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From The Militant, Vol. VI No. 40, 26 August 1933, pp. 1 & 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’ Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The militant strike of over 1,500 upholsterers is nearing settlement. The Furniture Manufacturers Association has been brought to terms by one of the greatest strikes in the history of the trade. They have been forced, at the moment when victory is in the grasp of the strikers, to call in the NRA to “conciliate the dispute”.
And the NRA has acted. On August 17th, the Washington conciliator, Colonel Leopold Philipp, chairman of the Bureau of Compliance, came to an agreement with the Furniture Manufacturers Association at the Pennsylvania Hotel, (the headquarters of the NRA). The agreement, which was to serve as the “code” for the furniture industry, calls for a “sliding” wage, scale beginning with a 60c an hour minimum, in place of the $1.40 per hour, demanded by the union; a 40 hour week in place of the 30 hour week demanded by the union; the open shop; an arbitration board, to be presided over by the NRA representative, which would decide grievances from time to time.
Without consulting the union or the men in any way, this spurious “agreement” was circulated broadcast among the striking pickets for the sole purpose of breaking the resistance of the men who might still have respect for the authority and “impartiality” of the NRA. Needless to say, the union immediately exposed this trick by a leaflet warning the men against the fake “agreement”, Rudolph Thiez, business agent of the A.F. of L. Upholsterers Union then upbraided the Colonel in a letter which demanded an explanation for his complicity in the matter.
To pacify the union leaders and the strikers they represent, the Colonel sent the following letter to the boss association:
I am terribly annoyed to find that your association has distributed today a pamphlet of the agreement entered into between yourself and myself.
After all, the agreement was simply a tentative proposition and was not binding on either party and to have circularized that and the use of this organization in an effort to gain your own ends is highly unethical and unwarranted. If those are the tactics that the dealers intend to use, I am sorry to confess that many of the accusations made against you, which I have endeavored to listen to with an open mind and not to take sides, seem to be well founded.
I insist that this statement be refuted by you immediately, as the only purpose of this agreement was to affect a compromise between yourselves with the union, and that during the period of time that these negotiations were on, no statement was to be made publicly or especially thru the issuance of the most dangerous material, such as a broadside.
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Very truly yours, |
He added the following postscript without the knowledge of the union officials:
“This letter was sent to help pacify the labor leaders”.
The whole fraud of the NRA as the impartial arbitrator in strike disputes is here shown up in all its nakedness. After secretly conspiring with the bosses association to put across starvation wages in the industry, the NRA sends a hypocritical “reprimand” to the very elements with whom he made the conspiracy.
Now, when we have the bosses licked is the time for solid ranks in the strike. Let there be no talk of going back to work. NO FAKE SETTLEMENTS. Without the recognition of the union you are helpless to enforce whatever conditions you have achieved by the strike. Don’t let the boss pull any promises to groups of men in the shop. It’s too late for that. If he wants to settle, make him settle with the union. The time is past for herding upholsterers under the slave conditions of the past 3 years.
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Last updated: 24 October 2015