin in his own
activities as an employer are contrary to the pre-
cepts he preached in his weekly sermons"
The A F. Of L. officials ducked the issue and
did not bring back report Coughlin's scab
activities But only recently the Cleveland A. F.
Of L. attacked him in an open letter for his scab-
berry.
Coughlin hides his hostility to union labor with
phrases about the need for living wage" and
the right Of the aboring man to organize" But
his deeds have revealed him as a dangerous enemy
Of labor He has employed scabs on his jobs. In
the spring of 1888 he spoke sympathetically Of
company unions. He has attacked the use Of
strikes by workers to win their demands saying
that strikes and lockouts absolutely unneces-
sary." He has come out for the destruction Of
unions and the setting up Of fascist system Of
government supervised collective bargaining
Recently in an interview in the Detroit Times
he said: Make the Department Of Labor a real
power Let it take over the function of collective
bargaining that the A. F. Of L. is trying to
fulfill. Let it supplant the A. F. Of L. entirely.
Why should workers pay dues to labor organiza-
ton to protect a right guaranteed by law The
service of the Federation should be government
service paid for by taxation" Thus he is against
all unions and advocates the open shop.
This federal" scheme would destroy the unions
and replace them with the kind Of collective bar
gaining that the workers at Weirton and the Budd
Company obtained from the government. There
would be the blackisting of militant workers, the
denial of higher wages and better conditions and
the other aspects Of the typical sel-out
Coughlin is associated with some of the worst
labor-hating capitalist concerns in the country
Bendix Remington Rand, Sears-Roebuck etc. The
Daily Worker and the New Masses have shown in
many articles that Coughlin's program is the pro-
gram Of big business that his interest in the worker
is merely to chain him to the dictates of the
bankers and the industrialists. 1t is the duty
Of every worker to explain to all those who come
to Coughln because they are seeking a way out,
that Coughlns way leads only to the serfdom Of
fascism.