Editor
Jewish Daily Bulletin
In your issue of March 21 there appeared the verbatim report on the budget of the current year of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies, Which was delivered by Judge Joseph M. Proskauer, the presiding officer at a meeting of the board of trustees. Certain of his remarks related to the difficulties Federation has encountered the past three years in raising sufficient funds for its work, and to the consequent reduction of service to clients and of salaries to employes. But this year, Judge Proskauer says, in view of the increased living costs they have “felt an absolute obligation to increase those salaries of employees who receive less than $2,00 a year at lest in part back to a point where we think they get a living wage.”
The report does not give an accurate picture of the effect of the salary restorations, and by implication, casts an unfavorable reflection on the struggles recently waged by Federation workers in behalf of more adequate wage scales. In order to clarify the position of the employes and the wrong impressions left by the report, the executive committee of the Association of federation Workers–the organization of Federation employes–has issued the following statement.
The Association of Federation Workers has always stood for adequate relief and service to the clientele as well as a living wage for the employes of Federation We do not feel that the increase in budget from $3,100,000 to $3,500,000meets either of these objectives adequately.
Resident workers in hospitals and institutions are not, contrary to judge Proskauer’s statement, stated for restoration of any portion of their salary cuts, despite the fact that they constitute the most underpaid and highly exploited group in the employ of Federation. In cases where workers are receiving rescinds, these are not commensurate with the sharp increase which has taken place in the cost of primary necessities during the past year.
Judge Proskauer, both in his report to the board and in his correspondence with Miss Mary Van kleeck, which appeared in the March 12 issue of “Better Times,” implied that Federation did not reduce salaries until 1933 This is definitely untrue. Federation ordered its first cut in January 1932. and succeeding ones in September and in February, 1933.
While the granting of refunds to employes earning less than $2,000 represents a partial victory for the workers, the relationship between them and Federation remains essentially the same. They continue to regard the board of Federation as their ultimate employer whose interests, especially on economic issues, are not identical with theirs.
The Association will continue to urge the demands put forward last fall, namely, complete restoration of the 1931 salary scale and the resumption of the practice of regular annual increases in all agencies.
(Signed) JEN BERMAN, Chairman of the Association Federation Workers. New York.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
