The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-23

NCOnB10Nen from rage
the Labor Lyceum East 84th Street,
today, Bsmbrick said.
Commenting on Merritt's refusal
to continue negotiations, Bambrick
said
In the Bronx, where 500 shop
stewards voted for a general strike
at meeting on Wednesday night,
Louis Cooper, president of lob, the
Bronx local, announced another
truce" with landlords, this one to
last ten days.
Even if a strike call is finally is
sued in the Bronx, where $4,000
building workers are impatiently
awaiting the signal for a general
walkout, only sections of the Bronx
will be called out, Cooper said, in
confornance with the theory of
union leaders that a Staggered"
strike call is the most "effective."
A similar situation prevails in
Manhattan, in Brooklyn and in
Queens,
III Accb kbAA4EANAANE JGbNENAA ANAoAA-
haitian union officials and realty
representatives, which ended at
am. yesterday, proved only that
the continued postponement of
general strike call has weakened
the position of the union to such
an extent that some of the most
powerful realty groups in the city
are openly refusing to enter into
any further conferences. Walter
Gordon Merritt, notorious open
shop attorney who is counsel for
the Midtown Realty Association,
stalked out of a conference at the
Hotel Holland yesterday after
half hour of negotiations, during
which he refused to seriously dis
cuss any of the unions demands.
"On Wednesday afternoon Mr..
Merritt was anxious to break off
direct negotiations five minutes
after negotiations started. I say
unequiyocally that the man does
not want peace. He does not want
the owners and representatives of
the men to meet one another. That
would mean an early settlement;
and what good is an open shop
attorney if peace is achieved
through representatives of the
workers and employers who get to-
gether in settling a matter in one
hour. The worthy gentleman
thriVes on industrial war. Without
industrial war he would cease to
exist. Therefore, falling to break
off in five minutes, he tried to seize
every opportunity to cause split,
and, finally, used a so-called con-
ference with owners as preteXt to
get out of the room, he left, stat
ing that he wished to confer with
his principals for about half an
hour. He left the room and failed
to return, leaving the union off
GERS waiting for five and a half
hours.
Merritt, using the flimsiest pre-
text, has accomplished what he set
out to do, the breaking off of direct
negotiations. He desires trouble,
he desires industrial warfare. He
has an almost perfect record in ac-
complisring this objective of his,
which usually nets him large fees,
even though everybody loses, the
worker. the employer and the gen.
eral public"
In the Bronx, Cooper postponed
the strike call, set for IL am. yes
terday, when Borough President
Lyons of the Bronx, interceding
for the landlords, called confer
ence in his office attended by Bronx
union officials and representatives
of the Bronx Real Estate Board.
Cooper, speaking in the name of
the union, presented demands of $35
for handymen, $34 for elevator OPP
orators and s24 each for porters
and firemen, weekly, with a forty
eight hour working week. When
the realtors refused these demands
point blank, Cooper lowered them
to $40 a month for the larger apart
ments and $40 for the smaller ones,
a fifty-four hour week for daymen
and sixty-six hour week for night
men, and a preferential" shop,
that is, promise that union men
who are discharged will be replaced
by other union men.
Refused Them
The landlords representatives re-
fused to accept even these condi-
tons, but agreed TO present them
to still other realty groups
Meanwhile, building service work
ers throughout the city were de-
handing explanations of why the
strike call is being continuously
shelved to some future date, and
workers in other unions, notably
the teamsters, needle workers and
fur workers unions. are sending ex-
preEsions of solidarity to the build
ing workers, the Needle and Fur
Workers Industrial Unions pledg-
ing to strike in any building called
on strike by the building workers
union.