The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-09-30
SHIRT WORKERS SEE THE
UNION FIGHT FOR THEM

Washington OPA) - A dozen
workers from garment plants in
Texas, Connecticut, New Jersey
and Maryland last week got a good
idea of how their union fights for
them in the intricate and torturous
channels of federal procedures.
In a little hearing room in the
Labor Dept building, representa-
tives of the Wage Hour Admins
traitor heard Vice President Gladys
Dickson of the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers-CIO, supported
lby Research Director Lazare Teper
of the Int'l Ladies Garment Work
ers-AFL and by Sylvan Geismar
of Manhattan Shirt Co., argue for
the ACW's petition to raise the
minimum wage paid by employers
to 75c an hour for workers making
cotton garments on government
contracts.
T'm business agent for the Am
algamated in Salisbury, Md, where
there are 100 workers at a Manhat-
tan plant" plump, energetic Helen
Birmingham told LPA. "They are
getting a Csc starting minimum
now We came up here to see what
happens"
With her was Zella Gordy, chair
lady at the f. Jacobson's shirt fac
tory. She's been a union member
since the ACW organized the plant
seven years ago. Both of them were
impressed with their unions case
AND figure that the Wages q
Hours Division will recommend the
increase for government work.
Highlight Of the hearing, as far
as two girls whose local paid their
plane fare from Texas were con
cerned, was the performance put on
by a Professor Van Sickle of the
economics faculty at Wabash Col
lege (student body of 500 in Craw-
fordsville, Ind. population, IL ,0S9).
The professor (who was once fired
by Congressional committee be-
cause of his outlandish statements)
announced pontifcally that "pre-
sent wage rates in the south are
not substandard.
Mrs. May Brewer of Dallas, and
Freda 10 Dali Of Waco, where gar
ment workers start at a 50c-an-
hour minimum almost laughed out
loud at that. Manufacturers in their
state have turned out millions of
dollars worth of army apparel in
the past 18 months.
They were still pretty sore when
they left for Texas, though, at his
charge that "the present demand !
of the Amalgamated is as outrage
Gus an attempt at war profiteering
as this country has ever witness
ed"
Van Sickle, who is now in the
hire of the Cotton Garment Manu-
facturcrs Assn of Nashville, Tenn,
tried hard to evade questions by |
claiming he had to catch plane.
However, Miss Dichason, Teper,
and the spokesmen of the Manhat
tan Shirt Co.--who support the un-
ions petition-insisted that they !
have chance to challenge such
preposterous statements as his
claim that "least of all, workers in
the south need protection" of wage
floors.
Only original argument from the
professor came when he claimed
that "in this dangerous atomic age"
it might be a good idea to encour-
age low-wage industries in small
towns--eyidently in the belief that
they'd be less likely to suffer from
in future war.
Just as mterested--at least in
.he profiteering charges-were four
girls from Elizabeth. n. j. and
Aldo Cursi Of Connecticut, all of II
whom sat thru the entire hearing.
Miss Dickason, in presenting the
unions petition for establishment
of the Toe minimum when employ
ers are filling government purchas-
ing orders, pointed out that the {
prevailing wage in the industry ;
now is around 75c. 1t has risen to