The immediate economic destinies of 4,000 kosher butcher shop proprietors and their 5,000 employes will be decided today by the two organizations of which they are members.
A committee of twelve men selected by the Federation of Kosher Shop Owners will meet at Federation headquarters, 147 West Forty-second street, this afternoon to set a date for starting a boycott of the “Big Four” packers in protest against prevailing meat prices.
The Hebrew Butcher Workers Union, whose members work in stores owned by those who belong to the Federation group, will meet tonight at the Rand School, 7 East Fifteenth street, to decide whether to call a strike.
Whatever action is taken, both organizations expect to cooperate. Although the union’s working agreement does not expire until October, Joseph Belsky, union secretary, said the Federation would readily grant a waiver of the pact.
If the union decides to strike, Belsky said, it will do so only with the understanding that it will have a voice in any negotiations which take place before it sends its members back to work.
Boycott by the shop owners, who object to prices they are paying the Cudahy, Swift, Armour and Wilson companies for their merchandise, will mean that all independently operated kosher stores will be closed until some adjustment is reached.
UNION MEMBERS MEET
In an effort to whip up waning interest in the city-wide strike, the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workers Union yesterday obtained permission from police to hold an open air mass meeting at 10 o’clock this morning at Forty-fourth street and First avenue, near where most of the slaughter houses are situated. Bill Tate, former Negro sparring partner of Jack Dempsey, will speak.
Tate yesterday received official union sanction of his suggestion that Max Baer be given a card as an honorary member.
The card will be presented to the heavyweight champion some time today at the Park Central time today at the Park Central Hotel.
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.
