The National Labor Relations Board today dismissed as without merit the charges of unfair labor practices brought by the New York Newspaper Guild against the Day, Yiddish daily. These charges are the basis of the current three-month strike which the Guild has proclaimed against the Day. Mrs. Elinore M. Herrick, regional director of the NLRB, declined to comment on her decision.
Only eleven of the members of the editorial staff of the Day were involved in the strike. They were expelled from the Jewish Writers Union, the organized body of Yiddish newspapermen, charged with dual unionism in joining the Guild, which had never before represented the interests of Yiddish journalists. Anti-Communist labor unions condemned the strike as an act of union-smashing and of Communist machinations to undermine the Day and the Jewish Writers Union.
Mrs. Herrick’s decision and some of the evidence in the case were made public today by Elias Lieberman, attorney for the Jewish Writers Union. To refute the charge of discrimination for Guild membership, Mr. Lieberman cited the case of B. Z. Goldberg, a Day strike leader and former managing editor whose reinstatement the Guild is seeking. Dr. S. Margoshes, editor of the Day testified that before the strike was started last February Mr. Goldberg was investigated by a Jewish writers’ committee. At that investigation, according to Dr. Margoshes’ testimony, Mr. Goldberg admitted giving Day credentials to a secret representative of the Comintern, one Shachno Epstein, which the latter used to operate as a Soviet agent in Europe. Later, over a period of eight months, Mr. Goldberg carried numerous articles in the Day laudatory of the Soviet Union, while managing editor of the paper. He admitted their author was Epstein, according to Margoshes’ testimony, although he ran them under the name of A. S. Schmildner. Mr. Goldberg’s defense, it was brought out before the board, was that he acted with the knowledge of David Shapiro, publisher of the Day who since died.
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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.
