The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1936-08-17
Lewis Group Pushes Steel
Union Drive As Labor Day
TestOfWorkers Approaches
Large Number OF Organ
izers In Strategic Cen
tiers Working Under Va
rious Managers
my Associated PresS)
By MARBEN GRAHAM

my Associated PresS)
By MARBEN GRAHAM
PITTSBURGH, Aug, H.
Labor Day may bring some indi-
cation of the interest the 446, 900
steel workers are paying to the
John L. Lewis drive to enroll them
into one industrial union.
On that day the workers will
have to choose whether to attend
their company-sponsored picnics,
as several hundred thousand did
last year, or to rally at union mass
meetings.
Under the generalship of the
soft-spoken Philip Murray, United
Mine Worker vice president, or
ganizers from the steel workers
organizing committee, known as
the SWOC, are pressing at full
speed in preparation for the open
test.
Bases Over Nation
From his luxuriously furnished
headquarters in Pittsburgh seven
floors above the $15O,0OO, 900 Ma
tional Stel corporation, Murray
completed the establishment of a
series of nationwide "bases'' of
operation during the first month
of the campaign which began shor-
ly before July 1.
The arrangement resembles that
of many civic organization drives.
At the top, as commander-in-chi
is Lewis, bulky president of the
miners, and chairman of the COM
mittee for industrial organization.
This group is comprised of IL
unions which have defied the craft
union members of the American
Federation O. Labor and have
pledged 100000 to finance the
steel drive.
Murray is the general-in-charge
through his craftsmanship of the
steel workers organizing COM
mittee of seven, picked to repre-
sent the contributors to the fund.
$50 Organizers in Field
District chiefs are in charge of
strategic centers out of which be-
tween $50 and 200 organizers are
working under field managers.
Forty-seven per cent of the
steel worker are employed in the
organization eastern district, 81
per cent in the midwestern, and
$4,000 in the southern area.
The organizers, who are paid
from $50 to $40 day, generally
open their campaigns by passing
out literature to workers as they
leave the mills.
Preliminary to mass meetings,
smaller night sessions are held at
the houses of trusted union men or
in the union headquarters to dis
cuss specific local problems.
Work On Local Situation
Considerable thought is being
given now to whether it would be
better strategy to continue the
mass meetings or concentrate on
the smaller gatherings.
Organizers vary their attack ac-
cording to the local situation. In
one company's mills where work
ers put in a full five-day week
during the depression the organ
izers urge a higher rate per, hour,
shorter work week, and point to
alleged favoritism shown by boss
es to certain individuals or races.
In some other mills where there
had not been full-time employ
ment, workers are reported to owe
up to $500, for which they drew
on the company during hard times
for food. clothing and rent.
In such cases, organizers argue
that the men should receive a
minimum" pay and that past
debts should be cancelled Since if
the men had gone on welfare rolls,
like some of their neighbors, they
would owe nothing.
Spent 100000 In Month
In national headquarters here
five staff officers assist Murray
in coordinating the efforts of or
eanizers. The office force in
cludes six secretaries or typists,
a switchboard girl and occupies 10
rooms for which the SW0C pays
$1,000 a month.
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