Additional charges against the Shochtem Union, Local 440; are to be lodged today with Mayor La Guardia by the Vaad Shochtem Oifes, poultry slaughterers’ section of the Food Workers Industrial Union, whose members claim the rival group is subjected to extortion and “browbeating” by a group of alleged racketeers.
About fifty slaughterers paraded down Broadway from their Eighteenth street headquarters Wednesday bearing placards and banners which demanded that the Mayor keep his campaign pledge to end racketeering in the city. Arriving at City Hall, they found Mr. LaGuardia out on account of illness but received a promise of action from his secretary. The Mayor is slated to issue a statement on the matter this morning.
THE CHARGES
The Butchers, Poultry and Meat Cutters Union, a section of the F. W. I. U., is supporting the charges of the Vaad Shochtem Oifes, which were enumerated as follows:
1. A charge of two dollars for rental of the wooden crate is levied against all farmers. The charge is far in excess of the real cost of the crates.
2. A charge of fifty cents on a bag of chicken feed is levied against farmers and markets.
3. Twenty dollars per carload of poultry is charged against farmers.
4. Three cents per pound on poultry is charged against markets and butchers, also collected by racketeers.
5. The kosher laws, including a statute set up by a rabbinate council a few years ago regarding a limitation on the number of crates of poultry which a slaughterer may kill per day, are violated.
6. Strong-arm methods are employed in the Washington Market to force cash contributions from customers. Racketeers, according to the Vaad Shochtem Oifes, pocket the cash.
CHARGE RABBI THREATENED
I. Levine, organizer of the Butchers, Poultry and Meat Cutters Union, said yesterday that the head of the Vaad Shochtem Oifes. Rabbi Isaac Rothenberg, had been offered by racketeers the alternative of merging his union with the Local Union 440 or suffering physical violence. Threats were made by unknown “strong-arm men” who said they would kidnap him.
A statement published yesterday which described the Vaad Shochtem Oifes as a scab outfit, were vigorously denied by officers of the organization and the Butchers’ Union. They insist that although they are seeking to establish a united front so that the slaughterers may receive a living wage and work under better conditions, the illicit methods which Local Union 440 is alleged to resort to have resulted in a break between the two units.
Levine explained that Local Union 19, which was formed five years ago for shochtem, or slaughterers, originally succeeded in mobilizing the workers in this line of the meat industry.
He also said that “all of the large markets in New York City are selling meat which, according to rules they agred to a long time ago, is not kosher.”
Mayor LaGuardia is expected to conduct an investigation and, more specifically, to put a stop to the alleged violations of the kosher laws.
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