The Organizer (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 1934-07-24

              UNITED
LABOR
ACTION
DAILY STRIKE BULLETIN
s°
SMASH THE
CITIZENS
ALLIANCE
TWO TWENTY-FIVE
SOUTH THIRD STREET
Volume I, No. 9
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, TUESDAY JULY 24, 1934
Price one cent
Try To Suppress Our
Rally Tonight
By Workmen's
Circle For 574
Prominent Union Leaders
To Address Meeting
Leaders of Local 574 and of the
general Minneapolis labor movement
will be the speakers at a monster mass
meeting to be held tonight at the
Labor Lyceum, 1426 6th Ave. N., at
8:30 p. m. President William S.
Brown of Local 574; Emory Nelson,
Secretary of the Central Labor Union;
Robley Cramer, editor of the Minneapolis Labor Review; Vincent Dunne
of Local 574's Organizing Committee;
Farrell Dobbs, Editor of The Organizer, will be among the speakers.
The meeting, being held under the
auspices of the Minneapolis District
Committee of the Workmen's Circle,
a fraternal organization, is for the
purpose of protesting against the murder of Henry B. Ness and the wounding of almost two-score other pickets
by Bloody Johannes' police. The committee running the meeting has called
upon every man and woman of the
■working class and all friends of militant labor to attend and add their
voices to the chorus of protest.
"Local 574," reads a leaflet widely
distributed by this committee, "demands the support of every working-
man and woman in Minneapolis in the
struggle against the unholy crew of
the Citizens Alliance. Union labor is
threatened. Smash the conspiracy of
the profit-mad exploiters of Labor!"
Important announcements concerning the progress of the strike will be
made at the meeting and resolutions
will be proposed. All out to the Labor
Lyceum mass meeting of protest!
ERA Strikers Set Up
Strike Committee
At a meeting of delegates from the
various ERA projects held yesterday
it was unanimously decided to call
out all ERA workers to strike for the
following demands:
1. A thirty-hour week;
2. Pay at prevailing trade union
rates;
3. Payment to be made weekly on
the job.
The Central Committee of ERA
workers then constituted itself a
Strike Committee. Additional delegates will be added as additional
projects go out on strike and give
credentials to delegates. Every 50
workers are entitled to one representative on the Strike Committee.
Headquarters will be at 303 S. Third
St., in the offices of the Minneapolis
Central Council of Workers.
In a statement issued by the ERA
Workers' Strike Committee last night,
it is pointed out that the ERA workers are also striking in sympathy with
the demands of Local 574. The statement expresses gratitude to 574 for
"the fine fight they are putting up to
raise living standards and for the liberal assistance given us to organize
and improve our conditions." At the
same time as it voted for strike action, the Central Committee adopted a
vigorous protest against the brutal
murder of Henry B. Ness and the
shooting of 574's picketers.
AT THE GRAVE OF OUR MARTYR
7fe Tmi AfoT
dfail 3/ou •»•
Local 574 States Its Position
The following self-explanatory letter was sent
today by Local 574 to the federal mediators
now in town in connection with the Minneapolis
strike:
July 23, 1934.
Rev. Francis J. Haas,
Mr. E. H. Dunnigan,
Minneapolis, Minn.
Dear Sirs:
Our Committee has given thorough and
careful consideration to your letter of July 23,
together with your previous memorandum of
July 21. We formulated our position in regard
to your first proposal in the form of a memorandum of the same date. We now wish to record that position formally on all the points
covered, as follows:
1. The strike to be called off at once subject to the ratification of the agreement by the
Strike Committee of 100 and the membership
meeting of Local 574, provided the' employers
sign an agreement in writing with the Union,
embodying the following points:
2. All employees now on strike are to be
reinstated at once to their former positions
without discrimination.
3. The order of the Regional Labor Board of
May 25 will remain in force in all particulars
except insofar as it is changed by the provisions of any agreement arrived at on the basis
of this memorandum.
4. Inside workers are denned as all employees of the firm exclusive of truck and vehicle operators, helpers and platform men, office workers and salesmen. A salesman is defined as an employee who devotes his entire
time to selling.
5. No inside worker as denned in paragraph
four, helper or platform man, is to be paid less
than 45 cents per hour. Time and one-half is
to be paid for all overtime, that is all time
worked in excess of eight hours within any one
day. Work on Sundays and holidays shall be
paid at the rate of double time.
6. No operator of a truck or vehicle shall
be paid less than 55 cents per hour. Time and
one-half is to be paid for all overtime, that is,
all time worked in excess of eight hours within
any one day. Work on Sundays and holidays
shall be paid at the rate of double time.
7. All employees now receiving more than
the hourly rates specified for their respective
classifications in paragraphs 5 and 6 shall receive not less than their present hourly rates
of pay.
8. Seniority rights agreed to on the basis
of the Order of the Regional Labor Board of
May 25 shall remain in full force and effect.
9. Wage increases are to be retroactive to
May 26.
10. The foregoing provisions apply to the
market group which is defined as including
fruit, produce, packers, wholesale grocers, fish
houses.
11. With respect to the non-market group
all the above provisions shall apply except paragraph 4, which is to be replaced by the following: Inside workers in the non-market group
are to be defined as all employees in the warehouses and shipping department, including
shipping and receiving clerks.
12. In the event of an increase in the cost
of living amounting to ten per cent or more as
indicated by United States Government reports,
the Union shall have the right to open negotiations for a corresponding adjustment of wages.
13. The agreement which is signed by the
employers on the basis of this memorandum is
to remain in force for one year from the date
of signing.
In regard to your letter of July 23, we take
the following position:
1. The question of wages must be settled as
an indispensable prerequisite for the ending of
the strike. This approach to the question is
also indicated in points 5 and 6 of your memorandum of July 21. Our bad experiences after
the May strike compel the Union to take this
position, as an adjustment of the dispute is
impossible upon the basis of the present scale
of wages without definite wage increases and
the establishment of definite wage minimums
for the different categories of employees.
2. Upon the settlement of the wage question, we will agree to the establishment of an
arbitration board to consist of two representatives of our Union, two representatives of the
employers and an agreed upon fifth member.
This board shall act for the adjustment of individual disputes which cannot be settled by
agreement.
3. Upon the settlement of the wage question, if the authority of the Union to represent
the employees in the negotiation and adjustment of these disputes is then challenged, the
Union will agree to group elections, provided
that the Union has representation on the body
which supervises the election.
Yours very truly,
Local 574.
ONLY COWARDS SURRENDER-
BUT UNION MEN FIGHT!
Threatening To
Prosecute Our
Strike Paper
Citizens Alliance Is  Seen
Behind New Move
Two separate attempts are under
way to suppress The Organizer, daily
strike bulletin of Local 574, the first
strike daily in the history of the
American labor movement.
One attempt is managed directly by
the Citizens Alliance, which is bringing pressure on printers to get them
to refuse to print the strike organ.
A second attempt also has the Citizens Alliance back of it. According
to this morning's papers, unnamed
persons have handed copies of The
Organizer to County Attorney Goff,
asking him to bring charges of criminal syndicalism against those responsible for the publication of The
Organizer.
Anyone convicted of criminal syndicalism under Minnesota law is subject
to a fine of $1,000 or five years in jail
on each count, or both.
Criminal syndicalism means workers joining together in a union and
asking the bosses for higher wages or
better working conditions. It is considered one of the meanest crimes a
worker can commit against the bosses.
The Minnesota criminal syndicalism
law has not been enforced since 1921
or 1922. That the Citizens Alliance
now attempts to get the County Attorney to dig up this statute and smash
The Organizer with it, is clear evidence of how badly the bosses are on
the run. They are getting out their
heavy artillery, since shotguns have
failed to do the job.
The Organizer has been a thorn in
the sides of the bosses. Its 10,000
daily copies are read by at least one
hundred thousand people in Minneapolis. As long as this is the case
the bosses' lies are not believed
When the boss press reports that
thousands of strikers have returned
to work and that trucks are moving,
it is The Organizer which proves the
contrary and brings to the people of
Minneapolis the truth and the views
of the strikers.
The bosses are trying to suppress
The Organizer.
This paper does not intend to be
suppressed.
This paper is coming out as long as
this strike lasts.
It is coming out no matter what
kind of Hitler stunt is used by the
Citizens Alliance to shut up the freedom of the press.
It is coming out, and it is going to
continue to tell the truth about the
labor-sweating bosses, the labor-hating Citizens Alliance, and the bloodthirsty city administration.
There are not enough jail cells in
all the jails in the State of Minnesota
to hold all the "criminal syndicalists"
in this city today.
This is the workers' paper, not only
the paper of 574, but of the striking
ERA workers, of the striking laundry
and dry cleaning workers, of the entire working class of this city! They
buy it; they pay for it with their pennies and often, in gratitude, with more
than pennies; they read it; they love
it. It is their weapon, their voice,
their shield. They will not relinquish
it.