The Organizer (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 1934-09-05

              t     UNITED
"      LABOR
ACTION
Smash the
citizens
alliance
TWO TWENTY-FIVE
SOUTH THIRD STREET
VOLUME 1, NO. 42
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA* WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 5, 1934
PRICE TWO CENTS
Elections Clinch Victory
574 Protests
Methods Used
Telegram to Garrison
Emphasizes Fact
In a telegram to Mr. Floyd
Garrison, chairman of the National Labor Relations Board, Local
574 has lodged a protest against
the practice of the Minneapolis-
St. Paul Regional Labor Board in
the investigation of the protested
votes in the employee elections.
The full text of the telegram follows:
"We protest against the
policy of the Minneapolis-St.
Paul Regional Labor Board
in handling contested ballots.
The board has ruled that
workers whose votes are in
dispute shall be examined at
a public hearing by the employers and their attorneys.
Local 574 protests this ruling
as a violation of secrecy of
balloting which subjects the
workers to intimidation. We
ask your intervention against
this procedure which threatens to disrupt the strike settlement arranged by Mr.
Donaghue."
The board has called a miniature mass meeting for Wednesday, September 5th, at •which time
"& proposes to examine each em-
. SJpyee whose yote has been challenged. It Is intended that these
examinations shall be- conducted
in the presence of the employers
and their attorneys.
Local 574 will not stand for
such actions as these. At best, an
employee election is far from a
democratic method of expression,
but under this proposed practice,
it would be reduced to an absolute farce. We demand that the
employees be permitted to defend
themselves without the intimidating presence of the employers and
their stooge attorneys.
The board has already done an
irreparable damage to the workers by releasing information as to
the present tally of the votes in
those cases where there are ballots under protest. There are a
number of firms in which the balloting has been very close, and in
these instances, secrecy of the
protested votes has become impossible.
This damage can not be repaired, but the incident should
serve as a precedent to protect
the workers in any future election. In all cases where there are
any ballots under protest, the
votes should not be counted until
the challenged -ballots have been
ruled  upon.
We feel that the very least the
Regional Labor Board can do to
make restitution for this blunder
is to proceed with the greatest
caution to preserve what little
semblance of secrecy remains.
*
Petroleum Workers
Meet Thursday, Sept. 6
A very • important closed
membership meeting of the
petroleum workers -who are
members of Local 574 will be
held Thursday, Sept. 6, at 225
South 3rd  St.   at  9  p.  m.
Decisions will be made regarding affiliations and the
question of negotiations with
the employers will be dealt
with.
It is very necessary that all
members attend.
GOING FORWARD
The arbitration of the wage schedules
will begin immediately after the final results of the .elections have been tabulated. The wage rates are to be arbitrated upward from the present mini*
mums of 50 cents per hour for truck
drivers and 40 cents per hour for helpers, platform men, and inside workers.
This is a first and very important step,
but it is only the initial step. There is
much work to be done. There are many
gains yet to be made.
We must look to the future and lay
our plans carefully to guarantee that
there will be many benefits in store for
us. We want our hours of labor to be
shortened. We want still further wage
increases. We want better working conditions. We want to live decently and
not like the "alley cats" which we have
so many times been called. We would
like to see our families decently clothed
and housed. Our dinner table could and
should be much better graced than it
now is. It is our ambition to see our
children well educated so that they will
not have to travel the rocky road we are
traveling. We have sickened thoroughly of our debt burdens. We are tired of
living on next month's pay and taking
up the slack with -worrying. We want
an honest return for our day^s work. We
want to live like human beings.
These are not unreasonable desires
and they are not impossible of attainment. However, as reasonable as they
are, we will never realize these ambitions
by sitting down   and   dreaming   about
them.    Wishes   don't   work.    We  have
to fight for what we get.
We are going forward to achieve
these ambitions. The next step is to
build a bigger organization.
, Lo.ca1.5.74 has .built a .network-which:
reaches into every nook and cranny of
the trucking industry of Minneapolis. It
only remains now for every member to
take an active part in bringing the unorganized workers into the Union. Your
struggle has already .brought benefits to
them. They must be made to realize
this, and you must also show them how
the Union will continue to bring them
benefits.   They must become members.
Those workers in the firms won by
the Union in the elections who are not
members should be shown how they
have benefited and how they will be
protected if they join the Union.
The members employed by firms in
which the Union did not win the election
should begin immediately an intensive
campaign to bring more workers from
these firms into the Union. A good job
of organizing can establish Union representation in these firms in a very short
time.-
There is still much work to be done
in the firms outside of those which participated in the elections. Many of these
are now organized and many more are
yet to be organized.
Our motto is: "The 166 shall become
the 1166. Wherever there is a truck
there shall be a union man."
The General Textile Strike Starts Solid
•r-
The Textile Workers' picket
lines have formed in front of a
thousand mills and factories.
Throughout the East and South
more-' than a million workers,
pushed to the limit of physical
endurance by the cruel bosses
who see in these workers, only
efficient instruments of production, have now formed the lines
of battle.
The men, women'and children
in the textile industry face a well
organized and well financed group
of employers. The. organization of
the employers has! been perfected
by and is financed with dollars
stolen from the men, women and
children who do the work in the"
mills.
' Not satisfied with a program of
robbery which has reduced a hundred thousand families to the
status of slaves, the employers,
through their spokesman, George
A. Sloan, endeavor to make, the
people believe that the textile
workers   are   satisfied   with  their
wages and conditions and do not
wish to struggle for a change.
Sloan and his kind will be made
to understand in the coming days,
that workers organized into trade
unions will fight for their rights.
Properly organized and led, the
militant workers in the textile
field will sweep like a storm over
the obstacles thrown in their way
by the bosses. The consuming
greed of the madmen who own
the mills will drive them to the
(Continued on page- 3)
Market Vote
Solid for 574
Majority Large Firms
Carried by Union
Local 574 has leaped the final
hurdle in the fight for recognition by the bosses. The counting
of the ballots has already given
the Union the incontestable right
to represent 50 of the firms involved, and in the 29 firms under
protest, the challenged votes are
such obvious "ringers" that even
the Labor Board must this time
decide in favor of the Union.
A careful analysis of the election results shows that a. mere
tabulation of the number of firms
won and lost by the Union does
not present a clear and accurate
picture of the outcome. The majority of the large firms were carried by the Union. The firms carried by the bosses' are in most
cases small establishments employing only a few men. The Colonial
Warehouse and the Dayton Company are the only large firms won
by the bosses, and the Hatch
Package Delivery, Ferrin Transfer, and LaBelle Safety Storage
Company are the only medium,
sized firms which voted for representation by the Citizens Alliance. We have seen enough of
Mr. Dayton's activities to fully
uiider&and' the tactics which he
used in sandbagging his workers
into voting for him, and we can
rest assured that the other bosses
who succeeded in duping the men
were Mr. Dayton's star pupils.
But, in spite of their vicious
scheming and- conniving, the bosses were unable to crack up the
Union.
The market is overwhelmingly
solid for Local 574. It was impossible for the market bosses to
deceive the workers. This spawning place for anarchy and exploitation has become so obnoxious
that the workers could not but
choose to band themselves together to combat its evils. The market workers have finally struggled
to a solid footing from which they
can carry on the battle for human
rights and a decent living.
The large majority of the transfer workers voted for representation by Local 574. The Union is
now rooted so deeply in this section of the trucking industry that
it would be impossible for the
bosses to blast it out. Exploitation has been developed to a science here as well as in the market. There is much work to be
done to make life more pleasant
for the transfer workers, and 57'4
intends to see them through.
The workers at L. S. Donaldson's have paved the way for the
department store drivers, and the
boys at Boutells and the New England have carried "the day in the
furniture group.
Local 574 has established the
right to represent at least a substantial portion of the workers in
every branch of the trucking industry. The foundation has been
well established for the building
of a real organization arid the
growth of Local 574 will go forward steadily.
The final and conclusive proof
of the Union's victory is the fact
that the employees in the firms
who voted for Union representation outnumber almost 3 to 1
those who voted for representation by the Employers Advisory
Committee.
A real tribute is due the fight-
(Continued on page 3)
•
Make Minneapolis a Union Town