Garment Strike Near Settlement As Employers Meet Terms of Union

The strike of clothing workers initiated by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and involving 50,000 workers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, a majority of whom are Jewish, continued yesterday. The leaders in charge expressed themselves as being well satisfied with the success of the stoppage in the men’s clothing industry. Settlements with the employers are being made very rapidly and the settlement committee of the union was active all day yesterday and will be busy today receiving applications from the employers and negotiating settlements, it was said at Union headquarters. At the same time the union made arrangements for a series of mass meetings to be held tomorrow at which the strikers will be told of the progress made.

Joseph Schlossberg, secretary-treasurer of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, declared “there is a general spirit of optimism among the workers. Everyone is looking forward to a good season. The stoppage will result in the complete unionization of the industry in this district.

“We asked for an increase in wages of 25 per cent, but found that earnings were very unequal in the various shops. Certain ruthless employers had cut wages very deeply even succeeding in making cuts in earnings which the workers were compelled to keep secret, on threats of losing their jobs. Naturally they will have to increase wages all the more. Other employers who were more humane will have smaller increases to make. The settlements being negotiated by the union will carry wage increases ranging from ten to thirty per cent.”

At the same time that the Amalgamated strike was in process of being settled, a new strike involving from 20,000 to 30,000 workers in the garment industries loomed as a result of a dispute between the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union and the Industrial Council of Cloak, Suit and Skirt Manufacturers, Inc. The representatives of the workers and employers who have been in conference, disagreed on the question of renewing a working contract based on ‘week-work’ or ‘piece work.’

The union demanded the incorporation of week-work into the contract pointing out that they were bound by the result of a referendum held by the workers who voted 2 to 1 in favor of week-work.

The employers refused to deal with the union on any basis that did not provide for piece work and the negotiations were broken off after a twenty minute session.