The Needle Trade Workers’ Industrial Union, made up of the Communist element that for a time controlled the cloak and suit and fur trades, has called off the fur strike it ordered June 11. Of the 10,000 in the industry, not more than 100 had quit their jobs.
The decision to end the strike came after a meeting of the Strike Committee in Webster Hall, where Joseph Boruchowitz, general manager of the union, said it had been deemed best to permit unemployed furriers to seek work. Strikes against individual shope, he said, might be called from time to time.
Charles Stetsky, general manager of the International Fur Workers’ Union, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, against which the strike was actually directed, hailed the decision as the formal end of Communist influence in the industry.
“Ben Gold, Aaron Gross and the rest of the wrecking crew now admit that the Communists no longer are a factor in the industry,” he said. “The clean-up is complete. It is a matter of congratulation that so few honest furriers were misled or coerced into abandoning their jobs. At all times we had the situation well in hand.”
Leaders of the Communist group partly blame the police for the complete collapse of their strike, several saying in the meeting that it was impossible “to beat the bosses, the Federation and the police working together.”
Edward F. McGrady, who with Matthew Who and Hugh Frayne of the American Federation of Labor, was assigned to clear up the Communist situation in the furrier’s organization, predicted that the Communist organization will now crumble.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
