• U.S.

LABOR: A. F. of L. Moves South

3 minute read
TIME

“Not with a sword, but with a rational plan.” President William Green of American Federation of Labor journeyed into the South last week on a new crusade. His object: peaceful organization of disorganized Southern labor. His stipulation: admission by employers of their employes’ right to organize.

President Green’s first stop was at Charlotte, N. C., focus of textile conflict (TIME, Aug. 12 et seq.). There he presided over the Southern Industrial conference of the A. F. of L., planned the unionization of 95 trades in eleven southern states. He warned mill operators that unless they accepted the A. F. of L. unions, they would be left to fight the spread of Communist unions singlehanded.

Greenunciations: “We are endeavoring to supplement the work of the churches. . . . They [Communist unionizers] are fanning the flames of passion and hate . . . substituting imported philosophy from Russia for the teachings of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. . . .”

Conciliatory President Thomas F. McMahon of United Textile Workers, A. F. of L. affiliate, explained his organizers did not intend to call strikes in Southern mills, were opposed to forceful tactics, but were ready and willing, if necessary, to “fight for their right to organize.” The radical National Textile Workers Union jeered this conservative proposal, charged the A. F. of L. with selling out strikes, called its whole Southern program a sham.

Headquarters for unionizing the South will be at Birmingham, Ala. In charge will be a committee of three: Paul Smith of United Mine Workers, Vice President Francis J. Gorman of United Textile Workers, Vice President William C. Birthright of Tennessee Federation of Labor. Under the committee now are 50 organizers; 50 more will be added next month.

A complication to unionizing the South: last week the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People renewed its drive to get the A. F. of L. to adopt a blanket policy permitting Negroes to join unions. The A. F. of L. at present has no Negro policy.

As his committee and his organizers scattered over the South, President Green pursued his way to St. Petersburg, Fla. for the quarterly meeting of A. F. of L.’s executive committee. What concerned him most, he said, was Unemployment.

Right now there are approximately 3,000,000 persons either temporarily or permanently unemployed. Jobs have been growing steadily scarcer for the past six weeks. Example: steady growth of sound cinema has forced a total of 16,000 union musicians out of theater work.

President Arthur Orlando Wharton of the International Association of Machinists raised the point that, in his opinion, the countrywide railroad consolidations proposed by the Interstate Commerce Commission would unjob 170,000 railway workers. He warned that the “Big Four” railroad brotherhoods stand behind him for a fight if necessary.

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