Thousands of workers in the cleaning and dyeing industry in the metropolitan area will go on strike this morning in an effort to halt violation of the NRA fair practice code by chain firms and non-union store owners.
Throughout the five boroughs and Westchester efforts will be made by the Inside Cleaning and Dyeing Workers Union, Local 18,232, consisting of shop workers, and the Cleaning and Dye House Drivers Union, both affiliates of the American Federation of Labor, to halt all traffic in the industry by means of picketing and distribution of literature.
Officials of both unions, interviewed at their headquarters at Clinton Hall, 151 Clinton street, yesterday, said that store owners are behine the strike and lockout by employers. Protest against the cut-throat prices maintained against NRA code provisions were to be voiced yesterday afternoon when about 4,000 retailers indicated their intention of attending a mass meeting.
Jacob Effrat, general manager of the Cleaning and Dye House Drivers Union, issued a statement tot he public declaring in substance that plant owners owe drivers form two to twenty weeks’s back salary, that drivers are working eighty hours per week, that competition has forced tailors to default on payments to drivers and that “drivers demand a new contract before returning to work guaranteeing them a minimum of twenty-eight dollars weekly plus ten per cent of the commission of the collection weekly.”
TO INFORM PUBLIC
“It is our purpose to educated the public regarding the degrading evils existing in our trade, also to effectuate machinery to eliminate these evils.” said Mr. Effrat.
Isaac Freedman, chairman of the public relations committee of the union, said that the union will aim at complete unionization of the trade.
Samuel Weintraube said, “We ask nothing more than what is reasonably due us. Not a single outsider will lift a hand to work until conditions are cleared up. Furthermore, insiders and outsiders have come to a mutual understanding and agreement that neither of the two locals will authorize its men to go back to work until both unions have been satified as to the contract, back pay and guarantee that workers will receive a living wage and decent working conditions.
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.
