Boston (May. 17)
(Jewish Daily Bulletin)
A national referendum on a special assessment to be levied upon the entire membership to help wipe out a debt of $1,850,000 in the New York Cloak and Dress Unions International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union was decided by a vote yesterday at the Union convention here.
The assessment is to be three days pay, to be contributed beginning with the next fall season. One-third of the proceeds will go to the International, one-third to the New York Joint Board, and the remainder to the local unions in the community where the money is raised. It is estimated that $900,000 will be raised if the assessment is approved.
Speakers pointed out that the Communists during the 1926 strike in New York spent $3,500,000 of which $850,000 was in employers’ securities, deposited with the union to assure faithful performance on union agreements.
An emergency tax of $1 per member was levied by the convention for support of the striking soft coal miners, upon recommendation by Vice-President David Dubinsky. It is expected the tax will net $50,000.
Upon the recommendation of Morris Sigman the convention voted to refer to the incoming General Executive Board questions dealing with wage scales in New York, the “jobber contractor evil,” a time guarantee of employment and proposals for shifting thousands of cloakmakers into the dress and allied trades.
